How to make good trees without Speedtree?

[mikolajspy]

Hello, I’m trying to make some trees in Blender for UE4, and here’s what I got so far:

[sketchfab]4f059769514b4071ab0e451b04106f4b[/sketchfab]
Tree01 by Mikołaj Spychał on Sketchfab

I made trunk with Agisoft PhotoScan and leaves are photos from cgtextures
What do you think? Do you have some tips&tricks for creating good, realistic trees, any advices?
Here are screens from engine:
https://www.dropbox/s/oyw3a1tyzykh8m9/2015-03-28%2012_26_34-MyProject%20-%20Unreal%20Editor.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox/s/5ev2r3q6q47e3f7/2015-03-30%2011_46_27-MyProject%20(64-bit%2C%20PCD3D_SM5).jpg?dl=0
And with generic world material to show LOD stage 0 and 1 (last LOD 2 is simple billboard)
https://www.dropbox/s/5qo7719kdjzc1ik/2015-03-28%2012_27_03-MyProject%20-%20Unreal%20Editor.jpg?dl=0

Any feedback will be appreciated

[anonymous_user_923c79df]

1. dont add individual leaves -> better use a branches + leave texture. Then the tree will look better + has a better performance ?v=vt4YXq1L7H4
2. add more leaves to make it look more like a tree (now it looks a little bit bare)
3. I personally would add a stronger normal map to your trunk
4. avoid leaves that are going into the trunk -> especially when you dont use many leaves it’s something that the player will see (e.g at the first branch)
5. how many tris do you use for the LOD0?

But beside those points it already looks pretty good!

[mikolajspy]

Thank you very much
LOD0 (visible on Sketchfab link) has ~28.6k tris currently, but they’re visible when you’re really close, in that way, player can see actual branches instead of planes. I have branch with leaves texture for LOD1 which gives around 2,7k tris

[anonymous_user_8d4f3e21]

I be making some trees eventually so will keep an eye on your Sketch Fab profile.

I must say though, that I’m really liking the Share & Embed feature from them, so I’m off to make an account for that alone.

Basic Account

[FONT=Open Sans]You can join Sketchfab for free! With a Basic account, you can upload an unlimited number of public models up to 50 MB each. You can also enjoy unlimited views and embeds for non-commercial purposes. You’re also allowed 5 Annotations[FONT=Open Sans] per model, and basic customization of the embedded viewer.

Would be great to see more posts showing models this way, when talking about them.

[anonymous_user_923c79df]

@mikolajspy;260277

Thank you very much
LOD0 (visible on Sketchfab link) has ~28.6k tris currently, but they’re visible when you’re really close, in that way, player can see actual branches instead of planes. I have branch with leaves texture for LOD1 which gives around 2,7k tris

28k tris is a little bit much for a tree -> you can get a pretty good result even when you just use 5k tris

[mikolajspy]

You are right, I’ve put just LOD1 and it greatly improved performance with ~100 instances. I’ve played around branches with leaves, and managed to get this, its LOD0 ~2,8k tris, LOD1 is just billboard. I think it looks better now :

[sketchfab]0e93b6564fb946cc9b3ac57c981e12a5[/sketchfab]
Tree01 Test2 by Mikołaj Spychał on Sketchfab

@Transmitthis - thanks

[anonymous_user_923c79df]

Yep, already looks much better!
Now you could add more branches with leaves + add different leaves (probably also a little bit of a colour variation) + a wind effect