Is there a way to make a speedtree tree to grow over time? (not just scale it up)

Development Rendering
1

Hi there,

I would like to simulate the growth of a tree, and I know speed tree can simulate that, one option could be to export an alembic file, but I would like to be able to stop in any point of the growth process and I still want wind animation on the branches and leaves.

Is the growth supported in UE4? Is there a way to achieve this? I can´t find any clear info about that.

Cheers and thanks!

2

You can power the wind animation easily through a material, and use that alembic file animation you mentioned for the growing.

The more complicated you want the wind animation, the more complicated solution you’re going to have to come up with.

3

If it’s an alembic file, you can stop it on any time and still have your wind animation. Might need to adjust the wind speed/strength with a dynamic material instance, but otherwise, I don’t see any problem.

4

Thanks to both of you for the ideas, yes I think the material wind animation will be the best solution, and the Alembic will allow me to control the growth effect :slight_smile:

Thanks!

5

from my experience Alembic seems too heavy for realtime.

I am wondering if there will be a solution using shader (vertex color informations?)