Now that the UE 4.3 / launch is finally behind us and everyone’s sleeping again, I wanted to clarify some things about the model store. For those unfamiliar with it: we have a small collection of tree sets created specifically for the UE4 community on our store. We’re also running a sale through July 26th of one-third off all trees.
We don’t have a ton of species on the store yet because we spent a lot of time packing content into each one. We detail what’s included in the UE4-specific models (hero+desktop+mobile resolutions, tons of textures, tuned LOD & wind, and more) here.
A number of trees also come with what we call “leaf map makers” that look like these:
These are actually separate/support SPM files that are used to generate multi-leaf textures for use in the main 3D tree model. Because they’re SPM files, it’s very easy to adjust the leaf sizes, density, and colors on the fly and then use the Modeler to export high-quality edge-padded diffuse and normal maps that are then reimported into the main 3D SPM file. It’s how we make these models ourselves.
Anyway, if you haven’t checked out the models, take a gander. With a Modeler subscription, limitless variations of each one are at your finger tips. They also make a pretty good starting point if you’re having trouble getting started.
Regards,
P.S. Several of you have brought to our attention that our tree icons on the store page were a bit misleading. They used to have just a single picture and it looked like it was just a single model. As I described above, there’s actually a whole lot thrown in with each species. We’ve since updated the icons to show some of the included variations – sorry for the confusion!
Any plan to include a bundle price, for those interested in buying the entire library? Additionally, how often are new additions expected to be released?
Yes, absolutely, if you want the entire library, drop us a line at . We’ll give you a bundle price coupon code.
We’re bringing all the VFX trees over to UE4 as quickly as we can. You should expect a few additions as early as week. Notices will probably appear in your login screen when you sign in to the Modeler.
I just subscribed to for UE4 about 3 days ago, and is a superb piece of software, however, I have some questions and I will put them here:
Any plans for an offline version of modeler for UE4? Does the $495 ( Architect 7, the cheapest version) works with UE4?
If you need a specific tree arrangement with deforms/bends/etc in your scene, you have to do several exports from Modeler and imports in UE4 until you match the desired effect, so the current workflow is a bit impracticable, any plans to update for UE4 to allow us to modify some tree parameters inside UE4 several times (and maybe build the mesh several times as we need)? The UE4 UI is super powerful and nice, so I don’t think that can be a problem.
I am allowed to buy trees made from some one else? What about selling?
I made some tests with LOD’s, so one of my trees LOD3 have about 500 triangles if I import without billboard, and if I import with billboard LOD3 have 32 triangles (representing the billboard), what is super nice, BUT there is a big noticeable difference when lod levels switch from LOD2 to LOD3 and viceversa, not counting if the tree is inclined/bend you get totally something else, the billboard do not match at all with tree/camera rotation. Any plans to improve somehow?
I’ve seen the trees available to shop on , just a few are marked with UE4, any plans to make all of them available? Any plans to make a full package including everything for indie, for game development? We don’t need any cinematic/movie/Hollywood features I think, so should lower the price a bit i guess.
Anywhere I can download offline version of the manual?
If by forest fire, you mean old/burned out trees, it’s come up from time to time, but I’m afraid it’s not something we’ve received a compelling number of requests for. If you’re looking for trees that are actively burning, that’ll be much more on the UE4 end of things.
I’m afraid that only the subscription version is available to UE4 subscribers. Other versions of like Architect and Studio won’t output the SRT file needed for the UE4 importer.
I can see why you’d want that, but it’s not something that’s on our roadmap. When you save a tree out of the Modeler, it optimizes and bakes all sorts of stuff, including the billboard diffuse & normal atlases.
Please contact to start a dialogue with us on that.
I’m not quite sure I followed what you’re explaining. If it’s that the billboard images aren’t matching tightly with the 3D geometry, you may want to create a custom compilation session by using the standalone Compiler application instead of relying on it to compile automatically. You can increase the number of billboard images way. More on using the Compiler:
There are currently 21 separate species available on the store for UE4 and we’re adding more every week as we migrate the visual-/animation models over to UE4. Bringing the models over has been a painstaking process, taking far longer than we anticipated, but we’ve tried to err on the side of quality over quantity. So, yes, eventually, almost all of the trees will have UE4 versions.
The manual is a wiki, so it’s constantly changing. If you’d like a copy of the current content, email us at and we’ll see what we can do.
I mean I understand that you’re trying to sell both assets and tools, however, you may reach a broader audience with a subscription plan.
One-time-payments have always bit me in the butt most especially after many years have gone by and then, all of a sudden, I no longer have access to the content/software that I’ve initially purchased due to them being deprecated.
So why not just funnel it all at a targeted price range?’
Student: $5
Indie/hobby: $10
Commercial: $20+
I wish Epic had such a scheme since $20 takes a large chunk out of my salary, as a hobbyist who works full time at a pretty crappy job. However, if it were $10, I’d have no incentive to cancel my payments.
I love the $19 a month package and thanks for giving us a free sample as an indie developer not all of us have that kind of money. I only wish other companies follow you guys as example for indie community. I am considering purchasing the stump model because in my game a player is required to chopped down trees and I would love having that model to represent a tree has been chopped and each time a server restart it sprouts new trees.
Do you have one for small things like plants and flowers and lawn grasses? Including bushes
is something I haven’t seen documented anywhere- what is the technical difference between a imported tree as foliage and a tree made in another program, setup as foliage?
Does UE4 render assets differently? Or is it the import process?
I’d love to see a breakdown of . Because while your software is awesome, it’s a little weird that I can’t load the tree into another program and modify it . It looks just like any other asset in the editor.
I love the $19 a month package and thanks for giving us a free sample as an indie developer not all of us have that kind of money. I only wish other companies follow you guys as example for indie community. I am considering purchasing the stump model because in my game a player is required to chopped down trees and I would love having that model to represent a tree has been chopped and each time a server restart it sprouts new trees.
Do you have one for small things like plants and flowers and lawn grasses? Including bushes
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the kind words! We’re bringing new models to the UE4 collection every week. If you take a look at our visual collection, you’ll see the kinds of models that we’re planning to bring over. They do include lots of small items.
We’ve tried to be up front about what makes models different from traditional meshes. page details some of those differences, but in terms of rendering, it’s the wind, dynamic LOD, billboarding, and branch seam blending that make SpeedTrees unique. That’s all found in the -specific shaders we provide combined with the per-vertex values we export with the models.
The Modeler for UE4 works with UE4 and you’re right, it doesn’t export to commonly used formats like FBX. That’s something that our more expensive products do. Specifically, keeping it tied to the UE4 engine way enables us to offer the Modeler at $19/month without a royalty to the UE4 community.
I did not used the tree compiler until now and indeed I can control the number of billboards inside, also the automatic tree compilation in modeler is super time saver.
Could you guys include in modeler a setting to control the number of billboards, in the “Compile” tab just where is “Make billboards/Horizontal billboard/billboard atlas size”?
