@hippowombat, I have no idea how the vector thing works, I’m not there yet, but the process you explained is typical for many games, mmo’s included. You can tell that’s what they all do, as you view trees/branches form a distance or closeISH up, its quite clear they are planes.
Blender can do neat things ( though no doubt very costly for some gaming designs) via particles ( doubtful they can come into ue4 but might be interesting if it could).
IF the free speedtree offering isn’t enough, even for just now, then you’ll need the approach hippo* noted, unless somebody has other ideas. Its a area I"ve not delved too far into I’m afraid, but those are the most logical approaches especially if perf. is something you care about. I’m not sure what you meant by trial, as it seemed they were just a ‘free’ package, are you saying you can’t use them in anything commercial ? I didn’t see any readme, and I have no idea without looking further if its ‘free’ and just lower quality, or what. I saw nothing on download speedtree page that suggested they weren’t literally free.
Latre