Tree LODs

anonymous_user_92c6da9b · June 2, 2015, 6:07pm

Hello!

I created a tree and some LODs for it.

First thing, in my material editor there are nodes SpeedTree and SpeedTreeColorVariation. I don’t have a subscription for SpeedTree, so are these nodes free to use for anyone?

Second, if I understood right, all LODs share the same lightmap, so they need to have matching lightmap UVs. This causes problems with billboards, because I get weird dark spots on them (when i set my light to dynamic everything looks alright).
So is there a workaround? A proper way to do lightmap UVs for billboards? Or is there something I don’t know that I should about this?
Sorry, I am relatively new to all of this and I couldn’t find an answer anywhere.
Also, sorry for any grammar errors, I am not a native English speaker.

Thanks in advance for answer.

anonymous_user_923c79df · June 2, 2015, 6:44pm

I think there shouldnt be a problem when you use them -> otherwise it’s pretty easy to create the same kind of effects -> ?v=cp6JQVHWeEw

anonymous_user_92c6da9b · June 2, 2015, 6:54pm

Thanks for the answer, the wind tutorial is great.

RyanB · June 2, 2015, 9:21pm

The “speedtree” node is designed to work specifically with speedtrees and it expects things to be packed into various UV channels in certain ways so that function will not do anything useful for non-speedtrees. The speedtreecolorvariation node will work anywhere though. It just randomizes the color a bit based on actor location, nothing in there is speedtree or even tree specific.