27 replies to this topic

[highfade]

Having numerous questions I thought it wise to discuss it here.

 

Trees.   

• As I understand it only trees created with the tree creator will be effected by wind and it is unwise to import other 3d models as far as trees are concerned.

 

• Tree creator trees are not "locked" and can be copied, changed or altered, for instance the same tree with another set of leaves?

 

• What is a texture atlas and when, why and how is it created?

 

• I've read that it is better to use mesh rather than plane for leave/branches?

 

• Is it wise to have a separate project just for tree creating and then import it into your project or do you just make your trees inside your course project?

 

• To reduce the cloning effect, can you take one existing tree, make 4 copies, alter each slightly in the tree creator so that you have Tree1a to Tree1d? Is it bad for performance?

 

Any ideas would be most welcome.  

[shimonko]

1. No - but I've found for a tree model to be affected by the wind, I've had to define it as a terrain tree and paint it on the terrain, not just drag it on. I suspect there may be other ways too, e.g. adding hinge joints.
    
2. That depends where you duplicate it. If you duplicate it in the hierarchy, you will have an instance of the tree and if you change the composition of the tree, all instances will also change (only position/rotation and scale are unique to each instance). If you duplicate the tree in the Asset browser, then you can alter each tree's composition separately.
   
   There is a "Break Prefab Instance" command in the menu which IMO should "break the prefab instance" and allow individual control of the composition of trees, but I couldn't get it working when I tried it. I'll have to revisit.
    
3. A texture atlas packs multiple textures into a single texture as the overhead of loading lots of individual texture files during game play can be high. Good for performance.
   
   The compromise is that the graphics card has to have more memory to cater for the bigger texture file, otherwise it'll have to unload something else to make room (bad for performance).
    
4. Depends on the tree. A palm tree with its few curved fronds would be better served with a mesh, but a tree with very dense foliage would be more efficient with planes. If planes look bad, then see how crosses look, then triplanes (maybe even billboards), as meshes are the most expensive.
    
5. Separate project so eventually you can create your own tree packages. Then each project, import the appropriate tree packages.
    
6. It's worse for performance, because when you design a tree, it creates a prefab. The prefab consists of the resulting mesh, optimized tree and leaf materials and a tree data file describing how the tree was made so it can be re-edited (and I suspect affected by wind in the game).
   
   When you duplicate a tree (in the asset browser), all this is duplicated. Even if you use the same materials/textures for both trees, the materials/textures are duplicated. You can however delete the duplicate materials and tell the second tree to use the ones from the first tree.

[highfade]

Thanks Shimonko.

 

I think I'll rather just use what will be offered by CF and the community. Planting a terrain is my least favorite part of course creating as it was with APCD. 

 

I'm also having problems with the grass planting where certain square and rectangular areas the grass just disappear  while I'm painting. It's not that I'm to far away it is just in those areas.

[highfade]

For some reason while planting grass it starts disappearing in square and rectangular blocks? If I delete grass on some other area the grass planted will reappear. It is as if I'm only allowed to plant just so much before it starts taking away? Any thoughts.

 

For some reason I can't plant in this open block.

 

[Kablammo11]

I really wish somebody could explain that to you - I'm afraid I can't. Never seen this happen before.

[Mike Jones]

Try adjusting your grass density in the terrain settings - it's likely that you're running into some limit with the number of individual grass blades.

[highfade]

Try adjusting your grass density in the terrain settings - it's likely that you're running into some limit with the number of individual grass blades.

 

I think you're right Mike, as soon as I start thinning out the grass it reappears. There must be some golden number as to how high you can set the opacity to still be inside the allowed grass objects/sqm.

[IanD]

Oooh.. find the number, find the number...

[Davefevs]

42?

[Stephen Sullivan]

666?

[Dazmaniac]

3.1415927

[Mike Jones]

Obviously it is 1.61803

[TheBigYin519]

Daz,

That's a load of PIE

[Kablammo11]

If I could pick a number, I'd have to go for Mike's golden mean… witty little sequence of posts, guys.  

But of course, the proper number would be… 11

[TheBigYin519]

HHGTTG

22

[Dazmaniac]

Daz,

That's a load of PIE

 

Close, it's a load of Pi

 

[IanD]

Isn't it a Life of Pi... ? Piscine thread's getting annoying now...

[Dazmaniac]

We talking pertaining to fish or heading down the swimming pool?

[highfade]

Too bad there is no top view billboard. If there's going to be an top view option in the game..., well it looks a bit thin.

[highfade]

Can someone please help.

 

I've got a thin line artifact above my detail grass objects. I googled it, there is an explanation regarding removing and adding alphas and saving as 32bit but I need it in very simple steps; I use Gimp.

 

thanks