good options for procedural plant modeling (Indie projects, 2017)
polycounter lvl 18
I've got a couple of Indie game ideas I'm doing early preproduction on, and I'm interested in anyone's opinion on the current options for procedural plant modeling (on an Indie budget).
The games/my approach: One game is set in a somewhat stylized version of the real world, and foliage is a big part of the game (it's kind of an Asian garden creation sim). The other is a quite stylized/funky alien world, so I need something that can do non-realworld stuff as well as real world. I assume I'll need to use a combination of whatever the software generates, along with stuff exported out and baked in something else (to get billboards from high poly etc).
What I've looked into so far: Xfrog - seems super-dated and clunky, although I guess some people still use it. It's on sale for 140$ right now, so it's affordable. PlantFactory - seems cool, but I think the version I would need costs about 1k$ (i.e. the version w/the modular node graph stuff). SpeedTree - I can only afford SpeedTree Unity Modeler, so exporting OBJs etc won't work, and SpeedTree is focused mainly on real world plants.
Another option is doing things mostly by hand in Maya (or Max), maybe with some simple(ish) tools created in Houdini Indie version. This could eventually give me great results, but there is no way I can create sophisticated tools in Houdini in the time frame that makes sense for Indie games. And to make a bunch of plant types w/a few variations for each one, this approach may be unrealistic for an Indie game scope.
I don't mind spending a couple of months full-time developing my approach. I'm thinking of sort of specializing in foliage for some AAA contract work, if I invest a bunch of time in getting good at whatever approaches I pick. Therefore, a complicated package like Xfrog or PlantFactory is a valid option, if it makes sense in terms of what I could do with it. I'm also fine with simple software, as long as it really meets my needs.
Any ideas, or feedback on software you fine people are using for plants these days?
The games/my approach: One game is set in a somewhat stylized version of the real world, and foliage is a big part of the game (it's kind of an Asian garden creation sim). The other is a quite stylized/funky alien world, so I need something that can do non-realworld stuff as well as real world. I assume I'll need to use a combination of whatever the software generates, along with stuff exported out and baked in something else (to get billboards from high poly etc).
What I've looked into so far: Xfrog - seems super-dated and clunky, although I guess some people still use it. It's on sale for 140$ right now, so it's affordable. PlantFactory - seems cool, but I think the version I would need costs about 1k$ (i.e. the version w/the modular node graph stuff). SpeedTree - I can only afford SpeedTree Unity Modeler, so exporting OBJs etc won't work, and SpeedTree is focused mainly on real world plants.
Another option is doing things mostly by hand in Maya (or Max), maybe with some simple(ish) tools created in Houdini Indie version. This could eventually give me great results, but there is no way I can create sophisticated tools in Houdini in the time frame that makes sense for Indie games. And to make a bunch of plant types w/a few variations for each one, this approach may be unrealistic for an Indie game scope.
I don't mind spending a couple of months full-time developing my approach. I'm thinking of sort of specializing in foliage for some AAA contract work, if I invest a bunch of time in getting good at whatever approaches I pick. Therefore, a complicated package like Xfrog or PlantFactory is a valid option, if it makes sense in terms of what I could do with it. I'm also fine with simple software, as long as it really meets my needs.
Any ideas, or feedback on software you fine people are using for plants these days?