Vegetation/Tree techniques and how to make them more interessting?

grimsonfart

Hi

I have been trying to create trees for my enviornment for the past few weeks, and even though i do manage to get them decent looking, i have a hard time getting that "wow" feeling which im trying to achieve.

My main concern is the bark texture, and how simple it is slapping on a texture in 3Ds max and exporting it.

I have tried UV mapping the entire tree, but then the quality of the bark is terrible.

Another thing is, i want to make so that my branches are connected to the tree, not just placed inside the tree if you see what i mean. I know how to do this, but in my opinion its too time consuming.

I would like to know some of your techniques to get trees more interesting and realistic.

Thanks

Nosslak

You should post what you've got already as it'll be a lot easier make relevant suggestions.

Some quick suggestions would otherwise be that you could add some moss via vertex painting, add some mushrooms and/or bake some AO to the vertex colors to add some depth.

antweiler

You dont necessarily need to merge the branches into the trunk, you can (re)use banches and stick them into the trunk. To get a smooth shading, you can adjust the normals manually to the direction of the trunk normals (like speedtree does)
There will be seems in the UV mesh anyway.

Moutrave

You can use the branch tool in the polydraw toolbox of 3Dsmax...it allows to create branches quickly by extruding face around the trunk or whatever geo you want. That way you avoid seams if you really don't them. You can also use that tool for the smaller branch, although you'll have more control if you create 2 / 3 branche modules and just paint them unto the bigger branches with the pain mesh tool and some manual adjustements. That's the quicker way I know...vertex paint is also a good solution as Nosslak said, you can also use it to determine what parts of the tree / leaves will move, if you have the proper shader in game (that gives it more life and coolness and all)