Best way to create low poly vegetation?

Easton

What is the best way to create low poly vegetation? 

Basically the lowest of the lowest polygons, which I think would be two and used for backgrounds, how is this accomplished in a way that makes the details of the plants pop?

Nars

Hello Easton,
Did you had a look here in the wiki ? http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Foliage

It's quite a lot of info on vegetation that you can use for your project.

Easton

Hey Nars, thanks for the information! I keep forgetting this site is also a Wikipedia for game design.

I think I found some good YouTube videos on what I was looking for. Basically I just need figure out how to take some pictures of trees and then make everything else invisible, which I think would only be two polygons. Its going to be for really dense foliage for a flight simulator, the less polys the better.

Eric Chadwick

For a flight sim you'll probably want the top views of trees too, not just the sides. 

Is this for mobile? Different quality transparency, etc.

Easton

It's desktop. I am about to start an airport soon and need to get a general idea of what may be the best way. I think the way grass is modeled in most games is how I should go, but not sure how I would do this exactly.

I think I'll either buy some tree textures, or try to make them myself and get the best quality I can. I am probably going to use speed trees for the primary trees that are close to the player, and low poly planes for fillers. Im trying to keep it simple but focus on quality because I know the engine is limited

m4dcow

Easton said:

Hey Nars, thanks for the information! I keep forgetting this site is also a Wikipedia for game design.

I think I found some good YouTube videos on what I was looking for. Basically I just need figure out how to take some pictures of trees and then make everything else invisible, which I think would only be two polygons. Its going to be for really dense foliage for a flight simulator, the less polys the better.

I don't know the target platform, but with foliage overdraw can become more of a resource hog than polycount. For a flight sim it may not be too bad, but might pay off spending a few more polygons to follow the silhouette of the trees more than just a quad could.