Try to put more space between leaves on the alpha map / diffuse map. It will help combat that 'planar' look quite a bit. Here is some work I've done in relation to natural environments, maybe it will help you. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72008
the tree touch-ups definitely make it look better now imo. Especially those 2 in the middle ;) As for the adding gradient in the middle that is one of ways. U can use it, but it is limiting your `ramdomness` rotation angle of leaf planes tho. What could actually look nicer is baking Radiosity solution into the vertex color…
Hey guys, A little bit about the project; so far this is all off of my own back- learning UDK to a standard, creating my first attempt at foliage, etc and I'm aiming to create a gaming "experience" for players- I've managed to port Dungeon Defence character AI to the UDK September 2010 build and get everything working in…