Tree Development

[morcroft]

Yeah, well there's no rush - and if you put modding before a date there'd be no hope for you!

[Siegfried]

Looked into it a bit; seems CAD is no longer installed, and I have forgotten the request code for my keygen X(

Its also 3.01 that I have, which might explain some of the eratic behavior.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

A quick update here: I'll be moving on to generating the Talu Swamp region shortly but in the meantime, it may be worth outlining a few plans for other tree types that may be needed.

I spoke to morcroft via PM about an idea I'd like to have for the Murkwood region. Murkwood's trees are quite plentiful as I'm pretty much set on the selection but I would nevertheless like to have at least one really definitive tree for the region. Hence my suggestion was for simply a particularly gnarled tree in the vein of 'Sleepy Hollow' (see first two pics). The effect would aim to achieve some of the effects of the UL project: the dark forest shown here: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/fm...p?id=25786 . However, the effect would be much more swampy and alien-looking. After all, Koniption's delicious podtrees and suchlike need an especially intimidating big brother.

To date, I have spoken with TheFilthySpaniard about the adaptations of the SI mushroom trees he created which are basically the same model but with the mushroom heads removed and more gnarly branches at the top. These are fine but ideally I'm after a speedtree model with foliage to provide a decent, dark canopy.

Talking of 'alien-looking', my main reason for posting is that I believe I've found the perfect accompaniment to Koniption's mossy trees for the Vudai Marsh. I've always envied Silgrad Tower's wonderful shroom trees (see pic 5) and wanted something similar for this region (see pics 3-4). However, it now looks like I may have found it. What do people think of pic #6 as the secondary tree type for the Vudai Marsh? I found this after watching the National Geographic program on alien worlds called 'Aurelia'. You can see the designer's web pages here: http://www.stormharvest.net/modelunit/portfolio/et.htm . I'd probably name this tree the 'marsh poppy' and I have a special use for it elsewhere that I'd like to speak to KP about via PM.

The 'marsh poppy' wouldn't necessarily need to be a speedtree and may even benefit from being a .nif model but I was thinking that maybe the texture would have a similar 'fleshy' quality to it and that maybe it could be ever-so-slightly translucent i.e. so that you can see through it or at least that some light shone through from the other side, a little like what we did for our cave crystals and the Soulrest arboretum.

[Koniption]

I like the second picture. Sounds good to me.

Just PM me the details of what you need done. I don't know if speedtree can make a "marsh poppy", unless it can make a single, huge, centered "leaf plane" where its texture is the flat and wide webby part on top of the plant. Speedtree should be able to make the stem for sure however (I think). But the root looking things on the bottom of the stem - don't know if speedtree can do that for Oblivion.
Also, I don't know if speedtree can use semi-transparent textures. I think textures for speedtree need to be all opaque or all transparent, or an overlay of an all opaque texture on an all transparent background (like how Oblivion speedtree leaves are done). I don't think an in-between transparency can be made. I think only Oblivion nifs can use in-between transparencies.

But wait for morcroft's verdict, first. He'll know whether he can churn something like that out of speedtree.

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I believe morcroft may be taking a well-deserved break from his excellent work on the Talu Swamp trees but I let him know about the Murkwood trees. I don't mind the marsh poppies being created as .nifs though.

Btw, the Vudai Marsh is likely to be the least dense of the mainland regions but the main obstacle is going to be the quicksand. I'll probably use a few spread-out roots here and there but there's going to be a major stretch of quicksand that effectively cuts people off from travelling via the West. I figured you might be able to hop across towards Helstrom if you're particularly agile but it will take skill...

[morcroft]

Yes, I'm looking at other stuff just now but I think I'll be able to do something for the "Sleepy Hollow" tree. If you want a complex trunk and an extended root system it would be best to nif model that - I can make the trunk stiff enough not to sway in the wind and mess up the boundary with the static model, then upper branches and leaves can be speedtree.

The Marsh Poppy is definitely beyond SpeedTree. I can see what KP means about a single leaf plane but I don't think it would look good. Static model it.

Just for reference, Speedtree uses the alpha channel to control the fade-out from one LOD to the next, so you can't use it for "real" transparency.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Thanks for the feedback, morcroft. Would you like to handle the root-parts yourself? Otherwise, Koniption may be able to work with you on that, if that's okay with her? I'd love to see those marsh poppies in-game though... :yes:

[morcroft]

Don't know. I've sort of abandoned static modelling organics - somehow it doesn't work for me. Might change my mind for this, otherwise I'll ask for help.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Np. However you feel you work best. =)

[Koniption]

Originally posted by morcroft
Don't know. I've sort of abandoned static modelling organics - somehow it doesn't work for me. Might change my mind for this, otherwise I'll ask for help.

@ morcroft - So does this mean I should hold off modeling the marsh poppies, because you might model them yourself?

Koniption