Adding Dynamic Wind to Imported Trees and Plants?


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic238341.aspx 		Print Topic | Close Window

By bsperan - 9 Years Ago
What exactly are trees and plants in iClone? They differ from props in several ways and they can sway in the wind.

I found a thread from 5 years ago which seems relevant:
Trees and Plants

Daniel Wolfsong (6/7/2010)...Why are trees and plants different from other props?

1. They have no poly face counts.
2. They have no maps - no diffuse, bump, opacity...etc.
3. They can not be Ctrl+Dragged to propagate.

What makes them different from other 3D objects in iClone?

animagic (6/8/2010)...The following is my take on it, which may be wrong.

When the question came up, my tired brain thought "procedural modeling". in iClone, the plants and trees are moved by the wind, which can be adjusted, and that made me think that they are not your regular polygons with animation. Instead, there is a bunch of rules that produce the model. If it can be done efficiently, there is no need to store the model, it's just generated when required, so it does not add to the polygon count.

animagic (6/8/2010)...Here is something about procedural modeling from Wikipedia:

    Procedural modeling is an umbrella term for a number of techniques in computer graphics to create 3D models and textures from sets of rules...

But animagic makes it clear that this is just his take on it. Is there any official word if that's correct? If not, how does it work?

Also, this tread from a year ago makes it sound like Speed Trees work similarly.
Trees and Plants

animagic (12/28/2014)
I checked and Speed Trees don't have physics. All there is is the wind setting, which is specifically for Speed Trees.

Speed Trees are not props in the normal sense for efficiency reasons, so there are certain limitations.


Here's a snippet from another related thread from 2 years ago:
Question about live plants

msjaebea (8/24/2013)
Been "dreaming" in the iClone store and noticed packs that have live plants.  Are these plants moving with internal dynamics or are they objects with their own animation?  I am asking to find out if they can be exported into other software and still move.

planetstardragon (8/24/2013)
that's a question only a handful can answer since it's a locked format. the 3DXchange5 doesn't import itree. Atleast not in a common way that I'm aware of...

It sounds like there's no official answer, to this day.

I have the Pipeline version of 3DXchange, as well as the Total Plants-Biosphere Collection. Is there any conceivable way for an iClone user with the right software tools (as opposed to a developer) to modify a regular tree or plant in a way that allows us to not only import them in iClone but get them to sway in the wind?

(I've seen some very cool looking alien plants and weird trees that I'd love to import into iClone. And I wish I could emulate the wind effect on such.)

I was hoping to export an itree just to examine it in a modeling program.  But if it's impossible to export them...
By justaviking - 9 Years Ago
I think the answer is, "What is SpeedTree?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedTree

Maybe that doesn't answer your question, but they are not normal props.
By mtakerkart - 9 Years Ago
@bsperan

I don't know if it can help you but You can't export trees and plants from iclone.It's Reallusion owner format. Yes it comes from Speedtree.
I never had good success to import trees from speedtrees and never success to import wind. I use The plantfactory from e-on to build my
own Alien plants with own wind and it works find in Iclone.It's not cheap app. I was talking about this here:
https://forum.reallusion.com/FindPost226710.aspx
By wendyluvscatz - 9 Years Ago
the only other thing you can do is rigged trees or trees with morphs from other apps, the latter needs to be done with a dummy bone and expression editor.
I have used Carrara trees that way but they are very highpoly and become nonstandard iAvatars so not duplicatable like props. 
There are a few rigged tree creating apps like treeD that does FBX export.
e-on has a  Vue  plant creator called Plant factory you can try a demo of that also does FBX but is rather pricey to buy.
By wendyluvscatz - 9 Years Ago
oops mtakerkart I should read other posts
just adding the demo removes polys so you get rather mangy trees but useable
By mtakerkart - 9 Years Ago
To exporting this from iClone is SIMPLE.... BUT NOT ALLOWED!


For me it means "You can't" , it's what I teach to my children ;-)
I really appreciate that reallusion make a deal with speedtree like UDK or Unity made to allow us creating
trees with speedtree and export directly in Iclone format:

http://www.speedtree.com/
By mtakerkart - 9 Years Ago
Can you "Export" SpeedTree objects from iClone


Not at all...... 
I tried drag and drop in 3dxchange: no success
By mtakerkart - 9 Years Ago
Then what good is "3dxch PIPELINE" if you can't export EVERYTHING?


That's why I own only the pro version ;-)  The only think I export is some meshes for morph or paint task.
By bsperan - 9 Years Ago
Since Reallusion refuses to allow users to export iTrees (or iPlants or iGrass), or add dynamic wind to any sort of imported plants, the least they could do is allow us a bit of customization, such as allow users to modify the textures for leaves and/or bark or maybe add some sort of color filter to them.

For one thing, it would allow for some creative uses for trees and plants, such as discussed in the Organic Hair using iClone iTree Plants thread.

For another, we could give trees and/or plants some unusual colors like blue, purple or red to at least give a weak illusion that these are alien plants on another world.

sw00000p (6/7/2015)
mtakerkart (6/7/2015)
Can you "Export" SpeedTree objects from iClone

Not at all...... 
I tried drag and drop in 3dxchange: no success

Then what good is "3dxch PIPELINE" if you can't export EVERYTHING?
...what a rip-off!w00t

Exactly.