The XR_Nature trees pack

[Daemon]

If you wanna help, you could do some LODs for the trees that don't have. I'll upload them to the AU tomorrow and you can check them out.

[Faun]

yay Daemon for not liking the tree business you really produce great shiny models now! big efforts, keep them coming  
- THE MESSAGES I TYPED DRUNK, Y CAN'T I DELETE THEM INSTANTLY  

[Daemon]

Made a new texture (and its variations) for some new pine trees. Actually the first image uses Mchief's new pinetree2 model, and the 2nd image uses a new model.

@Faun: need a 3rd opinion about the usability of these pine trees with Savage. Please download this pack:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57084056/Savage/savage9.s2z

...and an eden2 where i placed a few of them around the beast lair:
 https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57084056/Savage/xr_pines.s2z

Thank you!







Thanks to Tirza, there'll be a lot of new trees coming in the next few days .

[edit]They prolly aren't the final versions yet.[/edit]

[Mchief]

I love the second ones. (Probably got too used with mine too see much interest in the first ones)

Just came to think of it.With a bit of rescaling,we could use those from the second pic to replace the regular pinetree (which is right behind them).

[Nanaa]

I love the second ones. (Probably got too used with mine too see much interest in the first ones)

Just came to think of it.With a bit of rescaling,we could use those from the second pic to replace the regular pinetree (which is right behind them).

Yea, second ones combined with old pinetree's trunk texture and then they could replace the old ones. Current bark texture makes them look like rotten or ill IMO.

Trust me, I'm finnish, and I have cut down some trees

[Daemon]

Trust me, I'm finnish, and I have cut down some trees

Murderer!

Current bark texture makes them look like rotten or ill IMO.

It's a mossy texture, but i can clean it up.

[H3027]

Made some in game shots.

This tree here is brilliant, best pine tree in game. Also better than the standard XR pinetree (which furthermore has a too saturated trunk texture) that is spammed on every map. This tree has a good variation in leaf placement, which give the tree a nice shape and character, also good color variation in the texture: http://www.abload.de/img/015py9o.jpg

Although the tree shape would be good, the leaf branches are too cluttered and don't fit to the Savage fantasy theme. Increasing the densitiy towards the trunk would help a lot already, also merging a few/making them thicker in the forefront of the branches, as well as denoting the brown branch skeleton on the texture.
http://www.abload.de/img/0233bqd.jpg

Same goes for those:
http://www.abload.de/img/03e7916.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/040iz20.jpg

Those are a little better as the tree branches are smaller, but they would still fit better to CoD than Savage.
http://www.abload.de/img/05vngd4.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/06oaacw.jpg



I'm not saying they are bad, those here are bad:
http://www.abload.de/img/uglysnowtrees268e9.jpg
The first 2 are so cluttered that they displace the tree shape too much, while the second 2 make the ugly texture repetition too visible.

Those here could need a lot more detail, but at least they keep the tree shape intact:
http://www.abload.de/img/nicesnowtreeshqjho.jpg

[Daemon]

Made some in game shots.

This tree here is brilliant, best pine tree in game. Also better than the standard XR pinetree (which furthermore has a too saturated trunk texture) that is spammed on every map. This tree has a good variation in leaf placement, which give the tree a nice shape and character, also good color variation in the texture: http://www.abload.de/img/015py9o.jpg

Although the tree shape would be good, the leaf branches are too cluttered and don't fit to the Savage fantasy theme. Increasing the densitiy towards the trunk would help a lot already, also merging a few/making them thicker in the forefront of the branches, as well as denoting the brown branch skeleton on the texture.
http://www.abload.de/img/0233bqd.jpg

Both trees in these pictures use the exact same model, so calling one cluttered but lacking density and the other one brilliant seems kinda subjective . You're looking forward at the 1st, and looking up at the 2nd, perhaps that's an explanation.

[H3027]

Made some in game shots.

This tree here is brilliant, best pine tree in game. Also better than the standard XR pinetree (which furthermore has a too saturated trunk texture) that is spammed on every map. This tree has a good variation in leaf placement, which give the tree a nice shape and character, also good color variation in the texture: http://www.abload.de/img/015py9o.jpg

Although the tree shape would be good, the leaf branches are too cluttered and don't fit to the Savage fantasy theme. Increasing the densitiy towards the trunk would help a lot already, also merging a few/making them thicker in the forefront of the branches, as well as denoting the brown branch skeleton on the texture.
http://www.abload.de/img/0233bqd.jpg

Both trees in these pictures use the exact same model, so calling one cluttered but lacking density and the other one brilliant seems kinda subjective . You're looking forward at the 1st, and looking up at the 2nd, perhaps that's an explanation.

I was only talking about the texture, not the model shape.

[Faun]

Hm, I really wonder if it wasn't worth replacing the old model with that one. Sure, the pinetree wasn't the worst of the trees yet (This award goes to the snowpinetree in a close finish against tall_foresttree - the white pole with a few shrubs here and there), but I think some overall polishment would give XR more of a "AH!" effect. Just so the first 'connect' to a server gives an immediate feel that things really have improved a lot, even if the map that's played is nohope. I bet it will be a hard task to introduce 'same map-other version' projects to the community. Taking away the old versions is sacrilege and there are already a heap of "_revamp, _x, _new _w/e" versions of the core maps around that didn't make it to public interest. Replacing models could be a easy way to 'keep things as is' while improving the looks and atmosphere for anyone using xr 1.0 instantly.

[H3027]

Yes, creating replacements for existing trees is certainly the best thing to do, as our 100 best maps are unlikely to get redesigned all together anytime soon but will still be played a lot. I'm all for tree replacements, but they have to be done carefully and matching the fantasy theme of Savage. It's quite a hard time consuming job.

[Daemon]

Please, stop it with the 'fantasy theme'. No matter how many times you repeat it, Savage will still be a 'post-apocalyptic' themed game, not a fantasy one. Sure, you got 'mutants' or 'sentient, evolved beasts', or whatever you may call them, but they are as anatomically accurate as you could expect from the concept.

I've seen (and fixed) a lot of Savage models and i can tell you that great care has been taken to make things as 'scientifically realistic' as possible, under the circumstances. Trees are nothing but realistic, up to the point where the engine limitations kick in. The fact that someone replaced the stock birch trees foliage with a noobishly saturated version does not make Savage and its trees fantasy.

Sure, a game has to look colorful and appealing, but either you do things in pseudo 'high-definition' or you stay with the old, detail-less, ugly trees, that we want to replace in the first place.

This is how fantasy trees looks like:

[Mchief]

Although the tree shape would be good, the leaf branches are too cluttered and don't fit to the Savage fantasy theme. Increasing the densitiy towards the trunk would help a lot already, also merging a few/making them thicker in the forefront of the branches, as well as denoting the brown branch skeleton on the texture.
http://www.abload.de/img/0233bqd.jpg

Actually what dae is missing there is a second colour on the folaige. Mine has 2-3 ( green leaves, brown branch where leaves hang and  yellow from pine fruit?). I think a few cones and a more visible branch would do the trick for the whole tree.

[Daemon]

I've ditched the big pinetree2 offshoots, condensed the new pine trees textures and turned the dead variation into a really dead one . Please re-download both files and check them:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57084056/Savage/savage9.s2z
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57084056/Savage/xr_pines.s2z

They're very low-poly (~550 tris), they can be spammed on maps, 10 of them have about the performance impact of a single nomad.

Also made a base for the a new snow pine tree, will prolly finish it tomorrow.

Thank you!

[Mchief]

Hehe.

How about half dead trees? A mix of  living and dead branches would be cool and maybe one with dead bottom and living top? I feel some really cool forests could be done with these mixes .


In the meantime here's a bit of work i did today with the regular rock.




Completely remodelled and textured.
250 from 800 polys (so much for a single rock ...)
replaced the orange/brownish/ yellowish texture with a classic volcanic one
Surfs are exactly the same.

I am not sure who made that texture  but all other rocks in savage are gray-darkish and complement each other quite well.