Trees & plants

[Anonymous]

Can anyone give me advice on tree libraries that give reasonable output when rendered in ArchiCad. Current using Garden Works Library.

Have just looked at OnyxTree.com they look great. Do you need to use these with Art.lantis or can you just use with ArchiCad?

Thanks in advance
Andrew

[Dwight]

Since they are 3D trees with real materials on the surfaces, they DO work with Artlantis or any other renderer - When using Artlantis, you could allow yourself less polygon reduction because it renders more quickly - I have succeeded with Onyx by eliminating the smaller twigs and branches, making larger flat leaves and fewer of them...

there's a tidy dialog for this when saving the tree in onyx.

[stefan]

Why don't you use Billboards?

Real 3D trees (like Onyx, XFrog and others) can take so much geometry that it slows everything down.

I wouldn't use them in ArchiCAD. I might use them in external rendering software.

[Dwight]

It is a question of satisfaction.

I've never been satisfied with billboards even though they are necessary when the count gets too high.

[stefan]

Support for RPC objects would be a good solution...

And the LightWorks engine supports it (but I guess not in the Lightworks licensed engine in ArchiCAD 9.0).
http://www.lightworks-user.com/downloads.php?type=supplier&filter=Archvision

[Dwight]

that is correct, but those are still flat things, too......

Nothing beats real 3D....

[stefan]

Dwight wrote:
that is correct, but those are still flat things, too......

Nothing beats real 3D....

And what about EASYNat?

Hybrid trees that can optionally be full 3D, full 2D or partly 3D (trunk) and 2D (leaves)?

It's available as a plugin for 3ds max and possibly others as well.

[Dwight]

What about it?
Seems good.
Can these features be used in ArchiCAD?

[stefan]

Dwight wrote:
What about it?
Seems good.
Can these features be used in ArchiCAD?

http://www.bionatics.com/home/indexc.php3

EASYnat is only available for 3ds max, VIZ and VIZ Render. natFX is also available for Maya.

[Dwight]

Swell.
Would there be a way to port it into ArchiCAD?