SpeedTreeMAX 4 Bundle
3D Tree and Forestry Tools for 3ds Max and VIZ
Bundle includes the following:
- SpeedTreeMAX Plug-In
- SpeedShadow Plug-In
- SpeedForest Plug-In
- SpeedTreeCAD Lite, used to create and edit tree models
- Classic Tree Model Library, including over 70 tree models representing
30 species
SpeedTree 4 is a powerful plug-in for creating low to medium polygon count
trees. In most other tree plug-ins, trees start at about 10,000 polygons and go
up. The average SpeedTree tree has around 5,000 polygons. As such, you can
create a lot more speedtree trees in your scene. In addition, SpeedTree 4 also
fully supports wind animation within the tree for a highly realistic look in
your animations.
Supports: 3ds Max 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (32bit) VIZ 4, 2005, 2006, 2007
SpeedTree 4 is now shipping with the following new features:
- Real-time modeling feedback.
- Improved Curve Editor.
- Multiple texture layers supported.
- Latest version of SpeedTree CAD Lite (version 4.0.0.0)
- Roots branch level added.
- Light Seam Reduction.
- SpeedWind 2.
- Support for 3ds max 4.x through 9 (32 bit).
- Multi-Level wind effects.
- Branch/Leaf Pruning.
- Show normals added to the view menu.
- Animated LOD preview.
- Tree Libraries have normal maps for branches and leaves with all new
textures to take advantage of SpeedTree 4 features.
SpeedTreeCAD Lite
SpeedTree 4 comes in two parts. The first part is SpeedTreeCAD Lite. This is
a standalone tree editing program. To create a new tree, all you need is a
photograph of the bark you want to use and a photograph of the leaves. The rest
you can do inside SpeedTreeCAD.
SpeedTreeCAD works in OpenGL, so you must have a reasonable OpenGL card on
your system (Geforce 2 or better in most cases) for it to run properly. Once you
have SpeedTreeCAD up and running you can start defining your trees starting with
basic properties such as the trunk width, overall height, etc. Then you add as
many levels of branches as needed for the tree type you are working with. Then
you can add in the leaf level details by defining the leaf sizes and number of
leaves on each branch.
Each tree that is created is also assigned a random seed number. This enables
you to create unlimited numbers of trees based off the same definition, but look
slighlty different. In addition, you can also define how the tree reacts to wind
in SpeedTreeCAD Lite. You can define the overall effect of the wind and even see
it in real time in the viewport. The viewport displays also support basic
lighting effects as well.
One of the new features in SpeedTreeCAD and SpeedTree 4 is that it now fully
supports the creation of palm tree types of trees through the use of Fronds.
Fronds are a special leaf type that simulate palm tree type leaves. As it turns
out, fronds are flexible enough, you can also use them to simulate sets of
branches on your trees as well, allowing you to reduce the amount of geometry in
your scene even further.
Overall, SpeedTreeCAD Lite is a powerful tool for modeling trees to work in
3ds Max.
SpeedTree MAX 4 Plug-in
Trees that you create in SpeedTreeCAD Lite can be saved out as an SPT file.
In other words, a tree definition file. This is where the second part of
SpeedTree 4 comes into play: The SpeedTreeMAX plug-in. This plug-in, which works
in 3ds Max 4.x through 9 (32 bit) currently, allows you to import the SPT files
into 3ds Max and place the trees into your scene. It also acts as a data
pipeline between 3ds Max and SpeedTree, enabling you to edit exiting tree
definitions in your scene. You can do this by selecting the tree and telling
SpeedTree you want to edit the tree in SpeedTreeCAD Lite.
As you can see in the figure on the left, the 3ds Max plugin for SpeedTree is
not overly complicated. It provides you with many controls that you also have in
SpeedTreeCAD Lite. You start out by creating a generic tree, then importing your
tree definition through the Import ".spt" file button. You will also notice the
seed buttons along with Randomize and compute. These enable you to quickly
create many variations of your tree, even though you are using the same tree
definition
The SpeedTree plug-in also enables you to define the overall size of the
tree, apply wind using standard 3ds Max wind space warps, and also control the
overall display of the trees. In some cases you may want to see the full detail
of the tree in the viewports, in others, only minimal amounts of detail. Wind
has been updated in SpeedTree 4 to provide a new tool called SpeedWind that
provides fine control over how wind affects your trees.
There are also controls to allow you to edit just the selected tree, all trees
in the scene, or only those visible in the scene at the current time. So, if you
need to change the tree type from a pine tree to an oak tree, you can do so
quickly and easily.
SpeedShadows
Because SpeedTree is partly based off of billboard technology (images mapped
to a flat plane with opacity) rendering shadows can be slow. SpeedTree gets
around this by providing you with it’s own shadow generator plug-in called
SpeedShadow. This gives you the detail you need in the shadows, but with the
rendering speed of shadow maps.
The Controls for SpeedShadow are similar to a regular shadow map, but also include
options for defining the number of leaves in your trees that will actually cast
shadows. In addition, SpeedTree also works great with most rendering engines
such as VRay where you can use raytraced shadows and still get good render
times.
SpeedForest
Of course, no tree plugin is complete without the ability to create a forest.
In SpeedTree 4, there is a SpeedForest plug-in that is implemented as a utility.
Through this utility, you can create your forests and define boundaries for
those forests. Best of all, you are not limited to just using SpeedTree trees.
You can use just about any object with it. New to SpeedTree 4, the SpeedForest
tool now supports creating copies, instances, and references of objects.
SpeedForests are based off of a couple of pieces of information. First, you
need a ground plane to place the forest on. SpeedForest will automatically place
the trees on the ground plane object using the pivot point of the trees to
"plant" them. The ground plane must be any mesh or patch object that supports
intersect ray. So, in general, you create your ground plane, apply materials
etc. Then, create a copy of it and collapse it to an editable mesh and use the
collapsed copy to plant your trees. Once your are finished, delete the collapsed
copy.
The second piece of information that is needed is the boundary locations of
your forest. SpeedForest enables you to define this with a spline. So, you
simply draw a spline (open or closed) above your ground plane to define the
overall area in which the trees will appear. The spline generally needs to exist
above the ground plane to work best.
Once you have those two pieces of information setup, you can simply select
one or more objects, trees, etc, the ground plane, and the boundary lines to
create the forest. SpeedForest then enables you to define the number of trees to
create, a collision radius so trees are not placed too close to each other, and
finally a set of transform controls so your new trees can be placed with random
variations in X,Y, and Z position, rotation, and scale. The random variations
enable you to quickly create a realistic looking forest where trees are not all
the same size and orientation.
Best of all, SpeedForest creates the new forest where each tree is an instanced object.
Upon completion, it dumps all the trees in the forest into a named selection set
for ease of use. Through the instancing, if you have an advanced renderer that
has good support for instanced object rendering, you can pretty much render as
many trees as you want. To illustrate this, take a look at the screenshot below.
This is a scene in 3ds Max 5 with over 3500 trees. In VRay, it renders in about
200 MB of RAM. 3ds Max itself also has good instancing support, so you can
handle many trees inside of 3ds Max without an advanced rendering engine as
well.
All this comes in one great package complete with tutorial videos on how to use the
system. Overall, if you need to have very good looking trees in your scene,
SpeedTree 4 is very hard to beat. It provides you with the ability to create
your own trees, add wind animation, create forests, and render huge numbers of
trees with relative ease. So, if you’re convinced, go ahead and add it to your
cart. If not, click on Downloads and Demo link on the left and take SpeedTree 4
for a test drive for 15 days and see how you like it!
SpeedTree also ships with a library of trees to get you started. This library
includes over 30 species in various resolutions including the following:
- Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea Pungens Glauca)
- Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga Menziesii)
- Scotch Pine (Pinus Sylvestris)
- American Holly (Ilex Opaca)
- Amur Cork (Phellodendron Amurense)
- Black Gum (Nyssa Sylvatica)
- Bradford Callery Pear (Pyrus Calleryana)
- Common Hook Thorn (Acacia Caffra)
- Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstoemia Indica)
- English Oak (Quercus Robur)
- Ficus (Ficus Benjamina)
- Honey Locust (Gleditsia Triacanthos)
- Live Oak (Quercus Virginiana)
- Peach (Prunus Persica)
- Shingle Oak (Quercus Imbricaria)
- Sourwood (Oxydendrum Arboreum)
- Southern Magnolia (Magnolia Grandiflora)
- Sugar Maple (Acer Saccarum)
- Tulip (Liriodendron Tulipifera)
- Weeping Willow (Salix Babylonica)
- Willow Oak (Quercus Phellos)
- Coconut Palm (Cocos Nucifera)
- Curly Palm (Howea belmoreana)
- Palmetto (Sabal Palmetto)
- American Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens)
- Azalea (Rhododendron)
- Carolina Buckthorn (Frangula Caroliniana)
- Extra Terrestrial
- Halloween
- Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea Gigantica)
- Weeds
NOTICE: Licensees of SpeedTree®MAX are advised that the following
language is included in the End User Standard License Agreement (EUSLA), which
must be accepted prior to use of the software:
The End User may NOT use the Software (or any results and/or proceeds
thereof) in connection with, or incorporate the Software (or any results and/or
proceeds thereof) into any commercial product that renders three-dimensional
graphics in real-time (including, without limitation, interactive video games).
SpeedTreeMAX is intended for offline (non-real-time) projects, such as
animations, architectural fly-throughs and still renderings, and such usage is
entirely compatible with the EUSLA. Use of SpeedTree for real-time
three-dimensional games or other projects requires licensing SpeedTree®RT.
