3d trees

[P3r3gr1n3]

I’m sorry if this should be obvious but I have been out of the loop for a while.
I have been playing dcs world and love the low level flight due to the 3d trees, however BMS i believe is a superior game for the home cockpit simulator enthusiasts.

Are there any mods for 3d trees for BMS?
Are 3d trees already included? I haven’t come across any in the short time i have played recently.

Thanks in advance

Regards

[I-Hawk]

There are 3D model trees in BMS already but they aren’t so nice. There are some higher poly trees models hanging around, but I don’t recommend using them because of poly count. Unfortunately most people creating 3D models in this community don’t give a darn about the 3D models specs as they were specified by BMS 3D experts, so usually poly count is too high (and usually for no good reason…) and no appropriate lower LODs exist.

[P3r3gr1n3]

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
I had wondered about negative effect of poly count.
Personally I don’t think trees need to be complex; when low enough to potentially see details you wouldn’t really notice them (speed, other distractions); just their presence gives a enhanced perception of speed and altitude.

I am no programmer, but do have some experience in 3D modelling in Maya, and I am very computer literate.
I would be willing to put in the time to add some simple trees, to BMS 3D spec, but I would need some help to get started as I have not done this type of thing before.

Is anyone willing or able to point to some specific resources.

[molnibalage]

JanHas made 3D trees but in cause you turn of focuse shadows at close your FPS will be close to single digit in some cases even only some airbase and other objectives have trees. You need LOD Editor 6.23 to intagrate your database manually.

http://www.launchvipers.com/bms.html

[crazyTom]

I think Molny and I-Hawk misunderstood P3r3gr1n3. I assume he means forest, not single trees like on bases and around objects.

Those indeed miss their appearance in Falcon ever since.

[P3r3gr1n3]

Thanks for all your reply’s.
I will check Jan Has’s mod out.
crazyTom, yes I mean forests made up of single trees, not just around bases etc.

Anyone willing to give some points re-implementing such forests.

Ta so far

[molnibalage]

crazyTom, yes I mean forests made up of single trees, not just around bases etc.

Currently there is no such thing.

Anyone willing to give some points re-implementing such forests.

There is no re-implementiation because never was such a thing. I saw one test screenshot from FF4 era but with terrible FPS. As I know in future release of BMS4 will be shader generated trees and forests, at least I have seen in one doc which was (?) leaked. In fact as I can remember the code is in it current release it just has not been activated.

[P3r3gr1n3]

molnibalage,

Sorry I meant regarding implementing not re-implementing.
I don’t currently understand the mechanics/architecture of BMS so I don’t know how easy it would be to add models to relevant parts of the map/textures, but I would be up for giving it a go.

When you say future release……how far in the future do you mean??

Thanks

[lazystone]

@P3r3gr1n3:

When you say future release……how far in the future do you mean??

While you are new to the forum, let me tell you that the answer to that question is always 3-4 weeks.

There exist even a smiley for it.

Cheers,
LS

[molnibalage]

@lazystone:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f82/lazystone/Smileys/smilie_muaha_zps8861ac88.gif

While you are new to the forum, let me tell you that the answer to that question is always 3-4 weeks.

There exist even a smiley for it. http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f82/lazystone/Smileys/BMS-Dev.gif

Cheers, http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f82/lazystone/Smileys/hat_3.gif
LS

Yeah, but Falcon weeks.

[Lukas]

@P3r3gr1n3:

molnibalage,

Sorry I meant regarding implementing not re-implementing.
I don’t currently understand the mechanics/architecture of BMS so I don’t know how easy it would be to add models to relevant parts of the map/textures, but I would be up for giving it a go.

When you say future release……how far in the future do you mean??

Thanks

I had such a forrests in F4 AF (~the same engine according objects etc.)


but some trees use opacity maps (FPS -)…these are default F4AF models, they are not very expensive, but opacity maps are not FPS wise in huge numbers tho

I prepare something for BMS now, but without opacity maps:

u can make such a model even inside LOD Editor (without payware soft and exporter) and directly put into BMS database.
There is also falcon editor shipped with BMS - use it for tree placement….

noone of these is complex, but u are touching different parts of Falcon:

1. model creation (2-3 triangles + texture)
2. objective managment - u must choose obj. for modification, or create new one, place your new tree (feature) into it
3. theater creation, modification - u must place/scatter your new objective over the landscape

[P3r3gr1n3]

Lazystone, 3-4 week smiley like it nice!!

u can make such a model even inside LOD Editor (without payware soft and exporter) and directly put into BMS database.
There is also falcon editor shipped with BMS - use it for tree placement….

noone of these is complex, but u are touching different parts of Falcon:

1. model creation (2-3 triangles + texture)
2. objective managment - u must choose obj. for modification, or create new one, place your new tree (feature) into it
3. theater creation, modification - u must place/scatter your new objective over the landscape

Lukas, thanks for your post, much help, much appreciated.

I prepare something for BMS now, but without opacity maps

If you could do something similar to what you had in AF that would be awesome!

I don’t think opacity maps are needed, but would depend on FPS hit.

Thanks

[Trueno]

I miss the F4AF´s trees!!! I was triying to made a new one (tree), pine style but I have problems with the ptype material.

[crazyTom]

JanHas’ trees look pine stylish to me.

Also a fan of trees, single ones and forest. Maybe the IL-2 method is not so bad after all, you have-aside object trees, two sorts of trees:
The random trees, which can be manually put on maps as well, and, maybe interisting here, the forest, which basicall consists of 5 layer cake sheme mesh to tga objects.

The model there is very basic (and not too beautiful), but it sure saves FPS and gives a nice forest immersion.
For the DCS one I used to think “nice but not thick enough”.

Anyway, dunno the 1st thing about forest in BMS.

[Thaeris]

I still like my FINS concept, which I think you could just “paint” onto terrain if the code was brought into place. Here was the concept:

It would also be possible to deviate from that formula a little, and vary the height of the fin clusters above the ground surface, randomly, by just a bit. With tessellation-by-range, you can actually have LODs for a fins forest via code, not by artistic labor. You’d thus have to use tiling for textures, which are used for a lot of terrain in the sim anyway. I think with this approach, you could get the same effect Il-2 gets, with even more realistic looks. You’d avoid the problem of invisible trees at low level, because you’d never be able to see into the side of the forest. By painting big triangulated polygons onto the ground, you could have random clearings in the forests and break up the terrain that way. Then, just as in Il-2, you could put sparse forest/ individual trees at forest edges to give a natural look. It’s just a question of the artists and programmers working together to achieve a realistic result with minimum system impact.

[Stratos]

More trees on the ground will add a lot to the sim. I mean, seeing 3d forests and more populated villages and towns will make thise low level flights a lot more challenging and interesting. Looking forward to see what you can do Lukas.

[Lukas]

@crazyTom:

Also a fan of trees, single ones and forest. Maybe the IL-2 method is not so bad after all, you have-aside object trees, two sorts of trees:
The random trees, which can be manually put on maps as well, and, maybe interisting here, the forest, which basicall consists of 5 layer cake sheme mesh to tga objects.

Forrests are cool, but u mentioned aproach with opacity textures……

I just found these old screenshots on my HDD. Since that time I moved this topic a bit already, but it shows the basic of my “forrest” aproach.
I was thinking about polygonal forests - irregular pentagrams and even some more irregular additional shapes - but always with roughly “boxed” envelope- because of collision box, my intention was to add few individual trees as well…for better appearance and to fill collision box envelope too

I wanted to have
Lod 1 - deformed irregular surface
Lod 2 - flat surface, no subtessalation
Lod 3 - flat surface, a bit transparent (but not on texture level, but object level!)
Lod 4 - object off, but u can see mapped texture with similar shape and colour

I did also variant for less and more aggresive slope…to be able to place over various hills
BTW I also want some alley features (single object), to save procesing and placement time (but these are only for more flatt terrains, or for placing around contour lines)
This can be aplied also for naturalistic texture variants…

[Arty]

well this looks ugly. maybe if u put just the top of the trees on top of the flat areas it would look better.
I’m sure it will look lovely when u r at the same level as the trees like taxiing or takeoff but when above… hmmm it will look bad.

[Lukas]

@Arty:

well this looks ugly. maybe if u put just the top of the trees on top of the flat areas it would look better.
I’m sure it will look lovely when u r at the same level as the trees like taxiing or takeoff but when above… hmmm it will look bad.

it depends on many factors, patch shape is better tuned now, smoothing is bad on sample image, colours are perhaps too bright compared to individual trees ( i am even thinking of dafragmentating texture)…posted sample model makes self shadow-casting …I doubt other models than player F-16 does that in simulation…?

U should imagine it rather with similar textures:

from above u would see the same or similar color as underlayered forrest texture, from 20k these objects will be off…

On the other hand, irregular pentagone(not pentagram as i wrote) model can be substituted with tree-cluster if desired…

[Stratos]

Actually I like the idea, will be cool to see how it look in game.