Natural Diversity

[Necora]

Hi guys,




 




So <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/3183-ketchup/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="3183" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/3183-ketchup/">@Ketchup</a> I am by no way any good at modelling and am still figuring it out but I might be able to help you with the swaying of the leaves. I managed to do it with my trees and was very excited to see them sway in game. It is down to your UV maps. If you look at the model of the fig tree example, it has 3 UV channels. 'UVChannel_01' is your texture mapping, 'UVChannel_02' is your AO, and 'UVChannel_03' is the swaying. 




I'll show you the spruce tree. So we have three UV channels for our tree.




<a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" data-fileid="1561" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce01.jpg.dcfbbbdc02772d666aba08aafb7a3ccc.jpg">[img]<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce01.thumb.jpg.718adb135d0e73d978b326effbbf7eba.jpg[/img]</a>




 




The first UV channel is for the texturing. In this tree, I've used two materials, one for bark and one for branches. I've scaled the tree trunk rather large to make the bark look detailed... in vanilla trees it is very stretched.




<a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" data-fileid="1562" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce02.jpg.85e81ad4a88e929e76801445f79711df.jpg">[img]<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce02.thumb.jpg.5631d8369663445aeba41b561be3b3ca.jpg[/img]</a>




 




The second is for the AO. I've used the 'Smart Project' unwrap to get this, then baked the OA.




<a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" data-fileid="1563" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce03.jpg.c01bac157388eee14d39a64254088ebc.jpg">[img]<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce03.thumb.jpg.356590893d877dfaae82ba3828155a91.jpg[/img]</a>




 




The third UV channel is for the swaying. There are two things to note. In this, I have used 'Reset' unwrap to make all of the branches a square, piled on top of each other, filling the whole UV map. My branches in this example are only 1 face each, I've not yet tried doing more but that is what I want to do next.




<a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" data-fileid="1564" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce04.jpg.e789bd19588e4f5e39eb0bd2df98777c.jpg">[img]<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce04.thumb.jpg.e5c336529f922b8b94af7054d66b2f71.jpg[/img]</a>




 




If we zoom in on this one, that dot is my tree trunk. This makes it not sway in the wind! I added this channel last, so the only way I could do this was to scale the UV coordinates down until they were all on one spot.




<a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" data-fileid="1565" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce05.jpg.99b2c46384b4bbe6c27bffa1b571c077.jpg">[img]<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Spruce05.thumb.jpg.7805f3306d9393f94ab27961421e1769.jpg[/img]</a>




 




 




And that is pretty much it.




 




As for the leaves dropping, I think this is the 'BillboardMaterial' that is referred to in the 'Models/MaterialInstance/FigTree.rsc' of the example file...

Code:

MaterialInstance resource
{
    Material _material = "Material\Billboard\BillboardMaterial.rsc";
    Texture _textures
    [
        {
            String _name = "diffuse";
            ImageBuffer _texture = "Models\MaterialInstance\FigTreeTexture.rsc";
        }
    ]
}

I used this for my maple and aspen and the leaves appear in spring, sway, always face camera, and disappear in winter. Again, I think this reads the 3rd UV channel, so you have to have the tree trunk at 0'0'0 otherwise it will also sway and disappear... maybe. I might go to 2 materials for the maple and apsen to make the leaves look better because I don't like how they look in game at the moment.




Oh and the billboard material also makes them change colour in the autumn... it made mine change and I never did anything for it so it must be this.




There is a camera, target, and armature in the scene of the fig tree example, I have no idea if this does anything, but I decided to keep all of those things in my files just in case.




As for the Spruce, that uses the 'Models/Trees/MaterialInstance/PineTree01.rsc'  from the Resource file in the mod kit.

Code:

MaterialInstance resource
{
    Material _material = "Material\Foliage\FoliageMaterial.rsc";
    Texture _textures
    [
        {
            String _name = "diffuse";
            ImageBuffer _texture = "Models\Trees\MaterialInstance\PineTree01Texture.rsc";
        }
        {
            String _name = "snow";
            ImageBuffer _texture = "Terrain\TerrainSnowTexture.rsc";
        }        
    ]
    Constant _constants
    [
    ]
}

I think the 'FoliageMaterial' makes them sway but not disappear and grow during the seasons.




 




<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/11115-bartender/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="11115" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/11115-bartender/">@Bartender</a> I agree with <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/10211-jesta/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="10211" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/10211-jesta/">@jesta</a>, I don't think you need spheres. Try using a dome instead? You could probably cut out some faces and not loose any visual detail.




 

[Bartender]

<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/10211-jesta/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="10211" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/10211-jesta/">@jesta</a> Thanks for the advice, though I am already using transparency for the textures ;). Modelling those fern leaves would have been a hell of a work otherwise.




<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/5518-necora/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="5518" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/5518-necora/">@Necora</a> That seems cool! Though maybe we should continue that discussion in the thread that Ketchup made about it? I think a lot of people might want to know about this, but they wouldn't go and search for it here. I do have some questions and comments to add, but I'll keep those for the other thread ;).

[Necora]

<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/11115-bartender/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="11115" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/11115-bartender/">@Bartender</a> good point, I copied it to the other discussion

[Bartender]

Time for another sneak peek! Thanks to Necora's excellent explanation of how the BillboardMaterial works, and after some fiddling with the code by myself, I have managed to add a neat little feature. The flowers will now emerge from the ground in spring, and will wilt and wither again in autumn.








https://webmshare.com/play/OVDWn




 




Next to this, I have some more herbs to present. Their names are Camomile, Echinacea and Oregano.




[img]<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2017_03/Herbiversity2.png.dbbaad2a8dba8798bb6c5e308c2fd122.png[/img]

[Necora]

Awesome! This is going to make a great addon pack, I can't wait to see it. Are you going to be doing bushes and things like berries?

[jesta]

Okay I'll have to piggyback on your topic after that withering flower. I'm planning a mod with houses that have thatched roofs and want reeds to be a resource required to build them. But i don't like how reeds grow in colonial charter. There are a few plants here and there and they are always green but there should be a pretty much unbroken belt of reeds at least around the lakes and some more along the rivers aswell. And they should whither and disappear in winter. More like this:








Any chance?

[despo20]

15 hours ago, Bartender said:




Time for another sneak peek! Thanks to Necora's excellent explanation of how the BillboardMaterial works, and after some fiddling with the code by myself, I have managed to add a neat little feature. The flowers will now emerge from the ground in spring, and will wilt and wither again in autumn.








https://webmshare.com/play/OVDWn

Whoa!!! [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/ohmy.png[/img]/emoticons/ohmy@2x.png 2x" title=":o" width="20" />



This is absolutly amazing!

[Bartender]

Thank you all!




<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/5518-necora/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="5518" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/5518-necora/">@Necora</a> Yes, I have already worked a bit on a better model for the blueberry. I'm thinking of simply renaming the 'blueberries' resource to 'berries' and adding a lot of different meshes, rather than cluttering the storage with a lot of different types of berries.




<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/10211-jesta/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="10211" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/10211-jesta/">@jesta</a> I don't know exactly how they managed to get the reeds to be spawned close to the water (i have tried to do something similar but with no succes), nor have I looked much into spawnrates myself. The withering is possible though, either with the BillboardMaterial or with the material that I created for my flowers, depending on what kind of mesh you want to go for.

[Necora]

<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/11115-bartender/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="11115" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/11115-bartender/">@Bartender</a> between you and <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/3183-ketchup/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="3183" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/3183-ketchup/">@Ketchup</a> wild banished will never look the same again.




 




I tried to get things to spawn by the water, by changing the float _minHeight and maxHeight to - something, but could not do it. However, I was using them with a forestry tower, and so I think it ignores it. I have yet to try changing the start conditions (or which ever one it is to change the wild resources) for which I might have more luck.




 




Personally, I like the idea of a new resource for different bushes, I like a mix of wild resources rather than 'berries'.




 




Any chance of making some chanterelles?

[stiles]

hmm i think i understand part of that idea. we have strawberry,rasberry,black and blue berry bushes all producing 1 type of berry. when harvested or gathererd what will we get?? blueberry?? there are times the game reads "berry" as blueberry. some of the taverns produce ciders or ales say they use berry but they only use blueberry.just wondering if this will confuse the game?