Tree Object

[Zephyr1551]

Can anyone make a Tree for me? either a Tag or a 3DS Max 6 Model?

[Sever]

Yes, somebody has the capability to complete your requested action. Finding that someone who is willing to do it, however, is a different story.

[Con]

It's kinda sad the game didn't come with any tree scenery :\

[Warningshot3]

how funny im about to start work on some trees for my level. if they turn out good ill release them in max format.

[Con]

that worked out..conveniently..

[Zephyr1551]

Thanks

[Warningshot3]

well i looked at some trees in h2, the triangle count is from about 300 to 3000 but as we all know that the xbox sucks compaired to todays computers. anyway what is a good triangle count for h2 vista?

also the bitmaps for h2 trees, well for one tree, 256x512 for the bark and 256x256 for the leaves.
so again should i rez it up some?

[CrAsHOvErRide]

Yes, I want HD leaves and 3K poly trees. Please kill my FPS even more.

[Tweek]

3k is alot for a tree''you can rez up your textures if you don't mind the extra space theyll take, and if you repaint them

just doing nothing but doubling the size makes you a moron.

[johnnyblaz20]

Are making every leaf? Thats alot of polys for a tree. If you are making separate leafs or something i'd look into alpha maps.

Well if the tree looks bad-ass it'll be worth it.

[Warningshot3]

ya im going to repaint the leaves but for now im just using the ones that kornman gave us in the sp and mp bitmap tags. probably will just leave the bitmap the same size cuz the 256 looks good enough.

odd thing about the trees i extracted from h2 is that the leaves dont have the % double sided on them, what they did is copied all the triangles and fliped them wtf!!!.
at least that explanes why the tri count is so high.

so anyway ill probably have my trees around 1k - 2k area and use % on my shader. so dont bitch to me if they kinda suck.

[Zephyr1551]

No worries, you'll probably do a good job

[Warningshot3]

here are some pics. still got some work to do, like optimize the mesh, uvw the trunk and collision for the trunk, oh and fix up the leaves. So basically redoing everything i done.

ok got a prob with the pics hang on,
ok pics should work now

http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/8081/halo2vistatree2bc0.jpg

so i went a little nuts. 2,600 triangles per tree and and i think i instanced the tree 14 times, idk, it ended up near 35,000 triangles being rended and still runs smooth, well smooth on my x800 gpu and p4 2.6 cpu and 3gb ram:).
might try it on my laptop 2core 1.6ghz 7300go 1gb ram win xp.:(

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9645/halo2vistatree3rn4.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9559/halo2vistatree4eb5.jpg

FYI that grass is a placeholder.

[Zephyr1551]

Wow! You did an amazing job! Can't wait until they're done!

[SnaFuBAR]

2,600 triangles per tree
i don't see where all those triangles are.

[Vicky]

Trees are tricky, if you use ~300 they would look like paper folded toy-trees or something...

[cheezdue]

wow those trees look really awsome....hope someone makes a tutorial an how to make the trees

[Warningshot3]

yeah most of the triangles was in the branches but I fixed it. Now that tree is about 1,720 triangles (620 for the branches and 1,100 for the leaves) and the leaves cover more of the sky.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/2301/h2vtree6qt5.jpg

i forgot to mention some other stuff in that previous post.
1. it was mostly a test to see how many instances I can do without killing my FPS.
2. how much it sucks using just 1 kind of tree throughout a level.
I think there was a 3rd one but I cant remember.

Right now I am trying to design 6 different trees and have them look cool without killing the FPS.
After I get them done I am going to create a little tree set that people can use to create a tree, kind of like Lego, you know the plastic toy most kids played with. With it you can create lots trees with out having to do all of the hard work Im about to do. Would be cool if we could make custom scenery because then you could construct the tree in sapien but at least we get the power of instances in h2v.

Basically you take the trunk (any 1 of 6? Designs ill make) and instance it to where you want.
Then you select a branch (any 1 of 12? Types) instance it and move it over to the tree and just align it up with a specific point on the tree, the reason why I said “a specific point” is because I want the trees to look real and not crap, there will be any number of points on each trunk design and you don’t have to use them all. Yeah so you can then rotate and or scale the branch but you can’t mess with the edit mesh or poly. When done you go select a smaller branch that has the leaves on it then instance it and move it over to the branch and just insert the base of the small branch any where along the branch it doesn’t matter, scale and or rotate it if you want, you can then instance more small branches all over the branch to cover the sky.
Its kinda hard to explain but when you see it you will understand.

[Zephyr1551]

Awesome, customizable trees are awesome, still can't wait, I need trees to finish my map.

[Warningshot3]

dont worry im almost done. just need to uvw it and fix the shaders. there will be 5 different looking trees for you to play with, number 6 got killed cuz its taking to long.

[cheezdue]

wow thats awsome. Be sure to make a "read me" for it :D

[Warningshot3]

i just did a super lightmap job on my tree test lv and it took 6 bloody hours, thank god i have 2 computer. at the time of taking the pics there were 4 different trees.
still working on uvw.
with a good ground shader, rocks, water and the use of the decorator tool in sapien and it should look cool.

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/105/h2vtree03lk4.jpg

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5749/h2vtree02bs1.jpg

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5141/h2vtree01rr3.jpg

[johnnyblaz20]

Impressed. From the ground they look awsome. From the top they look like you could fold them up and put them in your pocket but thats how it works. Much better than any tree i put togather to date but now i'm gonna try to build one that compairs.

good job, much much better than i was expecting.

[Warningshot3]

thanks. i think the shader isnt set up properly and its kinda making the top of the leaves suck. ill try to make the leaves darker looking and see what happens.

[Btd69]

I like them, you've obviously put some effort into it!

[SnaFuBAR]

aside from the stretched uv's, good. well done. should be interesting to see your build-a-tree idea in effect if you manage to pull it off.

[Syuusuke]

How many trees will it take to bring down H2V?

[Warningshot3]

thanks guys. well any more than 35k triangle and the leaves put to much of a strain on the gpu because of the transparency. Well that’s from what I learned from experimenting.

with that Lego tree set aka build-a-tree ill put a lot more effort into optimizing the mesh so people could build a forest level and not kill the FPS. I might have to build low and high res versions of every part so everyone is happy.

EDIT: i just finished the UVWs and about to move on to shaders.

3dsmax render.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6766/uvwisokidkplztellmeud6.jpg

EDIT2: and thats not the bitmap that im going to use, its just one i used cuz it is easy to see UVW errors with.

[CrAsHOvErRide]

i don't see where all those triangles are.
You can't see them...that's the whole point :v

[Tweek]

odd thing about the trees i extracted from h2 is that the leaves dont have the % double sided on them, what they did is copied all the triangles and fliped them wtf!!!.

rofl, that's what double-sided DOES!

it's rendered from both sides.
any double-sided polygon counts as 2, because it's rendered from both sides.

yeah, when you extract it it'll be like that, because the engine draws them like that. the % thing is just a shortcut so you don't have to copy it all yourself.

[Warningshot3]

interesting...

[cheezdue]

wow you are making good progress and the trees look spectacular!

[Warningshot3]

shaders are so fucking cool. i got the leaves to move around a little.

[SnaFuBAR]

You can't see them...that's the whole point :v
no, the point is that the level of detail doesn't warrant that many triangles. plz no wut ur talkin bout b4 u typ ur messig :v

[Warningshot3]

i think i forgot the put % on the trees when i took the pic so it was only showing like 1/3 to 1/2 of the leaves. i forget to do that so much i think i got brain cancer.

but yeah that was still to many triangles. someone should slap me in the face for even thinking it was ok.


almost done. just need to check the latest fixes and im done, i really want to get these trees out the door so i can start on the Lego tree set asap.

very close now. need to start thinking about where to host it. any ideas?

[Zephyr1551]

you could try www.mediafire.com (http://www.mediafire.com) and post the URL to the file in here.

[Warningshot3]

Ok here it is guys. Enjoy. :D


http://www.mediafire.com/?yndlddz2hk9

Plz forgive my read me file, been sleeping badly the past week.

Ill put this up in the release section later once I know everything goes ok, I don’t want lots of people bitching at me.



http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7079/final01amx3.jpg


http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7700/final02kd5.jpg

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9131/final03qj0.jpg

[cheezdue]

two words.....


FREAKING AMAZING!!!:neckbeard:+rep!!!

[Zephyr1551]

Three Words, Giggity Giggity Awesome!!!

[Warningshot3]

thanks guys, its a nice feeling to help others and its just the beginning. I got a lot of other stuff to make and since h2v lacks lots of needed stuff ill be releasing most of it.
Stuff like rocks, plants, more trees and anything to populate a map to make it cooler looking.



oh and please give feedback, i need to know if anything didnt work for you.

[UXB]

i think i forgot the put % on the trees when i
very close now. need to start thinking about where to host it. any ideas?Duh.... http://h2v.halomaps.org (http://h2v.halomaps.org)

BTW: very very nice.

[Warningshot3]

Duh.... http://h2v.halomaps.org (http://h2v.halomaps.org)

BTW: very very nice.


yeah i thought about it but after reading the Submission Guidelines im not sure. ill give it a try later but hey if they dont host it its their loss.

[cheezdue]

Do you guys think its possible to also model custom wepons, gernades, veichles, etc.? I tried making rocks but they looked funny:shocked:

[Warningshot3]

well the people who made the map editor for h2v took out that ability. we can only hope someone unlocks the tools or someone makes an app to allow us to make custom models and animations.

EDIT: you can still have rocks but you need to have them in your level geometry aka BSP. yeah i know it sucks.

[cheezdue]

well i thats kinda gay. But i got this application at halomaps that Kornman made. Im trying to see I can made a weapon model or something else. Here is the link...

http://h2v.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=3&fid=2230

[Warningshot3]

yeah already got it. making new models isnt one of the features it can do. new models are created by h2tool from .jms files. h2v didnt come with a max exporter for that format. and models are stored in the .render_model and not .model

if you want to customise a weapon you will need to copy the weapons .weapon tag and then edit the copied tag, you will also need to make a new item_collection and put the copied .weapon tag in there before you can use the weapon, look under tags\multiplayer\single_weapons\

and only kornman00's guerilla can open weapon tags and item_collection tags.

[cheezdue]

wow, you sure know alot about this stuff. But yeah, hopefully someone can make a program for this stuff. I think Kornman is up to something with that new thread he made a couple of days ago. You know...the one about which editor program you use.:awesome:


[later that day]

some thing came up when i was compiling....i think i did something wrong.....here is what it said

--- rambo.ass
processing environment geometry...
mesh definition vertex normal invalid: (-1.000000, -1.000000, -1.000000)
couldn't parse definition #0
couldn't parse file 'c:\program files\microsoft games\halo 2 map editor\data\scenarios\multi\rambo\structure\rambo. ass'
### ERROR structure import pipeline failed for scenarios\multi\rambo\rambo

i have no idea what that means....there was some more but it closed to fast

[johnnyblaz20]

That error came up when doing what? If its nothing to do with these tree models i'd start a new thread. It looks to me that your trying to make a custom weapon or something. If it is to do with these tree models and you can't get them in your map correctly go watch a tutorial. I'm sure you need to place the trees as instanced geometery. Meaning you need to put a % before the object name. And for the leafs i'm sure you need to put a % after the shader path making them 2 sided. Not sure your problem though.

By the way. Great outcome. These trees look like a tree should. +rep

[Warningshot3]

if the level has my trees in it delete them and try compling the level without them, and if good try to find what tree it is.


edit: yeah there is a normal error aka smoothing error. just redo the smoothing groups.

[johnnyblaz20]

I wish in halo 2 you could make actual scenery objects placable in sapien.
Well all we need is to be able to make Collidable Geometery tags. And object model tags. Actually we can make model tags if the model is created in CE and converted using the .jms upgrader but thats a hassle. Hopefully soon.

[cheezdue]

Well i guess the error report was for the tree models, but i'll start a new thread if needed.But yeah...wish i could make weapon models or maybe even new types of gernades.Also which tutorials you recomend?

[johnnyblaz20]

You'd just need to figure out how to create a custom weapon in CE and use the gbx upgrader to make the model usable in h2v. Search for a tut in CE.

[cheezdue]

ok thanks. Ill try to see if theres a way to make different weapons.

[Warningshot3]

if your using the ghosts ass exporter in max 9 expect to see errors. the only way to get pass them is to spend time finding them or take it all over to max 8 or something and continue from there.

i did test the trees with the ghosts exporter and only got errors when the object wasnt a edit mesh, just make sure all objects are edit mesh.

and with the trees you can make all the triangles have a smooth group of 1 except the bottom of the tree, the faces that cap the bottom, make them 2.

hey cheezdue, in the thread which level editor do you use? you said max 9 so yeah you would be using the ghosts ass exporter.
dont know if you read my other posts in that thread, i explaned why the faces go black when you fliped them and how to fix it.
anyway ill just copy and past it here

that black thing is backface cull, goto preferences, viewports and tick backface cull on object creation and for objects you already got in the scene just select them, right click and go properties and tick backface cull.

[cheezdue]

Hm...i did put the trees on editable mesh. But i'll start over agian to see what I did wrong. By the way, on the read pics that you realesed, you showed a picture of making the leaves transparent, how did you do that?

[johnnyblaz20]

Read the H2EK readme under materials overview.

[Warningshot3]

ill need to rewrite the readme file later.

anyway redo merge but before that copy all the files in the folder "max files" to the same folder that contains your levels 3dsmax file.
so when you do merge and then the pick material from object all the bitmaps should be loaded.
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/2722/grgerkx6.jpg

[cheezdue]

ok thanks I got it :D

[Vicky]

Very nice job on the trees, what the pics don't show... the leaves move :) very nice.

[cheezdue]

I got a question, how do you make the leafs show on both side of the triangles? on one side my leaves are green and the other side has the leaves all black. Does somebody know how to fix this?

[Warningshot3]

Yeah i couldn’t get the leaves to display 2 sided in max properly with the use of a opacity bitmap. thats why i turned off backface cull to give the illusion of 2 sided.

[xBigDaddyx117]

I like my classic Sidewinder tree,
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/4104/tree01to8.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/8378/tree02aj4.jpg

[Warningshot3]

ok so i just uploaded the trees to halomaps.org, dont know how long it will take for it to get processed.

[KIWIDOGGIE]

^^ I like trees *gets rid of weapons so hands look like hugging and walks upto a tree* These look amazing.