Alpha Trees - Render massive forests, fast

Update time!

I’ve added two new options for trees in particle systems: width and z-offset (as suggested by @Vesper! ). These two make it really easy to create ground foliage like bushes:

https://gfycat.com/foolishignorantchameleon

Individual imported trees have also had an update so that now they can share materials, track to a camera, and copy all of these settings between each other:

https://gfycat.com/elaboratephysicalambushbug

I’ve also been working a lot on just finishing up all the loose ends that were leftover from before the release, for example, I’ve updated the UI to be more consistent and a little easier to use. I’ve also improved the icons so that the tree icons now use the material previews, which means that they will update to show an accurate representation of the material:

material icon demo material icon without

It can result in some squashing of textures, but I think it’s worth it for making it easier to find specific trees, and you can always turn it off in the preferences (They have also been improved)

Apart from that, I’ve also just added a bunch of little improvements:

  • You can now define the addon category in the preferences (Good for cleaning up the n-panel)
  • Transparency bounces in cycles will automatically increase to a suitable amount when adding a new particle system (also definable from prefs)(Also thanks @Vesper for pointing it out)
  • When loading a biome from a file, it will no longer create a new biome slot if the current one is empty
  • Redid preferences UI for easier use
  • Improved copying for materials so that now you can modify the control node group without it giving you an error

+ a bunch of QOL and behind the scenes stuff :grinning:

(I can’t update the product page just yet, but it should be live by tomorrow morning)

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