Hi everyone, I have been working quite a bit currently on create a flexible tree generation process within geometry nodes. I am currently in the process of finishing up the generators and in the process of setting up the materials and textures.
My goal is to create tree generation that is flexible, that can achieve photorealistic outcomes or in the future stylized outcome. My first goal is to create a birch tree. Then after I have finished creating the first style of tree I am going to look at implementing a solution to encode pivots for game engines like unreal engine’s Pivot painter using geometry nodes. The end goal would be a photoreal tree that would animate seamlessly in Unreal Engine using geometry nodes.
Would love to hear feedback how this tree is looking and to hear what areas I could explore to improve or enhance this idea with geometry nodes.
Looks pretty good, not quite as convincing as Sapling Gen yet but still nicely done I think one of your strongest points is the small bumps in the smaller branches, it adds a lot of realism. If you open up Sapling Gen and use the Birch preset, you’ll see some differences that may be instructive. The Sapling Gen birch has quite a bit more branching and more than just one main trunk:
Looking good. I would encourage you to read up on the biology of plants / trees and see if you can implement the process of growth. I did some work in the past on tree simulation and got really nice results when I started including things like natural branch dropping, dormant nodes that start growing later in life, geotropism, heliotropism etc. You’ll also find that the general structure (nodes and segments) will lend itself to pretty much any plant, so you could effectively have a parametric approach to generating any botanical asset Of course, you may already be doing this, so good on you!
Hi Everyone, thanks for the feedback much appreciated. I love the response and ideas. I figured I would share some progress I made last night which might give a little extra insights in the the progress made.
I have integrated some branch cards and leaves to give some extra levels of density. These branch cards are not perfect yet but start to add some more of that natural detail and falloff you see in real trees.
As well I am currently using Megascan’s assets to texture and detail the tree. One other area I think will be quite nice is using some scanned assets to add some surface breakup(Knots, broken branches etc)
Sorry I reposted this I didn’t meant to direct this to one person. Im a little new to using blender artists post system.
Hi Josephhansen, Thanks mate. totally agree I think my new stuff I have share is starting to address those comments of feedback. In terms of the trunk bifurcation (trunk splitting) I totally agree, that is something I am currently working on will share how that goes soon.
Absolutely totally the direction I am going. At the moment the design goal is to use physically based rule sets that are parametrically designed. Then that way you can push the parameters into the realms of fantasy and non physically based tree generations. At the moment I am currently working on improving my growth forces like gravity. I am hoping to use geometry nodes ray cast nodes to allow me to simulate heliotropism when there are occluder’s near the tree. For example a brick wall or house, or taller trees.
I think one of your strongest points is the small bumps in the smaller branches, it adds a lot of realism. If you open up Sapling Gen and use the Birch preset, you’ll see some differences that may be instructive. The Sapling Gen birch has quite a bit more branching and more than just one main trunk:
