Assets AltTrees System [WIP] [AssetStore]

Hello!

AltTrees - an alternative system of trees for Unity. Supports SpeedTree, Tree Creator and meshes.

Current version: 0.9.6.1 Beta.

Asset Store - 15$
The starting price - $ 10. With updates the price will grow up to $ 30.

Available:
- LOD system
- Billboards fast system
- CrossFade transitions LODs
- Import trees SpeedTree, Tree Creator and meshes
- Import/export of trees to/from Unity Terrain
- Planting trees on the Terrain and any other meshes
- Easy editing of trees
- Hue variations
- Rotation of the trees around the Y axis
- And much more...

It is planned:
- Infinite World
- Planting of several types of trees with one hand
- Change the quality of shader graphics during game
- Edit and save the trees during the game
- Storing data in a file (in the user's disk, a server, ...) to save the changes
- Changes of trees on the network
- Lightmapping
- Rotation of the trees around all axes

Roadmap
Documentation(Video Tutorials)

Videos:

Sorry for my English! If you notice an error - please tell me.

 

This looks very promising!

 

This looks like a dream come true! Need a beta tester? I have a scene with many thousands of trees that I could try it out on

 

Thanks!

May be in the future.

 

Is it the same LOD distance for both in the video? Cause the popping in your version is very visible but not that visible at all in the unity version.

 

That's a pretty impressive difference in performance there. One thing that would really help sell me on this product would be if it included a tool to convert existing trees painted with Unity's tree system into your system so that it could be easily applied to existing projects without having to repaint all the trees.

 

This is a beta version for testing performance. The final version will be more beautiful.

Yes, you can convert "Terrain => AltTrees" and "AltTrees => Terrain".

 

Nice work, it can really help improving some games quality

 

Thank you!



New video!

AltTrees [beta 0.9.2]. Demonstration: planting trees, editing ...

 

this is very interesting. what about shadows? i mean the results will be with same numbers or present of shadows will overkill all idea?

in last video i see shadows on trees but can you make a video like first one but with shadows?

 

will this work for mobile too ? i got most of speed trees mobile pack and could not use them because of performance.

 

The new video will be later. Now I made a few screenshots, please see:

Quality: Fantastic, 100k trees
window 933x1050 px:

fullscreen 1680x1050 px:

I make AAA system for PC and consoles. Maybe mobile will work better, but I do not guarantee it. Maybe in the future I will make a version for mobile, but I do not promise.

 

Hey

Your solution looks very impressive, and is definitely something we would be interested in.
I do have one question tho. Will it be possible to place the trees using script in the editor? In the project we work on, most of the time we have trees (dummies, regular models) done by architects inside CAD software. We just take this data (position, tree type, etc) and inject this into unity terrain. If your system would support similar thing, it would be perfect solution for us. Not only allowing easy editing of already placed trees, but also better performance.

 

Can't wait to get my hands on this.
I am looking into using SpeedTree but damn, the performance issues kill me when I set my camera outside of the first village up to the near forrest with only around 40-60 trees.

 

Such a possibility would be, but not in the beta version. IPA will be available in the release version.

Coming soon

 

Cheers, i will follow your progress. Best wishes

 

how is it going there?

 

All is well! Soon there will be a new video.

 

Hello.
New video!

AltTrees [beta 0.9.4]. Test: 100.000 Trees and 3.000.000 Objects(bushes, flowers, mushrooms, etc...)
[All trees and objects - SpeedTree]

 

hmm, 25 fps for just a standard terrain and mostly billboards is not really fast i would say.
the number of placed objects of course seems to be crazy – but i wonder who would do so / need this:
a 8x8 km terrain should probably be chunked and use streaming.
right now it looks as if most cpu resources a spent on culling 3mio objects of which only a few are visible.

 

Thanks for the comment!
This is not a release version, and I'm working on optimization.

 

Hello everyone!

I make a test demo-application. I would be grateful for testing

Link: https://goo.gl/h0UD7d (161 MB)

Options:
- A scene from the past video
- 100,000 trees
- 3,000,000 objects (bushes, flowers, mushrooms, etc.)
- All the trees and objects - SpeedTree

 

This is awesome!
Just tried it with my old pc because my "new one" would have no problems with this.
I don't know if the "Send Specs" worked so here are my results.





Normally this would be a total 1 FPS lag fest with this setup.

 

Pathelion, Thank you! I'm still working on optimizing for best results!

 

Can't wait to get my early copy as soon as it hits the asset store.
My test scene right now hovers around 30 FPS with only around 40-50 trees and the rest of my village (50-55 FPS with disabled tree draw).
This would really notch it up.

 

Tried the demo - very nice performance. I noticed that wind is disabled - is that a limitation of how this works, or is it just not implemented yet?

 

Hello, thank you! Is it just not implemented yet. It will be done in future updates.

 

hi there,
i just have given the demo a go and it runs decently on my laptop: nvidia gtx 970m.
but i have some questions or annotations:

• i can't see any wind affecting the trees. is wind not supported?
• billboards to not fit in lighting: they look dull and washed out (especially as the rest is super colorful...). aren't they lit in real time?
• billboards seem to have a little bright pixel border around them which produces a lot of noise.

 

Hello, thank you!

Is it just not implemented yet. It will be done in future updates.

Real time, but, now used the wrong algorithm for generating normal maps for billboards. In a future version, I will fix it.

The problem in the shader billboard.
This occurs only in deferred mode. I fix it in future updates

 

This is awesome!
When you release AltTree System ?
Do billboard tree have shadow ?
Thanks!!

 

Hi!
I plan to release a beta version this month.
Yes, billboards have shadows

 

Very interesting.

Does the system work with TerrainComposer 2 for object placement? I want my tree's to have own colliders so need non terrain trees. I also use tree's designed in ForestVision are these supported?

 

You can plant Unity Trees using TerrainComposer 2 and then convert to AltTrees. For planting trees without conversion, need to modify the TerrainComposer 2 files. In the future, I will try to make a wrapper, or it will discuss with the developer TerrainComposer.
I'm not sure about the ForestVision. But, in future updates I do support the ForestVision.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I look forward to giving it a try.

My game is set outdoors with jungles and savannas so foliage are a key component.

 

This looks very promising. Are you accepting beta testers? I would love to try this on the Wii U.

 

Hey! I soon will release a beta version in AssetStore.

 

Hey, let us know when You do that (do You have any ETA ?)

I have a question, because it's performing so well with speedtree models and it's dealing with 3 mlns of objects quite well I have a question if there will be a chance to migrate all objects which are already in the scene to Your system ?
I found out that many objects in the scene which are not even visible because of LOD's distance are taking much cpu performance because of culling calculations. There is a simple workaround to put some small props into separate layer and prepare script which will cull these objects much faster and on the camera so the LOD's calculations won't take place if the object is not within camera distance, but still it's hard to maintain such workflow during whole project, specially big one.

Can You tell me a little more how Your system works and as I mentioned above will be a chance to migrate all objects in the scene to Your system (I mean rocks, buildings, rocks and other prefabs and models).

 

Within a few days I am sent for review.

Available import trees from Unity Terrain.
To import objects from the scene will need to write a script. In future versions I will make API with which it can be done.

At the heart of AltTrees - quadtree algorithm.

 

Would it be possible to make it more user friendly for non coders and provide the script with the asset? Something like drag and drop all the assets in the scene somewhere in the inspector.

Your solution looks really impressive. Does it works on any kind of trees, terrain trees and custom mesh trees too. Also, does it needs the unity terrain to be in the scene, or it's working with mesh terrains or other artificial mesh based environments ?

 

Does it support tree destruction?

 

Ok, I will do this in future updates.

Supports SpeedTree, Tree Creator and simply meshes.

No, Unity Terrain is not needed.

Currently no. It is in the plans.

 

Beta version has been submitted for review.

 

10$ like in your start post?

 

Cool! Fingers crossed. Price?
Good luck with your asset!

 

Great news. Can I just confirm that the tree's can be used with mesh colliders?

I want them to be climbable as well as having items in them.

Good luck.

 

Correct, 10$.

Thanks! Price 10$ - This is a limited time 67% off sale.

Yes, mesh colliders available. But, if a lot of trees, I recommended use capsule colliders for performance.

 

Thank You, any chance that You could deliver such script that we could migrate our scenes to use Your solution ?
I got trees as an objects not as a terrain trees.

Are objects in Your demo scenes like mushrooms, grass, trunks, and such are on terrain too ?
Would be nice to see the feature to use it with objects in the scene not only for terrain objects.

 

I will do that in a future updates.

Asset not include demo scene and any other content. Only the system, only scripts.

 

Unity 5.5 just got released. What are the minimum requirements? Unity v5.4 or v5.5?
I'm just curious to see how big the impact is on your system with the newly Exposed Meshes and ComputeBuffers in Unity 5.5.
Did you read this?
Definitively looking forward to your asset to be released!

 

Minimum requirements - Unity 5.2.0.

Yes, I read it. I will do that in a future updates.