Plant Factory

Past as Future

Does PlantCatalog provides PlantFactory-edible files with all those nodes? At first I thought that PlantCatalog is just a collection of already exported plants (in .obj or .fbx or whatever). 

If PlantCatalog actually gives "sources" so you can open them in PlantFactory and investigate the node structure - then it's nice to have. I was hesitating to download it as it takes space (and I'm always in race against free space on my PC).

 

ed3D

.. seems like   PlantFactory  will  Edit  PlantCatalog  plants   + And   dont think  PlantCatalog  are  "export plants "  -  so , Factory will work those  as Nodes -

+  from the things -  have seen about it   & Thanx -

Hansmar

Yes, PlantCatalog plants are full PlantFactory plants with all the nodes and variation. Won't be easy to study how they are structured though, because they tend to be very complicated with tens of preset variants (height, age, season) and also variations for trees in forests or single trees, etc., etc. All of that is made with an enormous amount of nodes, which are difficult to untangle. Better to start with following multiple tutorials, so you begin to understand the principles of many of the nodes.

But, because the PlantCatalog plants have so many options, you can easily create a multitude of versions from one 'species'. Be aware, plants with lots of branches and leaves and picture textures can be too heavy for Bryce. I have 16 GB RAM, but still some plant variants from the catalog cannot be previewed, because it takes up too much working memory to create the preview!

Horo

As a 32-bit program, Bryce can only manage 2 GB of memory, with LAA (Large Address Aware) about 3.2 - 3.4 GB.

Past as Future

I'm sure that if you don't use image based textures and go with procedurals instead, Bryce has enough RAM for 3d models themselves (unles you're using 1 million polygons or more per model, which I doubt).

Hansmar, thanks for explanation. Looks like PlantCatalog is helpful addon.

Past as Future

Oh, I forgot another question.

Is latest version of PlantCatalog enough, or previous ones might have different plants?

ed3D

Past as Future said:

Oh, I forgot another question.

Is latest version of PlantCatalog enough, or previous ones might have different plants?

to have all the Plants  _   All the  PlantCatalogs  _   they're  all   different   +  Thanx

Hansmar

If you make a tree with lots of leaves and high resolution and want some other items in your Bryce scene, you will find that Bryce cannot cope, if if the textures are procedural (which makes it difficult to have proper leave texturee). It helps to lower the resolution of the tree (plant), but not too much, to prevent blocky forms. Of course, procedural textures are best (memory wise), but that requires that your leaves are properly formed leaves. That can be done, using the 'blades' options on the Advanced segment. If you change the profile of the blades, it results in a changed geometry. However, changing profile on blades of course adds polygons and if you would make a very complicated serrated leave profile, the polygon count rises substantially. With image based textures, you can use alpha channel to cut out the leave form, as complicated as you want, but that comes with a price tag on the size of the textures. Of course, you can always lower the resolution of the textures quite a bit if the leaves are not really up close.

It is always a balancing act to get as many things as you want in Bryce!

Past as Future

Thank you for information, ed3D.

Also thanks for sharing your experience, Hansmar.

ed3D

Past as Future said:

Thank you for information, ed3D.

Also thanks for sharing your experience, Hansmar.

~   you're more than welcome   +