Forester Pro is a tree creator for Dark Basic which can generate a huge range of trees including deciduous, palm and conifer species as well as small plants like ferns and brambles. Models created with Forester Pro import easily and include LODs.
Forester Pro models are created randomly from tree templates which define the structure of plant and its textures. Models can be generated randomly with a click of one button, however, you can also customize templates easily to generate a wide range of models to suit your needs. We thought we'd show how easy it is to customize models.
The model shown above is from the Snowy Norway Spruce template and is a typical mature conifer with a thick conical crown. We can generate numerous randomized versions of this tree in Forester Pro simply by pressing the space button, however, we can generate even more variety with small changes to the template.
The model above is generated from the same template but shows an older more majestic tree. We've simply increased the base width of the trunk and height in the branch properties menu, added 25 instead of 20 child branches, and dropped the length of child branches from 40% of the trunk length to 30%. This is a fine model for relatively spaced trees, however, in thick conifer forests trees tend to have high crowns with few branches lower down. We can do this as shown below.
In this model we've simply increased the spawn distance of child branches from 0.2 to 0.6 the trunk height and changed the length power of branches (which controls how their length changes along the trunk) to 2.0 from 0.5. This is a good model for thick forest, however, we might like to have foliage all along the trunk but stunted at lower levels.
In the next model we've put the spawn distance back to 0.2 but put the length power to 2.5. The lower branches are now stunted compared to the upper ones. This produces a nice looking tree, however, we might want to thin out the branches and foliage lower on the trunk. We can do this in Forester Pro using its realtime editing functions.
The model above shows the same model as before, however, we've selected and deleted many of the leaf meshes on the lower part of the tree, we've also increased the length of the lower branches using length scale (select the branch and then use CTRL+mouse wheel). In thick forests, however, lower branches are sometimes broken stubs. We can do this by cutting branches in Forester Pro. We select the branch, enter edit vertex mode, then double click a vertex to select an entire slice of vertexes around the branch and then choose cut branch in the content menu to produce the model below.
Anyway we hope you can see that by customizing templates and using the editing function you can create a massive range of tree models from a single template. It took less than 20 minutes to generate all these models, meaning you can save yourself hundreds of hours and still produce unique assests, and there are now over 100 tree templates to use as a starting point available for Forester Pro. A scene created using these models is shown below....all it needs is a few White Walkers and we'd be north of the Wall.
Forester Pro can be downloaded from our website. A free version is available. The registered version is only $20.
http://www.hptware.co.uk/forester.php
GrumpyOne - the natural state of the programmer
