Tree Plugin Please

[Mossie]

Using the fur and wave plugins, it would appear, that a tree plugin wouldn't too far away from these.

Has anyone thought about doing a tree plugin ?

For specification, I'd like a low poly count, random size, count and location. To allow making small clusters or large forests. Not expecting any leaves, as I can use flat alpha cut polys to show this area.

Trees with and without leaves may be a step too far.

[Dennis]

I personally use this one:

http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

This is presented as a tool for POV-Ray, but you don't even need POV-Ray --- you can export trees directly to .OBJ format. And you can do it with/without leaves (plus quite a few other options).

Requires Java, and it is not the most intuitive interface/setup, but the price is right (free).

I actually thought of making a tree plugin until I found this one, as nothing in my price range produced thrilling results --- there are things I'd like to change about this one where the UI and leaf-placement are concerned, but so far not enough that I've been willing to mess with it.

hth,
Dennis

[Mossie]

Thanks for that, I'll give it a try and see what results I can come up with.

[Mossie]

It has in the readme file the following:

You need Java 1.4.x and Povray 3.5 be installed. You could use
an older Java version if you got the generic XML-processing package
JAXP separately.

2. a) Using the GUI invoke cd

What GUI is it talking about, I can't see any program or application to run. The screen shots seem to indicate an application. I have Java and Povray 3.6 installed.

LIke most of these projects, the documentation is less then satisfactory.

Please any clues ?

[Dennis]

Yeah, this is one of the "not so intuitive" things I mentioned :)

I actually have it setup at home to function properly, so will need to post back later. I'm 99% sure the POV-Ray install is optional (I don't think I had it installed when I started using the product), but you will need to download the Java runtime.

You can find the 1.4 JRE here: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/jre/install.html

And the 1.5 JRE here, which *should* work: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/jre/install.html - although I stuck with the 1.4 install, as I didn't even want to mess with anything that may not function properly where a Java app is concerned.

I'm not a big fan of Java, especially the demands it puts on end users to run yet another piece of software on their clients. I often forget what a pain it is deploying Java code like this package for both developers and end users.

Oh, and the second link above really is version 1.5.0, even though they title it "JRE 5.0".

If you're not averse to running the JRE, give one of the above JRE's a download --- if you're running Windows, I'll post a .bat/.cmd file you can use to call arbaro by placing it in the arbaro directory and double-clicking.

Dennis

[Dennis]

Mossie,

Assuming you're using Windows here - let me know if not.

To get the Arbaro GUI up and running, after you've installed the JRE, create a text file in the arbaro directory and call it "arbaro.bat". Right click the file and choose "Edit" - this should bring it up in notepad (as an empty file).

Insert the following line in the file:

java -jar arbaro_gui.jar

And save/close the file. Now double-clicking the arbaro.bat should launch the arbaro GUI.

I was disappointed in the appearance of the trees until I actually exported them as OBJ files and loaded them into AC3D --- the arbaro GUI doesn't do the final trees justice at all. You can actually see this from the screenshots at http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/.

Good luck, and post back if you run into any problems.

Dennis

[Mossie]

Not working...... :?

Have java consul running and checked version: Microsoft (R) VM for Java, 5.0 Release 5.0.0.3810

Have bat file in top of Arbaro folder. Run bat nothing happens. I think I have something missing somewhere, but not sure what.

[Dennis]

It's probably throwing an error you're not seeing and the window is closing on you.

Try this:

Change the contents of arbaro.bat from this:

java -jar arbaro_gui.jar

to this:

java -jar arbaro_gui.jar
pause

This will allow you to see what's happening and perhaps offer a clue as to why the program isn't loading.

If you can post back the contents of this, maybe we can help. Hopefully it's not an issue where it doesn't like the 1.5 JRE...

Dennis

[Mossie]

Got it working a problem with using runtime verses IDE Java.

Now to build some low poly trees........thanks.