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Main problem is not in material but in overall workflow. Yes Speedtree is more advanced in this case, it can make complex shape blends without visible seams. I mean blends between trunk and branches. It is not 1 welded mesh like metamesh produces but it's a blend of 2 different meshes but with tweaked normals and smoothing groups and that's why you don't see border between 2 meshes because branch normals are the same as trunk normals in the intersection area. Also SpeedTree makes opacity blending between 2 materials and you don't see a hard edge between branch and bark materials. SpeedTree widely uses 3d scanned geometry and offers automatic blending of procedural trunks with 3d scans and makes smooth blend between materials without visible seams. Yes we need such features in GrowFX as well as fast metamesh. I found some good papers with algorithms on how to make solid mesh like Metamesh but on GPU. Will send it to Eduard soon. Metamesh is very very slow and computes on 1 CPU core... Also I think we need some new mesh features like boolean + subdivision to make a fast and good looking solid mesh. But if you need a smooth transition between bark and branch we need separate meshes with unified vertex normals in the intersection area. Anyway, even now you can make good looking result like this

Update, frost shader added. New model of Blue spruce | Picea pungens glauca

Experiencing choppy playback with cached Grow FX animations. Likely due to high memory usage or insufficient GPU power. Try optimizing your scene, reducing polygon counts, or upgrading your hardware for smoother playback.

GFX Plants 101 is a collection of realistic 3d models of coniferous trees for 3ds max and GrowFX 1.99. You can tweak or animate many parameters and receive desired shapes and animation. Use ready 3d plants from library or make your own variations in GrowFX, adjust height, density, style and so on, tweak wind speed, plant flexibility and make looped wind animation. 3ds Max 2017+ and the latest version of GrowFX 1.99 SP11 is required. GFX Plants 101 includes -Larix decidua variations -Picea abies variations -Picea pungens variations -74 different plants -Over 200 plant’s variations for different seasons -PBR shaders for Corona, FStorm and V-Ray -High resolution 4K textures -Integration with Forest Pack library GFX Plants 101 has 2 versions: -GrowFX version (ready for animation) -Meshes only version Download GFX Plants 101 PDF catalog GFX Plants 101 release date is 1st of May. Now GFX Plants 101 is available for pre-order with 20% Off before 1st of May. Pre-order GFX Plants 101 (GrowFX + meshes) - 150 € Pre-order GFX Plants 101 (only meshes) - 100 €

Hello TKT, it is really beautiful result you have achieved, I am glad that could help in some way to bypass creative obstacles We GrowFX community have to educate and guide each other to improve our skills with this lovely vegetation software.

Hey just to say thanks again, this little scene helped clear my head a bit and understand what was messing with what. Still got some things to sort out but its coming along quite nicely! lil screen grab from UE5.1 - using growfx and its hierarchy export to mesh and then pivotpainter2.0 & textures.com to try and get some more detail into real time trees we have.

Hello, great work, I like lilies the most As you have said the modeling detail and structure of the plants are very important, but perfect texturing and high quality maps are the key for the photorealistic feel, keep going and practise, looking forward to see your other works, have a nice day.

Picea abies, test animation of wind and grow. I noticed some problems with grow animation and fixed it, new animation will be ready tomorrow. Your feedback will be helpful!

some render tests

Excellent

Final version of Picea Abies or Norway spruce rendered with FStorm. 3d model optimised and updated after many tests and RND. I added improved details, cones and textures, random nail colors, twigs with buds, PBR shaders for FStorm, Corona and V-Ray and much more. This big spruce 12 meters heigh has only 657 336 polygons and looks very detailed. Will release new conifers soon!

Magnificent !

I tried to keep balance between polygon limit and details. This big fir have about 1 million of polygons.

Haha, too much questions and too few time to answer! I'll try to answer later.

Some fun with GrowFX 2 with procedural snow and wind animation Will show you something interesting and procedural soon!

I hope that the results can be realized in the near future. I think that now GrowFX needs to add some new functions to achieve better results! However, I can't see any action. Many things have not been realized for many years! Just a simple idea!

Hi all, at first I just wanted to make myself a small utility to select GrowFX plants in a scene, and then I added functions to be able to modify characteristics in a list. Maybe there is already a utility that does this but I couldn't find it. In any case if there are those who want to test and make comments, do not hesitate ! I hope this can help users like this helps me. (only tested on Max 2021 but it should work also with other versions) Archimi_GrowFX_Lister.mcr

Thanks for great job!

Hello, Here one of the users posted a script, and I think you're looking for something like this: Thanks!

Hello Samuel, you can watch this tutorial on youtube, it is regarding forestpack, but there are sections inside the video about growfx caching and proxies. Anyway, you should always use caching of your growfx vegetation when it is heavy in polycount or using metamesh. This can cause big buliding times during each frame of animation inside 3ds max environment. Regards, have a nice day

Hello, it can be tweaked of course further, but as a starting idea I think it is good. Meta_mesh_Branch_flatten.max

Hello Amazingrenders, I have created example for you by using spiral direction modifier+ metamesh, this way you can achieve creating cavity shapes (botanically it is called "Callus tissue", and it is healing process when the tree get rid off old branches naturally or by human activity while shaping the trees). cavity_callus_example.max Hope it helps, happy studying the nodes and learning

Hello, maybe there is more effective way to do it, but for now as a workaround: DISTRIBUTION_01_adjusted2020.max

Hello Getojoe, I have played around with your file and get desired result, below I will write what was changed to get smooth animation (left your original, right adjusted): Growing tree_preview.mp4 So the changes are as follows: 1. Your braneches were sliding up and down along your main trunk, this was caused that path position distributor with density is counted within the range lenght of main trunk, for anim growth you cannot use this distributor, instead you need to use path position distributor (it was done by converting node with righ mouse button) 2. Flickering of your branches up and down was caused by wrong order of direction modifiers (they needs to go in order as they are in direction rollout node), also the strength in noise dir should be constant number, there fore I turned off the graph value 3. You forgot to plug autokey value for branches from public parameter length, only your main trunk was growing from 0 to 1357 cm, I have plugged to this public param your branches, optional within autokey you can affect for instance bending of the branches while they grow, in start growt they are more upright and then slightly open up more. 4. For branches I have also change order of direction modifiers as it was wrong and added vector dir instead of your hard bend to bend your branches. As for your noise dir for branches, you have strong values for strenght X=2 and Y=2 which was causing weird poly twistings in the start path of your branches, also turned off vector dir orient which is used more for last twigs and leaves path to get them to correct upright position parallel to ground. I have attached changed with original inside one file, so you can compare, I have only 3ds max 2023 so can save 3 ver. down to 2020, somebody needs to resave older versions. Thanks, hope it helps, we learn every they and think will built great community here in the forum. Growing treeMAX2020.zip

Hello Creativefinger, the problem is as you assume when you use perturb speed, perturb vector or decay in wind helper settings, it is also mentioned in growfx manual. Looping Period Specifies the looping period. For the correct looping animation, don't use the Perturb Speed, Perturb Vector and Decay options in the Wind helper settings. Have a nice day.

Yes, we've removed these parameters to reduce the node size, and these parameters are the same for all nodes, so they are only in the sidebar. Thanks!

Hi wallworm, We've already released a new version and you can download it from the User panel. Thanks!

Just installed the max GrowFX 2.0.1 update for max 2023. Max is still super slow to start up. I timed it to 1 min 20 secs. It's good to take pauses throughout the day, but I'd prefer if I was the one making the decision - not my software.

Hi wallworm, We've added the following maxscript methods: <growfx2>.CreateHierarchyMeshes <is_group_by_pathcolor> Returns an array of Editable poly nodes of the elements in the hierarchy. is_group_by_pathcolor : boolean - when true, the algorithm will group adjacent branches if they have the same path color. <growfx2>.CreateHierarchySplines <is_group_by_pathcolor> Returns an array of Editable spline nodes of the elements in the hierarchy. is_group_by_pathcolor : boolean - when true, the algorithm will group adjacent branches if they have the same path color. I'm already planning to release this update as a new version 2.0.1. Thanks!

New experiments in GrowFX - Olea Europaea with realistic trunk and branches I used standard mesh + map displacement in GrowFX. Wind animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBS5zZjdFk4

Hello, unfortunately it's the same problem for me.

If you are looking for best 3d models of plants with animation or need unique 3d models then I can help you! My name is Konstantin Kim "3dmentor" and I'm the most experienced 3d modeler of plants in GrowFX. I made thousands of different plants - trees, palms, conifers, flowers, grasses, shrubs, cactuses and etc. I'm involved in GrowFX developing and beta-testing and know it very deep, know it's secrets and lifehacks and working with GrowFX for over 11 years. Also I could make any textures in Substance Designer for my 3d plants. Some of my 3d plants available here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GFXPlants https://www.youtube.com/user/3dmentor/videos

Heya folks! I popped in a request about how to make trees react to the ground that they're planted in falling over (earthquake stuff) and thought it'd be really handy for vfx shots to have an object collision modifier too so we could have characters or other objects interacting with the trees. Sounds like a big thing, maybe it's already in progress! Cheers, John

Hello ! i conform same thing .... startup time increases up 2 time