Rob was kind enough to post this - well done Rob - cool stuff

 

 

My goodness... now I know why they call them SPEEDtrees...!  :rolleyes:

I really hope we'll see these as an official LM replacement for all autogen trees.

 

They're clearly a big step up from the old 3 plane ones and have a good track record in the games industry.

 

Couldn't the models simply overwrite the old ones (on a like for like basis) without even having to touch the autogen tree placement?

 

Whilst I totally understand that there will be an FPS hit; one of the good things about SpeedTree is the LODing system. All of the distant trees will just be quads anyway, it's only those you're close to that are high detail. Not only that, but the existing models and textures can't take up a lot of space - I imagine it'd be easy to just add a tick-box under performance settings for low detail/legacy trees.

 

I think it'd not only be a great shame to limit these to third party airports and sceneries, but it also creates an inconsistent world filled with massive quality gulfs. As a helicopter pilot, you'd desperately want to see these new trees wherever you fly and not just specific locations. In fact, due to the inconsistency, I'd almost rather just the old quad-based models than an awkward mix of the two which impacts on immersion and the sense of a believable world.

 

Here's hoping...

Here's hoping...

 

 

Agreed, as long as performance stays good I'd love to see those trees all over the place! I do wonder though how an extremely dense forest looks when it is made of speed trees.

Agreed, as long as performance stays good I'd love to see those trees all over the place! I do wonder though how an extremely dense forest looks when it is made of speed trees.

 

 

-Jim

...

 

Whilst I totally understand that there will be an FPS hit; one of the good things about SpeedTree is the LODing system. All of the distant trees will just be quads anyway, it's only those you're close to that are high detail. Not only that, but the existing models and textures can't take up a lot of space - I imagine it'd be easy to just add a tick-box under performance settings for low detail/legacy trees.

 

...

I was thinking about the same LODing that would be possible as well. I would like to get into the SDK and see how far it could be done. I image that the LODing might be done with altitude as well. I'm real curious about the tools to do this. It'll be interesting to learn the tools as well, because I've only created a Kinect plugin for Prepar3D so far.

LODs should take care of the worst of the performance worries (obviously there'd still be a hit) and instancing help address the memory issues.

 

It's very important to have an consistent world IMO; a mix of high quality and low quality visuals is a real enemy of immersion.

 

These trees, applied globally, would make such a massive difference to helo flight.