Foliage

Topics about foliage and vegetation in games.

Foliage Tutorials

General Techniques

• Hedges and Topiary a quick tutorial - by 'Vig'. Modeling and texturing method for stylized bushes.
• Tree making fast technique? thread on Polycount. Tree modeling techniques discussed.
• Tree texturing thread on Polycount. Tree texturing discussed.
• Real quick tree texturing question thread on Polycount. More tree stuff.
• Modeling a tree crown with ease Polycount forum post.
• any tutorials on grouping and spreading out vegetation realistically Polycount forum thread.
• "BC" - some simple, game-friendly ivy - by James 'Uly' Stout. How to create game-friendly ivy meshes & textures.
• 3D TreesTutorials thread from the Polycount boards. Multiple methods.

CryEngine

• Creating foliage in 3ds Max for CryEngine 3 Crydev forum post.
• Vegetation Procedural Animation and Shading in Crysis - by Tiago Sousa. A detailed overview of Crytek's process for vegetation shading.

3ds Max

• Climbing Rose Tutorial - by Mark 'Jenn0_Bing' Foreman. How to create custom and efficient ivy-style meshes in 3ds Max.
• Creating Foliage for UDK ($) - 3dmotive tutorial by Damian 'teaandcigarettes' Lazarski. Using 3ds Max 2012, Photoshop, and UDK to create grass and tree branches. See also the Polycount forum thread.
• Trees for Beginners in 3ds Max Tutorial - by "braveryd". Using the AEC Extended: Foliage tree generator in 3ds Max.
• Tree creation using particle generator - by Andy Zibits. Using a particle system in 3ds Max.
• Bending vertex normals and using vertex color - by Eric Chadwick. Using the Edit Normals modifier in 3ds Max to bend the vertex normals of low-poly foliage planes.
• Bending the vertex normals with Normal Thief - by Eric Chadwick. Using the Normal Thief script in 3ds Max to bend the vertex normals of low-poly foliage planes.
• Tree Modeling Techniques and Principles (PDF) - by Matthew D'Onofrio. Modeling efficient low-poly branches in 3ds Max using Extrude Along Spline.

Maya

• Sprite-Based Particle Trees - by Steven J. Tubbrit. Using a particle system in Maya.
• Ultra-efficient tree texturing and modeling - by Andy Zibits. Using Paint Effects in Maya to create the foliage texture and branches.
• Low-poly Tree Using Maya PaintFX - by Jeramy Cooke. Using Paint Effects in Maya to create the foliage texture, then hand-modeling the tree.

Unity

• Tree Creator Tutorial - by larsbertram. Using Unity to create trees.

Foliage Tools

These tools are useful for creating game-resolution models.

Stand Alone

• frecle tree[d] (exports formats .B3D, .OBJ, .X) (alternate download via web.archive.org)
• ShoeBox: Mask Image by Hendrik-Jan "renderhjs" Schoenmaker - converts tree photos into transparent textures.
• ngPlant

3ds Max

• TreeGen script for 3ds Max
• TreeMaker script for 3ds Max
• ATree3D script for 3ds Max

UDK

• SpeedTree in UDK ($)

Foliage Rendering

• Alpha Blend
• Sorting Problems
• Foliage Shading
• Emissive
• NormalMap

Foliage Examples

• Battlefield 4 Vegetation - Art dump Polycount Forum thread.
• Foliage growth in CryEngine 3 Crydev forum post. Probably using a gradient in the alpha to grow the leaves. Another video here showing both grass and leaf growth.