Trying to Build a Jungle

[Tianna Burnstein]

Hello everyone, hope this problem/question is in the right place!

I am trying to make a small jungle on my parcel.  The size of it is roughly 50x64m...not too big. 

The jungle is to include a windy path, a "hidden" En Garde piste, and is to be covered by trees and other jungle type greenery, so you cannot see anything inside the jungle from the outside.

I have 2 issues.  1, the jungle pack I bought from Crazy Gardens had an awesome backdrop for the jungle that I could place on the corner of my parcel.  It gave the jungle a perception of depth.  But of course that backdrop creates a ton of issues with the alpha textures in the trees.  2, I arrange my jungle like a supermarket.  Each tree/bush has its own section >.<  I cannot seem to alternate between the plants and trees to make it look realistic.

 

Would anyone be able to offer up some suggestions, take on the task of helping me, or even offer me their services (paid of course)?

[Penny Patton]

For plant life, you should almost always be using the alpha masking feature LL introduced with materials. This makes it so the textures you use with it are displayed as 1-bit alpha instead of blended.. This entirely rids you of the problem of overlapping alpha textures.

[Penny Patton]

Actually, I should say people should be using masked alpha in most cases, plant life or not.  The issue with overlapping textures is a problem with 3D rendering in general and it has to due with how complcated it is to render 32bit (blended) alpha textures.

A lot of blended alpha also drags down framerates.

 

 This is why videogames only use blended alpha where absolutely necessary, such as for light effects, transparent glass, water, etcetera.  For things like hair, plants, or anything else where they can get away with simple 1-bit alpha, they do. Even if on a case by case basis it doesn't look quite as nice, when taken as a whole it looks much better than dealing with the problems of blended alpha.