Speedtree Test

[Stardust Ruissatel]

So I thought I'd have a go at importing some Speedtree meshes onto the beta grid, to see how they'd be handled and whether it'd be a useful path in the future.

These trees haven't been optimised, so the poly count on each one is pretty silly. But they load pretty damn quickly, and have had no problems setting them up.

 

Mesh Sandbox - SLurl

 

 

 

 

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[Ishtara Rothschild]

Wow, those look great More realistic than any tree I've seen in SL as of yet. If the prim count can be brought down to a reasonable number (read: If LL start being reasonable about mesh prim counts), I'd use those in my sim for sure.

[Constance Flux]

I've always admired the Speedtree plants in 3D games, but these 2 examples look pretty goofy and fuggly and certainly not a good examples of what Speetree is capable of.

Also the Acaccia's was only 9m tall and had a PE of 1906. Yes that's right 1906 prim ! 

And the Pine tree was 16m tall, very small for a Pine tree and that came in at a whopping PE of 2329

So you could have one of each of these on a Homestead and bust your prim limit.

Ok yes I know they're not optimized but if you did optimize them as much you you'd need to they would probably start looking really horrid and still the PE would be too high

Also it should be noted that the Speedtree license does not allow anyone to distribute for free or for sale , any Speedtree content unless you have bought a License to use them as intergrated components in a named product. The Speedtree license does NOTever allow the Speedtree content to be sold or distributed seperately or as is.

[Constance Flux]

@Stardust

I think you probably have breached Speedtree's license by importing unlicensed Speedtree content in to Secondlife. Perhaps you should go do Charlar Linden's mesh IP questionaire !

https://secondlife.aditi.lindenlab.com/my/account/​mesh-landing.php,

Even if you bought a Speetree license you would not be licensed to distribute or sell Speedtree content in SL.  Speedtree is licensed for applications and games not licensed for individuals to re-sell/distribute Speedtree intellectual property

[Ishtara Rothschild]

"SpeedTree content" means the content of the software package. You're also not allowed to redistribute any content of MS Office, but the texts that you write in MS Word nonetheless belong to you. The trees generated with SpeedTree are not part of the software components, they're something created by the user of the software. That might not enable the user to distribute the trees as a standalone product, but at the very least the OP is allowed to import them into SL for her own purposes.

[Stardust Ruissatel]

@Constance: Yea, those trees are far from anything that can be called representative of what you can produce within Speedtree. But it was purely for the purpose of testing it. The PE is stupendously high, yea, but that's only because of the latter.

@Ishtara: Infortunately, I agree with Constance on the grounds of the license agreement with IDV. They're pretty damn strict over what the content can be used within and the circumstances therein.

 

However, it seems to be very muddy, as what is to stop myself or anyone else, from producing any sort of tree, fauna, vegetation, etc., exporting it into Max/Maya/ZB and building ontop of the base mesh. Hypothetically ofcourse, as I, obviously, do not want anybody hounding me through legal channels. Speedtree trees do stand out, as they are visually and accurately much better than what most modellers can produce themselves.

It could be used as a reference point though. Create what ever content you desire within ST, then reproduce it within your package of preference, akin to what some do by following and learning from the topology of someone elses mesh flow.

[Constance Flux]

@Ishtara,

If you write a doculment in MS Word, yes the document belongs to you. But that's NOT the Speedtree license.

MS Word is not Speedtree ...

The trees you create in Speedtree are licensed for use in named projects and applications only.  You do not own the trees you create in Speedtree. You are licensed to use them for very specific purposes

Perhaps if the OP is a licensed Speedtree user, there may be a case for legal import if they had a project name and sims for that project, to rez them on. But they would only be licensed to use them for that project and on those particular sims only.

Also that means that every land owner who wanted to use Speedtree trees would have to also purchase a full Speedtree license for their real estate virtual land biz project

 Because land barons are running commercial businesses and would be making commercial use of speedtree, value enhancing their land and reselling and re-distributing the Speedtree trees commercially

[DanielRavenNest Noe]

The test trees that I imported, I needed to replace leaves with "alpha planes" which contained several twigs and leaves as a texture, and to simplify the trunk and branch mesh by quite a bit.  That brings the triangle count down to something approaching reasonable.  Unfortunately the size penalty for mesh items means for things like trees, you are generally better off making it as several sculpts.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

@Stardust & Constance:

I wasn't aware of that. I thought SpeedTree was merely a tool to generate trees, in the same way that 3ds Max generates a teapot mesh when I click the teapot button. In the latter case, that generic teapot is mine to do with as I wish. I didn't know that the SpeedTree license is so restrictive.

[Stardust Ruissatel]

Unfortunately it is. It's their software, and we've got to agree to their terms to be able to license and use the software.

 

However. I thought I'd have a go at importing an old ST model I had produced and used within a UDK project from my final year. Considerably lower poly count.

 

The height of the mesh is about 12m, and the PE is 123 prims. Hellova lot less than 1906 and 2329. It's still a high number considering it is one object, but the trunk has a lot of unnecessary polys, so that could conceivably be reduced even further. However, as I didn't have much of a problem with 100+ instances of these, including 3 other tree types that each had 4 variations, in a scene in the UDK, I didn't see any reason to do so at the time. Oh how mistaken I was! :matte-motes-shocked:

 

Same location, the two original trees have been removed.

[Stardust Ruissatel]

One of the other variations from my project (a spruce).

Height: 13.250m

PE: 200

 

Something I noticed when I imported the original two is that double-sided textures aren't an option, which kind of sucks. Unless I'm missing something?

 

[DanielRavenNest Noe]

No, mesh is a single sided texture.  If you want double sided, you have to copy the geometry and flip the triangles so the normals point the other way.  How many triangles are your models?  It's helpful to know that when commenting on your items.

Oh, I realized there is a parcel use for very high triangle count, high detail models - that is for photography on Aditi (or an empty sandbox or region if you can find one on the main grid).  Very high prim cost objects are not something most people would use for the long term, but for temporary use they are fine.