Looking for tools for real and fantasy landscapes, plants, etc.
Subtropic Pixel
Posts: 2,378
DAZ's offerings just won't do the job for me. I need a 64 bit landscaping tool for big scenes with lots of plants and/or creatures/people. I don't want to fight with Bryce or Carrara, so I'm not considering them even though I have both. I want to be able to build scenes in offline software and then bring them into DS for model placement and rendering. Or vice-versa; at this point I don't care about workflow perfection. I just want a workable solution that supports unbiased rendering and animation keyframing.
Vue and Plant Factory maybe were the best at one time, but they really are over-the-top expensive and I think one of them only allowed installation to a single computer. I have a workstation and a laptop and need to be able to run software on either machine. I don't have Disney's budget. Plus, the E-On site still has last October's sale on the home page so I don't really know if they're even in business anymore.
XFrog for plants looks interesting, but I need to also find a software product that can make outdoor scenes.
Ideas appreciated!
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Comments
Blender has a plant generator python addon and does pretty much everything for free.
I have not used it as well it's Blender eeeek
Unreal UDK will paint your plants on terrans, I have imported DAZ ones in, not sure how well they export though as my scene crashed in it.
Thank you. Yes, I should look at Blender. Hopefully it has tools specifically for landscape and/or plant generation.
World Machine is a nice terrain generator.
Free plant generators:
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/index.htm
http://ngplant.sourceforge.net/
Free plants:
https://poserdazfreebies.miraheze.org/wiki/Plants
Various terrain generators (some free): http://vterrain.org/Packages/Artificial/
I have Vue Esprit 2016 which you can purchase for $199.00. This allows import from Daz and other programs in obj, 3ds, lwo, collada (imports poseable figures and animated Daz figures), it also allows importing from Poser. Also, you can animate in Vue. An update on March 28 adds 360 degree panoramas. I found it best to import from Daz to Vue rather than the other way around. If you buy the skinvue module you can totally customize your characters skin.
You can also buy Plant Factory artist version for $199.00, and there is a free version of Plant Factory exporter.
You can use xfrog plants in Vue, but they are very large files.
I don't think you can buy better landscape software for this kind of money.
Unity is free if you earn less than $100 000 a year. It suppose to have Octane renderer included for free, but it is unsure when it will happen.
You can create terrains quite easily, build plants with SpeedTree tool (monthly payment, but not extremely high, and you can stop it at any time).
All plants created with SpeedTree tool are yours to distribute. Since Unity is a game engine, you can play and produce animations in real time.
You can use many free assets from Unity Asset store, or buy the ones you need.
There are many ready made characters for Unity, including Morph3D characters based on Genesis 2.
You can import quite easily Daz assets or any other models in different formats FBX, OBJ...
I agree with Artini that Unity is a good choice. I have played around with it a little, the renders aren't as good as Vue or Iray, but I expect that will change
when they include Octane. It is supposed to come out in their next update. There are a lot of free characters and objects you can get to start you out including
a couple of morph3d characters.
Okay, what is Unity?
Thank you for this input.
I guess I always felt that the "lower tier" E-on products would not offer enough flexibility. Could be due to the 100% price increases as you go up the tiers. Is anybody else using the so-called "lite" versions of E-on software?
To get terrains based in reality I've used the http://terrain.party website to generate displacement maps from maps to import into Blender then exported an obj into Daz. You still have to texture them and add trees etc but good as a starting point.
Just check their web site: https://store.unity.com/products/unity-personal
Oh wow, that's pretty impressive.
Even more so when I figured out that it was a video (D'oh!
)
Yes, Unity & sign up for the Unity Asset Store and buy that asset called Gaia for I think it's only $35 now & then go to his (Gaia) website & watch the tutorials. There is one that also tells how to use terrain.party website to make your own terrains that are more realistic (if you actually stay true to scale)
Yes, and these assets in video, you will get for free from Unity Asset store.