Fractal Tree Maker for SketchUp - Free add-on

Al Hart

Trees should take just about 5 minutes (or less) to create. But it is definitely related to the speed of your computer and what else is going on.

There is also a Render button in the Tree Editor (while you are defining the tree). It runs at about the same speed. It the render in the Tree Editor is much faster then the render in the final image maker, then let us know.

If they are both too slow, then it is probably time to consider getting a newer computer.

Al Hart

@alan fraser said:

Al, is there any way of having the final render dictated by the view you set the tree to in the first screen? I tested a sample tree with just a single root....so I could tell the orientation...and it seems that whichever way you rotate the tree in the first window, it always renders from the same fixed point, with the root pointing to about 5 o clock.

We set up the view with the camera at 1/2 the height of the tree, and pointing at the center of the tree.

I presume you would like to be able to rotate the view (rather than raising or lowering the camera). We can add this. Also, we hope to add a re-render button so you can change things like the resolution or view and render again.

We can't read the view from the first window, but we can let you rotate it in the second window.

But give us a week or so to make the changes.

Al

Anssi

About performance issues:

I tested on two computers.

P IV 2.8 GHz (non-HT), 1.5GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce FX Go 5200, XP Home Finnish SP3, opens and runs very slow (more than an hour for medium image)
P IV 2.66 GHz (HT), 2 GB RAM, old ATI 9200-based card, XP Pro English SP3, opens and runs a zillion times faster, about as fast as others have reported here, default conifer about 5 minutes medium size

So I am puzzled. I used the same file to install on both.

It might be the install: The first showed no progress at the "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable" window, it just stayed there for a while and then vanished, the second showed a progress bar. It worked the same with the earlier and later version.

It might be the non-HT processor.

It might be the Windows or language version

It might be Norton security software: Norton 360 on the first, Norton Internet Security on the other.

Never run into this kind of behaviour before. Usually the performance between the two is indistinguishable, with the first maybe a bit faster.

Does this inspire any thoughts?

Anssi

thomthom

Could be a graphic card issue if the app makes use of the card for the calculations... Just guessing here...

Anssi

@thomthom said:

Could be a graphic card issue if the app makes use of the card for the calculations... Just guessing here...

My Nvidia should be running circles around the ATI - in general SU use it is noticeably faster...

Anssi

solo

Anssi, try removing it completely and re-installing it after a restart, sometimes it can make a difference.... that's all I got so far.

Alan Fraser

Here's a neat trick. The bark will accept either a jpg or a png. So, if you make, say, a 64x64 completely transparent png and specify that, you get an invisible trunk and branches....just the canopy. The resulting skp and image are already cropped to just the foliage.
You can make that into an angled 2D Face Me on top of a static, low-poly trunk.

Here's a quick proof of concept, minus any shadow casting. Of course, you could always make them more sophisticated, with several such layers.
You could probably also use just the canopy (with the right kind of leaves) as drapery/creepers on walls and balconies.

test_tree.skp

Stu

Al, just a thought.
I understand your intention is to keep file sizes down but I wonder if a 'super high rez.' option would be possible?

Im finding that trees produced using the 'Best' resolution are at the moment fine for the background and maybe the middleground but start to look blurred close up.

Most of these are coming in at around 1.5-2.0 Mb.

I currently use a lot Tiffs and Pngs that are around 4-6 Mbs each, in SU models that are, say, 80-100 Mbs, fairly comfortably. So I wouldnt see larger file size as an issue.

Maybe you could add a warning about the Hi Rez option?....but it would certainly push the output closer to the 'photoreal' mark.

Or maybe include this option in a 'Pro' version?

I would certain look at paying good money for it.

Al Hart

@anssi said:

About performance issues:

Never run into this kind of behaviour before. Usually the performance between the two is indistinguishable, with the first maybe a bit faster.

Does this inspire any thoughts?

Anssi

The TreeMaker threads run at a lower priority. It's possible something is stealing clock cycles.

Make sure the processor is idle before launching a TreeMaker. You can do this using Task Manager->Performance Tab.

Gaieus

I also have nVidia (GForce 6800 GO) in my laptop but it seems to perfom "normally" (i.e. at around 4-6 minutes like most reported above depending on resolution).

rcossoli

tanks!!! very good application, I did well in the machine, I just hang up the SketchUp open the program while, but after work, takes about 2 or 3 minutes in renderings as high or higher.
I have an Athlon 64x2 4800 with 2 GB of RAM and a video card GForce 7200 256.

Al Hart

@unknownuser said:

I am getting the message: "TreeEditor.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close" when I run RpTreeMaker.

Any thoughts?

No we haven;t seen that before.

Does it happen all the time?

Try running TreeEditor.exe manually (from Explorer or a DOS Window) it is porbably in this path:

C:\Program Files\Render Plus Systems\RpTreeMaker\TreeEditor.exe

If it works manually, then there is probably something wrong with the default tree file.

This is stored in your temporary folder as RpArPlant.ArPlant. If possible rename RpArPlant.ArPlant to something else. If that fixes the problem, then send us the renamed RpArPlant.ArPlant so we can see if something is wrong with it.

Anssi

@al hart said:

Try running TreeEditor.exe manually (from Explorer or a DOS Window)

Al,

I tried running it standalone too, and it was very much faster, the standard tree only took a couple of minutes. Could it be that the once hyped Hyperthreading in this case really makes a difference? What are the machine specs of others that complained of slowness in this thread?

Is there a way of saving the PNG from the standalone?

Anssi

Al Hart

@anssi said:

I tried running it standalone too, and it was very much faster, the standard tree only took a couple of minutes. Could it be that the once hyped Hyperthreading in this case really makes a difference? What are the machine specs of others that complained of slowness in this thread?

Is there a way of saving the PNG from the standalone?

Anssi

First, let me make sure I have this right.

There are two separate programs as part of the RpTreeMaker process.

TreeEditor.exe defines the tree parameters.
RpTreeMaker.exe creates the image.

When you run TreeEditor.exe in stand alone mode, does it run considerable faster then when you run it from SketchUp?

There is a Render button in TreeEditor.exe. Does it render faster when run stand-alone?

Also, further down in this posting I explain how to run RpTreeMaker.exe. Does it ruin faster in stand-alone mode?

If so, I may have to learn something about threading...

One difference, though may be the tree parameters. If you run TreeEditor.exe and pass it the name of a .ArPlant file, then it wil start with that .ArPlant file and save it when done. This may be slower than when you run it with no parameters, and use the default tree settings.

Try it with: RpTreeMaker %TEMP%\RpArPlant.ArPlant

It will load and then resave the RpArPlant.ArPlant plant definition file. One "problem" is that when it saves the file, it will automatically save a thumbnail into it which takes some time.

After defining your .ArPlant file, you can create the bitmap image by running:

RpTreeMaker.exe %TEMP%\RpTreeMakerArgs.txt

This will load the .ArPlant file and save the tree image. The "reverse engineer"s among us can figure out how to modify the args file to create different images, etc.

After the image is created, a third file, RpTreeMakerParams.txt is created which has the path of the image, and the size of the tree.

Sushij

Ok, I must be doing something wrong with Podium. When I make a tree, explode it twice, and put a face below it to act as a surface, the shadow doesn't work. The tree is a tree with a black background. So, if anyone has any suggestions about how to fix this, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Anssi

@unknownuser said:

When you run TreeEditor.exe in stand alone mode, does it run considerable faster then when you run it from SketchUp?

No, but it starts faster

@unknownuser said:

There is a Render button in TreeEditor.exe. Does it render faster when run stand-alone?

Yes, very much faster (like 10x)

@unknownuser said:

Also, further down in this posting I explain how to run RpTreeMaker.exe. Does it ruin faster in stand-alone mode?

No, it didn't ruin anything, and it rendered very fast, even faster than my other machine did within SU.

Anssi

Al Hart

@anssi said:

@unknownuser said:

Also, further down in this posting I explain how to run RpTreeMaker.exe. Does it ruin faster in stand-alone mode?

No, it didn't ruin anything, and it rendered very fast, even faster than my other machine did within SU.

Anssi

Actually that was supposed to say "run" faster, not "ruin" faster.

Can you look at your performance with Task Manager and make sure that you have not reached your memory limit when you start the TreeMaker process.

I'll take a look and make sure that SketchUp is idle while the tree maker is running.

Al

nomeradona

thanks, im downloading it now.

Al Hart

Let us know what you are able to do.

We will have a new version Monday, with the ability to rotate the trees, re-render them before saving the image, and with some higher image resolutions.

Alan Fraser

Fast work, Al. Much appreciated.
Now all you have to do is build a version for yourself with a batch render process that outputs an image every 1 degree or so of rotation, compile them into a RPC file and you'd have something to rival ArchVision.