RPTrees and vRay

Al Hart

Question: I'm having trouble getting anything respectable looking out of my RP Trees when I render using sketchup. I think I understand how to improve the resolution for the trees, but my real issue is with the alpha masking--I'm getting nasty black areas around my trees. I think this has something to do with how it is masked or something. What do you recommend for the best quality images using RPtreemaker with vray for sketchup?

I believe that for VRay you have to create an alpha clip mask and then load it into Vray.
(You can enable the Clip Mask by clicking the advanced button)

Is that the the cause of the black area you are referring to?

thomthom

In the current version of V-Ray for Sketchup it doesn't read the alpha channel in images unfortunately. It will completely ignore it and only render the transparent pixels with their RGB channels. You have to supply the alpha channel as a separate grayscale image and load that into the transparency slot in the diffuse layer.

However, the good news is that the beta of the next release, shortly due, will have a little checkbox which makes VfSU read and use the embedded alpha channel in images.

Al Hart

@thomthom said:

However, the good news is that the beta of the next release, shortly due, will have a little checkbox which makes VfSU read and use the embedded alpha channel in images.

Great - that will make RpTreeMaker more useful for Vray users.

thomthom

Easier I'd say. It is useful now as well, Just require an extra step.

Gaieus

This is a great tool, Al, thanks (again).

After my last HD crash, I haven't re-installed it yet but will definitely do and make a couple of trees (I have even collected a bunch of leaf and bark images already and they are being scattered all over my computer) and will share them in the Warehouse with the "tag" to RPTreeMaker just as before.

Al Hart

@gaieus said:

This is a great tool, Al, thanks (again).

After my last HD crash, I haven't re-installed it yet but will definitely do and make a couple of trees (I have even collected a bunch of leaf and bark images already and they are being scattered all over my computer) and will share them in the Warehouse with the "tag" to RPTreeMaker just as before.

I need to get a new version out. We have added a few more tree types, such as this complex one at the end of this post. (I don't think I understand it - but perhaps it can be learned by sliding some of the sliders to see what happens.)

Most importantly we are now embedding the images into the .ArPlant file so the 3D Warehouse versions will work properly. And we have created a librry of premade .ArPlants which wou can load, modify and use.

complex plant.jpg

Gaieus

They look great.

And to start a wish list

I know it's not just as easy to get it full 3D (also I remember some copyright things as well as I know SU is poly sensitive) but how about some 2.5D trees?

wahoowetzel

Could someone please explain the workflow described here: "You have to supply the alpha channel as a separate grayscale image and load that into the transparency slot in the diffuse layer."

I have the latest vRay, but this still doesn't seem to be a one step thing, so I want to understand this second step described above.

Thanks

alpro

Here you go, hope you can make it out with just a pic.

Mike

load alpha.JPG

wahoowetzel

Thanks for the fast reply, that is very useful. So applying that to the RPtrees specifically, should there be a bitmap image somewhere on my computer that corresponds to the tree that I'm using?

Al Hart

@wahoowetzel said:

Thanks for the fast reply, that is very useful. So applying that to the RPtrees specifically, should there be a bitmap image somewhere on my computer that corresponds to the tree that I'm using?

We create a second "dummy" material in SketcUp and place the clipmask on it.

You can right click on it and save the clipmask somewhere else.

You will also find it in your Windows-Temporary folder in a subfolder called RPS_TreeMaker_Images

Directory of C:\tmp\RPS_TreeMaker_Images
01/23/2010 01:23 PM 59,047 Standard Tree (16)_clipmask.png

For the record, Here is the original tree (on the right) in SketchUp, and the clipmask material placed on another face (on the left)

thomthom

@wahoowetzel said:

Could someone please explain the workflow described here: "You have to supply the alpha channel as a separate grayscale image and load that into the transparency slot in the diffuse layer."

I have the latest vRay, but this still doesn't seem to be a one step thing, so I want to understand this second step described above.

Thanks

It's only a one step thing if you have the beta. You a VfSU beta tester?

wahoowetzel

I don't have the beta test for the upcoming release. I think I have the masking stuff figured out now. Thanks alot for you help guys. I do have one last question though, do the trees only render in 3d when using iRender nXT? I think the 2d images (when properly masked) will work well for what I am doing, but 3d would obviously be great.

Thanks again for the help and kudos to renderplus for the useful tools!

Al Hart

@wahoowetzel said:

I don't have the beta test for the upcoming release. I think I have the masking stuff figured out now. Thanks alot for you help guys. I do have one last question though, do the trees only render in 3d when using iRender nXT? I think the 2d images (when properly masked) will work well for what I am doing, but 3d would obviously be great.

Thanks again for the help and kudos to renderplus for the useful tools!

Yes (only works in 3D with IRender). This is a tree generator which we developed as a part of the IRender rendering package. We created this free version, because these trees - even in 2D mode, can be very valuable for improving SketchUp models.

We are considering a 3D version of some sort, but it probably won't be in the free version. Also, we are concerned that it will simply be too "high poly" to be of much use with SketchUp. (But we won't know until we develop it and try it out.)

wahoowetzel

Awesome, well thanks again for all the help Al and others, and I totally agree that this is a very useful tool even just the 2D iteration.

dylan

@unknownuser said:

Question: I'm having trouble getting anything respectable looking out of my RP Trees when I render using sketchup. I think I understand how to improve the resolution for the trees, but my real issue is with the alpha masking--I'm getting nasty black areas around my trees. I think this has something to do with how it is masked or something. What do you recommend for the best quality images using RPtreemaker with vray for sketchup?

I don't understand where this question is from?
The thread starts directly with this quote.
Is it copied from another area or another site?

Al Hart

@unknownuser said:

I don't understand where this question is from?
The thread starts directly with this quote.
Is it copied from another area or another site?

Yes - we have a Q/A form on our web site. When people submit a question I often place the question and the response on the forum so that others can learn from the response and offer suggestions.

By pointing people to the SUC Forum I hope I am increasing awareness of the forum.

wahoowetzel

Another quick question regarding using the RPTrees with VfSU. The components appear to be face me components, but when I render in vray, they appear as 2D images that do NOT face the camera. Is there any fix for this that will allow the trees to face the camera when I render?

Al Hart

Does VRay process other face me components properly?

If so, we will have to see why the trees don't work properly.

If not - perhaps someone has a script to "freeze" face me components so they face the current camera, and can be used with Vray properly???

wahoowetzel

I just tested that out with Yang, and when I render in any direction he does face the camera.

Not sure if there is a work around, but would certainly be worth looking into. I'd be very interested in finding a solution to this in the near future for something I'm working on, so I'll be checking in.