Trees and Saw Palmettos

 Lately I've created a few variations of the oak trees and some saw palmettos.

 

 

Saw palmetto sculpt and material atlas

To make the trees, I tried a new technique where I converted the cards to cutout geometry and placed them on a trunk mesh with PCG. From what I understand, Nanite and Lumen can render opaque geometry more efficiently than masked materials. This should also save a bit of memory because these few meshes are repeated to create the canopy rather than using a bunch of unique geometry within a single static mesh.

 

Canopy meshes

 

The canopy meshes use geometry instead of an opacity mask.

The branches and epiphytes are placed on the trunk as instanced meshes through PCG.

I created sockets in the trunk mesh to hand place some of the foliage, such as the Spanish moss and orchids.

The ferns are automatically placed anywhere moss is painted on the tree.

The points for each tree are saved to data assets which are then duplicated throughout the level at runtime.

One of the main shots with the new trees and saw palmettos.

Now that I've got the shots filled in with the new foliage, I'm going to start on the bridge next.

Shot Block Outs

    I've started blocking out the main shots.

 

    Overall, it looks like I will need to model 5 new assets for these shots, the new oak trees, the saw palmetto, the bridge, the mile marker, and the small basking rock by the turtle sculpture. Once those assets are ready, I'm going to work on the water material and the lighting. I'm excited to further build out these shots and have a small interactive environment to walk through!

 

Thumbnail Sketches and PCG

    To get an idea of how I want this level to look, I've sketched out a few thumbnails for camera views as well as some top down maps.

 

    Overall, my main focus is going to be the center peninsula with the large oak tree and turtle sculpture. I'm also going to have a bridge leading up to it. If I have time after that, I'm also interested in creating the path leading to the bridge covered by an archway of oak trees. This will probably require some new versions of the tree mesh with different shapes.

 
   Aside from the sketches, I've also started to experiment with PCG. For the foliage, I made an actor that automatically places trees and ground cover wherever grass is painted. It also places reeds on any mud that's painted on the edge of the water.

 

 

   I started on a PCG actor for the bridge too. I'm using block out meshes for now just so I can figure out how the actor should function. Currently, I'm using spline meshes for the floor and top railings so they can bend. The rest of the railings and supports are instanced static meshes spaced along the spline at even increments.

   Next, I'm going to block out the main shots and start on textures for the boardwalks.