Product Information

BlitzTree3D (here on referred to as BT3D) is engine code that can be included into any Blitz3D application, project or game. It is proven code that handles all tree operations for the developer, freeing up precious time for other important things such as game development!

With a simple include file, you can drop BT3D into your project, and the engine does the rest. BT3D is capable of pushing 1000s of detailed single-surface mesh trees around your scene / map. BT3D can do many things, but foremost it handles tree operations so you don't have to worry with anything tree related. A simple call to the load function will establish a tree on your map ... for example:

Atree=MakeTree("filename", x#, y#, z#)

This line would load a BT3D tree file and place it at the x, y, z specifications given. That's really all you need to worry about, although you can further detail your trees specifics, such as the scale and rotation. Let's take a look:

ScaleTree(Atree, scaleX#, scaleY#, scaleZ#)

This command will take a previously loaded tree and scale its x, y, and z values. Now let's rotate it:

RotateTree(Atree, xRot#, yRot#, zRot#)

Just as you might expect this rotates the tree mesh by the requested values. Inside your main game loop you call the tree engines update function. This is important as BT3D performs numerous calculations on your trees per render.

UpdateTrees()

That's it! You've just read about the heart of the system. But don't be fooled by its simplicity. We worked very hard at making the system simple to use so that it would be easy to include in any project. But the guts of the engine (the part you don't have to worry with) can become very complicated.

Let's quickly preview what the engine does: It takes any number of trees (large or small) and stores their locations. BT3D determines which trees are in view and builds them in that location. Trees that were not in view are removed from the scene. If the location enters the view range again then BT3D will reconstruct the tree at that location ... all performed in real time! This is what is known as 'griding' or in another loose term 'portaling'.

So we have on-screen trees at fast frame rates allowing maps to support 1000's of trees without a serious performance hit. But what about the quality of the tree and the 'Level Of Detail' (LOD) controls? BT3D handles 3 levels of LOD. A tree that is close to the camera would be in full-poly form for crisp visibility. As the tree gradually moves away from the camera it doesn't require so much detail so BT3D begins to lessen the quality of tree - freeing up precious processing power.

So as trees leave the camera range they are degraded in poly count and eventually removed from the scene. But what about the textures? BT3D also controls LOD on the textures (skins). Again 3 levels of LOD are applied to trees and their skins. As trees travels further into the distance the texture is degraded, again freeing up processing power.

These are some of the technical operations of the engine, but there is much more then that. BT3D handles animations, tinting, shading and process-control of the trees. You don't have to worry about a thing. Just pop some trees in your scene, call the update function once per loop and that's it. Sit back and enjoy some of the most gorgeous trees any game has yet to offer!

Key Features

• Single-surface operations, all the chunks (leaf) are sorted to use a single surface per tree for speed
• Use color maps for tree placement (optional)
• Tree tinting controls
• Tree animation controls
• 9 season presets included, change seasons with a simple command - Season=winter, or define your own!
• The developer has full control over LOD, degradation, animation and updating functions
• Highly detailed trees using photorealistic skins and design
• Tree shading, ambience and seasonal controls
• 3 levels of LOD
• Grid / portaling engine code
• Easily add collision to tree trunks by passing a collision_type to the MakeTree() function
• Many many more features not mentioned, download the demo to see all the features!

Engine Specific Features

• Tested engine code for 3d-tree operations
• You get all the source code for the tree engine, easily add it to your projects
• Fast calculations to control 1000's of trees per render
• Included is 60 pre-made engine trees
• Included is a converter utility that allows you to make trees in any modeler and import them in
• Simple demo code to show you the required steps for putting trees in your game/application
• Use in any commercial / private project (full version, non-open source)

Demo Download

We strongly encourage you to download the demo of Blitztree3D before making a purchase. This ensures the application will run on your computer, not to mention you'll get to witness all the cool features right now!

File Size: 5.1 MB

System Requirements

Licensing

BlitzTree3D may be used in private or commercial projects.
BlitzTree3D may not be shared or used in 'open-source' projects.
BlitzTree3D may not be included into projects that sell source code.
BlitzTree3D may not be altered then sold as a seperate product.
By purchasing you agree to the above terms and take sole responsibility thereof.