E-on The Plant Factory
Jim_1831252
Posts: 728
Who's got it? Who wants it but doesn't like the feature restrictions and/or pricing?
The software looks amazing, absolutely amazing, and now that the features restrictions have been relaxed it is looking a lot more attractive. I just wish I had the cash sitting around - I'd be on it in a sec.
I've been following the recent developments with the pre-relase on my blog.
The original TPF story, which includes a feature overview and some videos
Pre-Release - many angry, angry people
Pre-Release II - many people less angry
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Comments
Very interesting, thanks for posting!
It is an excellent program. And a great addition to Vue. I have the pre-release since it came out and have played quite a bit. I must say that I really like the program. I like it better the more I work with it. It is a very powerful procedural modeler. I can't wait until the bridging to Vue becomes available. Some observations that might help others that are on the fence regarding the current offer: You can read and apply any Vue material (I used some Quadspinner materials) in TPF. Even more important, you have access to the full function editor in the material editor, so you can easily add procedural displacements (everything that is available in Vue seems to be there) at the material level. There are nice and intuitive controls for blending the geometry of a child branch with its parent. That allows for much better looking connections between branches and truck for example. One thing I have to figure out here is how to better blend the materials. The transition between trunk and branches now looks very nice, but the material transition is still a bit off sometimes. Having access to all function editor tricks will likely help here.
Here is quick tree that I put together in a few minutes using pre-made elements. You can built vegetation from scratch using the node-based approach, by painting, by connecting pre-made elements or by any combination of those.
Ciao
TD
"Very interesting, thanks for posting!" - No worries ;)
@ Thud: That is a cool looking tree. The software is indeed very impressive. What are the texture details like up close?
Here is a more close-up view of the same tree. This particular tree uses bitmap based texture in combination with a normal map . However, TPF supports the Vue material room with all functions. So one can easily use a fractal based material for the bark. For the leafs one could use higher resolution textures if necessary, but I think it looks pretty good.
Ciao
'TD
Wow, that does look pretty good. Hmm, I don't think looking under the couch cushions is going to yield the sort of money I need for this.
Thanks for sharing :)
Very nice looking Acacia tree! Don't suppose it's for sale anywhere in non Vue format, I need one for DS/poser.
Great looking program, definitely not aimed at a hobbyist market with the price and restrictions. I'd love to buy it, but based on how often i would use tree models in my work, just can't justify the price.
I notice the base "converter" version says you can choose from existing models to purchase, any list of what's available anywhere? I looked thru the cornucopia store and didn't see much, mostly Xfrog in Vue format. I might buy this version if there is a good selection to choose from.
I do agree with their selling model though, why buy the program if one user can crate the trees you need for sale at other stores, makes perfect sense in an online world full of piracy and dishonesty.
Yes, definitely not primarily aimed at the hobby market.
The program is currently in pre-release. There is nothing available yet for purchase content wise. I would expect that to happen once TPF is officially released next month. You can export to several formats that can be used by Poser and DS so it shouldn't be to hard to get the models into those. Of course you loose the advantages of the procedural models.
TD
I have been following the Plant Factory for a while now and when I saw the pricing, well lets just say I wasn't happy and really peed me off. But I suppose anything to do with Vue this is to be expected. Awesome program though I must admit.
The pricing made me jump a little even though I was expecting something outrageous. You would think at $1000 for a full featured product you'd be able to sell your creations the way you want, but alas everything is tied to the Cornucopia store.
Exactly.
Hi Son...... ( Laticis runs and ducks for cover )
All I can say if you want it now is the only time to buy before it goes on sale at full price.
Yes, the content restrictions are a bit silly but I suppose it is no different to DS or Poser Content and creating content for the market with a vendor willing to take the product could actually make you some dollars.
Yeah you better run...oh I hate you even more now. :)
Almost feel guilty for making you hate me ;)
LOL "almost"...love it.
I keep telling myself..one day I will have it all....now to hone that bank robbery plan.
If you need help let me know....but only with the planning...plausible deniability and all that jazz.
Here is a first simple model done from scratch with plant factory. This one uses absolute nothing that's included in TPF. The stems and distribution where designed in the node editor. The leafs are modeled as "Blades" and use a leaf texture and transparency map that I put together in Photoshop. Yes, I know it's ugly, but hey, it is my first. I learned quite a bit in the progress. One crucial thing will be good photo references for the leaf textures and barks. The bark could be done with procedurals, but for the leafs good images with matching transparency/normal maps will be key to high quality plants. Especially important is that for the blade object you need the center stem exactly centered in the image and as straight as possible.
Ciao
TD
Great heads up and advice thanks.
thd777 We all got to start somewhere.
Houses mate, houses...
I am not greedy.
That was the Plant Factory _Studio_ version? ... have you bumped into any of the "limitations" yet? (the things that are supposed to make us fork out $1000+ for the full version...).
That was the Plant Factory _Studio_ version? ... have you bumped into any of the "limitations" yet? (the things that are supposed to make us fork out $1000+ for the full version...).
Yes, this is with the Studio version pre-release. I have not had any problems with the limitations. The most noticeable ones were the inability to use certain functions to control parameters, but this restriction will be removed by e-on in the upcoming update on Monday. If you have not seen it yet, the news is here: http://www.theplantfactory-tech.com/
With the new version there will be no more restrictions that matter to most individual CG artists or small studios in my opinion. It mostly effects heavy duty rendering and data exchange between multiple copies. The only other restriction that might matter to some is the limit of selling models through C3D, however, this does not matter to me as I am using the program only for my own work.
Ciao
TD
Very interesting program, but not so stable at the moment (has already crashed 3 times on my computer).
Below is the Daz Studio 4.6 Pro render of one of the included Mexican Palm exported from Plant Factory
as .obj with a little adjusted materials in Daz Studio. I have added transparency map to the leaves,
as they are made from billboards and set ambient color to grey.
With one distant light with raytraced shadows rendering time was: 6 minutes 15.13 seconds
I attach also render of the Mexican Palm made in Plant Factory, as well.
Looking good. It's a neat program that has lots of potential. It will take some time to learn how to take advantage of all functionality. I have finally figured out how to grow plants on objects. Here is an example. There is some neat stuff that can done this way...
Exported as obj and rendered in Vue 11.5 Infinite.
Ciao
TD
One more Daz Studio 4.6 Pro render of the Mexican Palm exported as .obj from Plant Factory
with lights from Ring of Light - Environment Lighting
http://www.daz3d.com/ring-of-light-environment-lighting
Rendering Time: 13 minutes 51.75 seconds
Interesting stuff guys! The ability to grow plants on stuff is a very cool feature. I know it isn't unique to TPF, but I think we've got a lot more flexibility here than in other similar implementations.
Great render, thd777. I have just installed the program and updated to the PR2 version.
Would like to find out about how to make flowers and mushrooms.
Hope there will be some more documentation and tutorials...
Geekatplay just published their first set of tutorials. Very good information: http://www.geekatplay.com/dtpf
For flowers I would recommend to use a Hydra to arrange the petals (use blades for this) and then use a segment for the center or a ball.
Ciao
TD
One can also grow stuff on DAZ Figures...
TD