It has pines, and some pines, then there's pines. Of course there's always pines. And an aspen I think. Basically looks like a pine.


I personally think we need all the basic Euro and Med types for Merp, Mesogea etc, then some others.

Yew, Oak, Elm, Sycamore, Poplar, Willow, Plane, Rowan etc etc.

I am puzzled by the mention of tree animations... There are no moving trees or tree parts in Skyrim... If trees were animated, it would only run on high-end computers?

Well, take a look at the aspen trees around Riften. They are about the only non-pine trees in Skyrim (well, apart from the whiterun tree) and they are clearly animated. Do you see how they are gently swaying in the wind? ---> "animated"

In fact there are.
But there also seems to be a strange limitation to them, i.e. they're being completely disabled when your fps reach a certain limit.
Some optimization stuff I guess, though I doubt those animations would cause a huge drop if played constantly.

Probably is, but I'm not really 'at home' with animations in Nifskope. There's this:
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php/Basic_Animation_Tutorial
which could be helpful and maybe other people, more skilled then me could give you advises (Koniption, Vurt, ...)

Are vanilla Skyrim trees .nifs or something else?

Tree animations are stopped whenever your FPS hits below 30. It's to save your game from even further lagging.
If you don't see tree animations most of the time, it's because your computer can't handle it.

Thanks for the hint!
Well, Skyrim trees are nifs, but they have different nodes it seems and they also have bones for animations etc.

I am starting to consider to just create static trees without any animations since people with older computers won`t notice a difference anyway (and it doesn`t really affect immersion in a bad way). And since that would be also saving on FPS, there would be some extra room for higher polycount and/or better textures. I mean, most games that I know of don`t have animated trees neither and it doesn`t cause any harm.

Personally find it quite a difference in immersion between a static world and a moving world, and trees take up a lot of screen space. So you are saying they are bone animated? the whole trees? In a way that's kinda cool, might be possible to pull of some quite complicated nice looking effects in that case. (thinking having 2 or 3 bones moving at a faster back and forward motion with the edges of different leaf planes rigged to it so you not only get the tree sway, but leaf rustling effect)

I agree, but having new tree types at all is vital for the total conversions, while having them animated is low priority. So I think it's a good idea to just make static trees right now so we can at least design our regions. Making them animated could be done any time later.

Hey ztree, any new trees in the works?

Totally agree. If its easier and can be changed and improved later on then this way sounds best.

yup, I am working on different trees and I will post some screens here in the coming days, for feedback.
But right now I am also finishing another model thing for Merp that I can hopefully finally call finished after the last months of blender and texturing work.... Man, 3D modeling can really burn you out if you don`t be careful.

But on the trees again, I think we can still add animations and fancy stuff to the nifs later on, when it becomes easier to implement such things. Like a patch or something.

Try getting a basic box into the game. God I love this CK. I have tried like bu99ery to get a simple box mesh with a simple brick texture into the CK and game, stuffed if I can do it from max. Oblivion was so easy. Anyone have the slightest idea. All the tutorials are about shields and helmets and fairies and unicorns and the like (well not the last two, dont know why I said them...)

For static objects, you can still use the .obj export/import technique. Exporting your nif as an .obj in nifskope and then importing that .obj again into nifskope and deleting any unused strings (by Skyrim) and setting texture paths. This is a nice tutorial, that can be also used for statics: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=2158 and for the collision you can place "collision primitives" from the CK over your model (works nicely if your model is of simple shape) .

I hope that was helpful for you.

Seems that the thread has been moved from Mods to CK forum. Unnecessary confusion IMO, especially because it's about trees in general, not CK in particular.

Anyway, ztree, I'm looking forward to see your work.

He he, I said that I would post some pics of my WiP`s so here we go, let`s call it a "pics infestation" (ideas, tips and impressions are welcome) and you can click on the image to make it larger:

-Poplar, low poly version (ca.900): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/94/44370205.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/42236062.jpg/
-Poplar, medium poly version (idk, ca. 3,000-5,000?): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/39/23717528.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/91295534.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/97523523.jpg/ --- I have to say that a low poly poplar tree actually doesn`t make much sense when I think about it, because you probably won`t make an entire forest scene with poplars, so you can afford more polycount...but since I have the model now I will include it of course.

-Palm tree, medium poly (all trees that follow now are medium poly): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/44744255.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/88/29594488.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/75079418.jpg/ --- hehe, a palm also doesn`t make sense in Skyrim at first glance, but the resource model can possibly be helpful to some (I am thinking about quest mods that go like this: after hiring with some pirates near Solitude, you go on a adventure trip that takes you to tropical islands (seperate worldspaces) where you have to fight fire dragons and zombies in a tropical setting )

-don`t know the exact name, but it is similar to a cypress: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/684/74627828.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/714/48803864.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/11166037.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/23542007.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/703/17981356.jpg/ --- could fit into regions like Ithilien from the Lord of the rings ?

-tried my hand at an old Oak model (its still WiP): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/24606920v.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/83813951.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/38/66000567.jpg/
And I am also still working on the "young maple tree" model that I linked to in one of my earlier posts. In the end I hope to provide about 6-7 different tree types for my first resource package (with more packs to follow, hopefully). And I also know that the models certainly don`t seem like AAA+ quality stuff to they eyes of many 3D modelers, but please I am only a hobbyist (no, not hobbit) and this is only intended to fill up the variation additionaly to other resource packs from the different modders out there.

In conclusion, let me say that in my opinion tree modeling is very difficult, because it seems like every little polygon reduction that I make is painfully noticeable on the quality of the model (as compared to architecture models for example).

weeping willow: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/45024004.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/829/32167858.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/76129350.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/213/39289280.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/840/96375329.jpg/

Why doesn't someone just make a thread titled "Hey Bethesda! How do trees work?"
From what I've seen the staff (somewhat) frequents this forum, at least to address questions directed at them.

It's worth a shot at least.

I hope I'm not being rude, ztree, but with most of those trees, the leaves do kind of seem to be just shooting out of the branches in disks, it looks a little odd, like with the cypress for example. http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg684/scaled.php?server=684&filename=74627828.jpg&res=medium Is there a way to make them look more organic?

You are right, I guess they do look a little flat. I see if I can improve them, but that will probably increase polycount. That`s the thing about trees, imho, difficult to maintain good visuals with low polycount.

Actually, you can of course achieve better results even with low polycount (Bethesda devs had to do it too, after all) I am just still in the process of learning.

Gnarly Tree: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/402/64002062.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/171/56818617.jpg/ --- http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/263/54177217.jpg/
The gnarly tree I kept really low poly (ca.1,100) but still probably looking better than a lot of my other stuff so far .

This is fantastic work, can't wait to try them out. My world Hoddminir looks so boring with the pines and more pines...
There are so much more tree and plant species that would fit right in to the flora of Skyrim, and would give so much more variation for modders to work with. I have to say that the Skyrim pines looks more like cross breed of pine and spruce, at least comparing to the scandinavian trees. I tell you, sometimes it's a curse to be a plant biologist.

Keep up the good work!

Absolutely brilliant. Are you working on visible when distant models as well. Hats off to you mate, astounding.

I'm pretty sure there'll be some new trees in the coming add-on (or DLC, how Valvesda calls it...) - the tree content in Skyrim is really a bit puny...

The gnarly tree does look the best so far (except maybe the palm tree, which is also awesome), ztree.