I hate plant life in games...

[Ivory_Soul]

Why is it that in EVERY SINGLE game ALL plant life look like cardboard cut outs?! Even in next gen games! I was playing Gears of War today and I was in the mansion level and noticed that the vines on the walls are flat textures instead of realistic looking vines...the trees in GRAW are crap too. Does it have to do with system power? I mean we're in the next gen and plants still look like they did from the 32 bit era. Thank God a company called Interactive Data Visualization inc. has come out with a middleware called SpeedTree. It's an engine that makes trees look extremely realistic and they MOVE yeah they actually MOVE on their OWN in real time. Each blade of grass will sway with the wind...every leaf and branch will sway and blow and if there is a strong gust in the game leaves will come off. The even implemented this in handhelds (PSP to be more specific) just take a look at this screenshot for The Elder Scrolls Travels IV: Oblivion for PSP.

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/7148/img450b1d19ca689qjgenthiz6.jpg

Yeah on the PSP they can get everything to move individually in real time. They said with the next gen power this will be amazing. I'm sure Hidea Kojima will love this for MGS4. The following development companies have signed a deal with IDV to use the SpeedTree middleware in their future games.

Cryptic Studios (known for City of Heroes), Cheyenne Mountain Studios (they will use SpeedTree for Stargate Worlds MMORPG), Artplant AS, Namco Bandai, Epiphany Games, and LucasArts, Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Volition / THQ, NCSoft, Bethesda Softworks (for Elder Scrolls Oblivion), Flying Lab, Insomniac Games, Mythic Entertainment, and a whole slew of other studios in taking advantage of SpeedTree technology. You've seen SpeedTree trees before in Call of Duty 3, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and Resistance: Fall of Man.

Thank you IDV!!

[TheGreenElf]

A similar thread was made like this, but its mostly due to system power. You usually don't do a lot of interacting with the trees so they save the space for everything else you do interact with. Plus, trees are difficult to make realistic. For a perfect tree it could take as much time as creating the rest of the game world. And then you only have one model of a tree.

[Ivory_Soul]

Yeah from me personally doing 3D graphic art trees taking the longest because of their geometric math that's involved. It's really render intensive so I see your point but SpeedTree is a lifesaver and I won't be as annoyed as much.

[D3adcell]

Think its also that the developers dont want to spend their time on something like grass. But i too hate it how alot of games you can walk through the grass and its like paper. You look at it from a certain angle and its crap.

[Ivory_Soul]

Yeah like in the older PS2 games the shrubs are a cutout of 4 pieces of cardboard stuck together...it like fans out like that...it was really lame...

[Blaksmoke]

The plants in Metroid Prime and MP 2 look friggin' great, and those games are 2-4 years old. Those two games are really the only ones I can think of where the plants looked...like plants. In Twilight Princess they look like cutouts...same thing with Shadow of the Collossus...Resident Evil 4...Halo 2....pretty much every game I can think of that looks great other than the flora.

[Phoenix]

It doesn't matter how good graphics a machine can push if no one draws anything to use them. It's mostly the art developers who are to blame, not the machines themselves.

[koten]

Plant's are annoying to make. Cause you'd start to bitch if they made one or two really good trees and used them over and over.

This speedtree thing sounds pretty good, but I hope they have A LOT of different tree designs, or it's going to be awfully annoying to see the same 5 trees in every game.

[curryking1]

You should play MGS3, good plantlife in that one. Trees are very good looking, and the last level should you get there, it will impress, I guarantee. It will suck all your plants in gaming hating away lol.

I do agree with your complaint though, in many games I have this aversion for these crappy ass trees. In Oblivion they stick out very badly because they are all over too, I never liked basically a lot of Bethesda's work on their engine for Oblivion.

But again, trees in MGS3 and a lot of the plantlife is very beautiful, the last level is absolutely stunning what they pulled off there.

[Ivory_Soul]

Yeah I played MGS3 Subsistence and the plant life was really good for a PS2 game. I hope people start making plant life better looking soon. What also annoyed me were flat textures on the outside of buildings. Like the windows were just a flat texture and that was really annoying. Of course they couldn't make it 3D due to hardware issues but now there's no excuse.

[Xer0]

You should play MGS3, good plantlife in that one.

Well i guess the reasoning for that is that the plant life directly affects the way you play to game and so they had to put a lot of effor in it, and yes the plant life does look amazing in the game too bad the textures on the ground look like crap tho but w/e.

[OnBake Platinum]

Far Cry has awesome vegetation.

[Ivory_Soul]

Yeah Far Cry does and Crysis is going to be the best ever at it. I mean when you walk into large brush or plants the leaves and foliage bend and move as you move against it. If your gun hits a leaf it'll bend it and make the appropriate sound. The new Crytek engine is a godly thing and I hope they use it in future games.

[TheGreenElf]

Far Cry has awesome vegetation.

*NOTE* He doesn't mean Far Cry Wii. Thought I'd clear that up.

Can't remember, but I think the new Turok has great looking vegetation...

[Boggy700]

Realistic* depictions of natural organisms in simulated digital environments is nice, though unnecessary.
I'd rather spend my time progressing through the story than watching grass grow.
That said, SpeedTree looks like a big step forward.


*As realistic as can be, but really it all looks fake to me.
Trees, grass, people and even live action cutscenes.

[Ivory_Soul]

Can't remember, but I think the new Turok has great looking vegetation...

I think Turok next-gen is using the Crytek engine that's probably why.

[Chris]

I remember back when Halo was just out for a few months, my friends were absolutely in love with it, played it all the time, and it was better than everything else(probably what contributed to me hating it) in every aspect. One thing they said that was irritating was that the graphics looked better than that of Metroid Prime, which my one friend, who also loves Halo, completely disagree with the rest. We were playing in Blood Gulch, and I looked at the ground and was like, "LOOK, it's like they took a picture of a blade of grass and copied and pasted it ALL AROUND THE MAP!!"

To sum up, plantlife has always sucked, and will probably, with some notable exceptions(noted above), continue to suck for the time being.

[curryking1]

Well i guess the reasoning for that is that the plant life directly affects the way you play to game and so they had to put a lot of effor in it, and yes the plant life does look amazing in the game too bad the textures on the ground look like crap tho but w/e.

Well, the textures aren't bad, they are actually pretty amazing for a PS2 game. And even if the plants were supposed to be there because of the gameplay, the environments are still some of the most amazing outdoor environments, especially the jungle areas.