Tree Magik G2
Community Forums/Developer Stations/Tree Magik G2
| ||
| [Slightly amended after comments below from authors]. Well, all I can say is that this is a lovely addition to the current suite of Tree generation programmes from AlienCodec. It's much more controllable for fast and furious tree making, and has the 'in-depth' side should you want to spend the time too, including the leaf texture menu - which I like very much. It looks like it uses an updated version of BCF as the gui and it looks superb! There are menus for everything and they are very easy to use and playing for a few minutes gets results you'll enjoy. The download is 43 MB so there's a massive media base which comes with this prog too. The export abilities are incredible too, there's everything in there you would want or need, just look at the list! 'Export to X, OBJ, LWO, SMD, ASC(3dmax), TXT(milkshape), DBO(darkbasicPro), B3D, RAW, WRL, TM2' Where it falls down for me is that these days I expect to see movement in the branches or leaves. Now I may be wrong but I can't see any movement in there at all, certainly in the preview mode the grass pops up but then it all remains static, no wind or even light breeze. That's a real shame as it's what is needed to make people look at this as a definate purchase. [amended by addition] A great way to add animation easily to the exported trees would be to export them as TXT(milkshape), bone and animate them inside Milkshape. This export possibility from Tree Magik Generation 2 provides an excellent opportunity to make all your tree filled environments come to life. For me, this is the best product in this range from AlienCodec so far - and apparently there is an upgrade path if you have purchased previous similar products - AND they promise an upgrade path from here up with-in the G2 range. I do have an issue with the 'photorealistic textures' - they are photographs maybe, but up close they are generally not so high in detail. This is fine for low poly - trees in the distance - but when your character wanders around the orchard, you'll be able to see the lack of detail up close, but you can't have everything! A lot of work has gone into refining this product, and it really shows, for some it will be just what they have been waiting for - for others it will be a very worthy upgrade. IPete2. |
| ||
| Hi IPete2. When you purchased Tree Magik Pro you should have received an email containing a username and password to log into in order to download the package. If you log back in to the link specified in this initial Tree Magik Pro email you will notice there is now a PayPal link to buy the new version at a reduced rate (I think it is $27). Hope that helps. |
| ||
| Hi IPete, Thanks for those comments. You touch a few points of interest. One being the animations. As Im aware of the need for animation it just wasnt suitable for this project. As I would have had to use bone animations for most of the sequences. This would have limited my export ability to just a few; not so good when my goal was to reach a broader audience. Tmg2 does offer a real time saver for animtations however. The milkshape export loads trees directly into milkshape including the alphas.. It took me about 10 mins to bone and animate a tree. While this dosent justify the lack of animation controls - it does offer an alternative. Im still going to be adding some form of animation export soon however even if it's restricted to X and B3d exporting only. As for an upgrade path, you mention there isn't one when in fact there is. The Aliencodec forums provide this information and can be viewed here. http://www.aliencodec.com/cgi-bin/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=e6887f1c24eab2f7fdb52f32d27536e2;act=ST;f=1;t=62 I'm continually upgrading and updating tmg2 - as today i will be releasing a patch which allows multi-language support. Im also very close to finishing an addon plugin that allows designers to place tree roots on the creations.. This is only the begining ! The reason for the upgrade charge is simple - We first sold Treemagik Classic and allowed users to upgrade to Treemagik Plus for free.. From treemagik Plus users where allowed to upgrade to Treemagik Pro for free. Thats alot of free updates! Seeing as Classic used to only cost $20 - people were upgraded with more than $85.00 of free products. I don't have a problem with this and orginally planned to conitnue the free upgrade support. That is until i signed several contracts with resellers and wholesellers - these options no longer became avaiable to me. I had to fight pretty hard just to allow Treemagik Pro users to upgrade for a reduced cost. Once again, thanks for the indepth review ! |
| ||
| Hey guys, Thanks for the response - I checked the AlienCodec website before I wrote about it and found no mention at that time of an upgrade path - but I'm happy there is one - I will amend my 'review' to that fact! I'm glad there is one - it kinda makes me feel I was a little too harsh now. I'm also glad you mentioned the Milkshape path for anims as this is a very sensible way of adding animation to the trees exported - for me this is how I would want to proceed to add them as it is a fast an defficient way forwards. I had it in my mind that I had to pay for the upgrade to Tree Magik Pro - not sure why - but I was fairly sure I had paid extra for the upgrade - my genuine mistake - sorry. IPete2. |
| ||
| It's a very very nice good product ! I like it's ! Regards, |
| ||
| I agree too. Kiss. Acer Ferrari 3200 Laptop. |
| ||
| Just released 1.01, added multi-language support and two language paks, english and french (thanks to pinkcherry). The demo dosent support ML yet but im working on that right now. french_screenie It's still got the debug numbers displayed, but you get the idea.. And thanks for the comments guys. Ps: I'm looking for a Englsih-to-German and English-to-Spanish translator please.... |
| ||
| Woot :) multi-language :) wooooooooot good new ! Kiss. |
| ||
| Yes... You have to make sure the program supports English, American (non Texas), Texan, and Scottish. ;) -Z |
| ||
| What happened to "Skyfab" ? I'm still looking for a good way to add cloud layers to a skybox! |
   |