i''d like to model a forest on a slope of a mountain .. what''s the best method to keep it good looking but with a low poly-count .. any ideas ?

There was a discussion along similar lines a while back ...

http://gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=115770

Depends what you are trying to do - assuming this has to be a real time solution then I would opt for billboarding for the trees.

Jon,

More usual way is to cross two or more planes using a tree texture with alpha, so you can have a tree to repeat (is good having different trees in the scene). If the texture is good, results can be fine ^_^. Another option is Harry Potter first game, making a low poly block and texturing it with a continuous tile of trees. Those metods are useless for an aereal camera, so be careful. For this sort of camera I recommend working with some piramids of different sizes (one on one) textured with trees branches (and alpha, of course).
(sorry for my $%%&/( english, I was sleeping in class during lessons). Hope this help you ^_^

A bit better looking but still low poly method I prefer is to make trees with modeled trucks and limbs but with billboard leave clusters for each limb. This way to an extent they can be animated with the wind blowing, and even without animation, they still look a bit nicer.

What about using a mesh for the main/base trunk, viewer-oriented quads for the limbs and branches, and alpha-textured planes (or clumps as suggested above).

EDIT: By quads I don't mean rectangular. I mean something like a fat-line with different widths at either end. If you know what i mean...


[edited by - bluegrass on December 11, 2002 5:33:07 AM]

Hello,
I wrote some software that can be used for this type of thing. You can create polygons one by one it a 3 Dimentional viewport. You might find it usefull for making you trees, it does cost $30.

http://www.geocities.com/madisonkid/NewPage.htm