Real Time Simulation Of A Carboniferous Forest (Work in Progress)

[paleoflor]

Great artwork and interesting thread! After introduction of the dichotomous branching, they look pretty much like most of the reconstructions I have seen.

About the "forest density": why not model your world after an actual occurrence of fossilized stumps, namely Fossil Grove (Scotland)? I am sure there will be maps of the eleven Lepidodendron stumps found there, and this can give you a good idea of their proximity to one another. If you have access to it, this paper, for example, could be useful.

Tim

[leeb180]

i dont know anything to comment on this from a historical level, but can i just say it looks awesome, and the 35 fps looks a lot better than the 9 earlier ;-)

Great work, would love to be able to walk around and look up at them, examine the bark etc too

Keep up the awesome work!

Lee

[paolo]

Here is a carved in blender, leaves Pecopteris, left, is there about a month, and its cooked on low polygon poly, right result (I said, for those who are not familiar these techniques;)), with normal map and diffuse handmade by desssu ambient occlusion: it's quick, but it already gives an idea of ​​the possibility of foliage dedicated this time the earth failing to have high resolution trees and plants "real" photos (if someone has the ability to travel through time: i have done part of the trip ^ ^).

I have a little time to myself (not much ...), but if you're interested, I can try to make foliage that interests you for your achievements, with an output psd to be able to put your own colors and textures of dirt.

Nota

impossible to post a picture, because of the restriction related to new forum members.

I have sent by message, so you can see. (sorry for my English : i'm French )

Edited July 17, 2014 by paolo

[Auspex]

...impossible to post a picture, because of the restriction related to new forum members.

I have sent by message, so you can see. (sorry for my English : i'm French )

There is no such restriction for posting images to a topic; there is a universal limit on file size, though.

[phoenix64]

Here's the Pecopteris Leaf Texture screenshot by Paolo:

Awesome work!

[LordTrilobite]

Looks awesome. Will you be adding creatures as well?

[phoenix64]

Psaronius by Paolo:

Absolutely awesome work, Paolo!

(The ground ferns are completely unfinished work by me, so no need to judge it)

@LordTrilobite:

Yes, I'm planning to add at least a meganeura dragonfly. And probably some swamp things I don't even know the names of yet

@Paleoflor:

That's an excellent idea. I'll check if this is possible for the final level. This could be even a cool addition for the Fossil Grove museum, to have a simulation of their own fossils.

Edited July 26, 2014 by phoenix64

[Stocksdale]

Great job on those Psaronius, Paolo!!!!!

Coming together nicely, Phoenix64!

[monster_hut]

Great stuff, i'm also a fan of carboniferous forests

You could use a reflection map for the water in order to increase the frame rate, that will let you add more foliage in the water and the reflection map will not be so off.

Edited September 11, 2014 by antonescu_dan_petru

[phoenix64]

Thank you

For the final version it is planned to reduce some detail for slower graphic cards, indeed also the water.

In the meantime, I kept on optimizing and improving stuff... texture quality, water, all roots are now attached to the ground, trees move a bit... but nothing to show yet in a still image.

Oh yes... and I tripled the FPS. How? I bought a new graphics card

[phoenix64]

Hi,

time for an update.

I have spent a long time tweaking the water and other stuff. The water is not completely finished (has some minor errors), but for my understanding it fits the swampy area.

Odontopteris is work in progress (I hope the textures will become nicer). For creating the calamites, I have yet spent 3 hours or so - record-breaking. It turns out those plants are very artist-friendly due to their highly geometrical structure But nevertheless, there will be still some work with them, creating textures. And I will create a lot of smaller calamite species.

I am thinking about releasing a downloadable first public version after I have finished the calamites and odontopteris , or at least a small preview movie. Still a lot is missing, but it's already fun to walk around in the swamp

[Roz]

Very life-like. Fantastic work you have done.

[Stocksdale]

Wow. Really coming to life.

[fossilized6s]

Beautiful!!! It's really cool to see some of the fossils that I've found reconstructed so elegantly.

[LanceH]

Will this be for some kind of interactive application we can buy or download?

A real time interactive simulation of ancient fauna and flora is a very cool idea.

[phoenix64]

Thank you

It will be a free application. The player will be able to walk around in it like in a first-person-shooter game (well, without gun ). Probably I'll also add a virtual directional pad for people who are not used to playing such games.

I'm also planning to implement a "PDA" mode - you click on a plant and get a dialog with information about this plant.

I hope it will be also interesting for museums.

When I began the project, I at first created a simple tree. As the texture, I simply placed some lepidodendron fossil image on it, placed a lot of these "trees" in the scene and started it. Also it of course did not look very good, it made me shiver... this fossil, dead for 300 millions of years, came to new life. Almost mystical feeling

[fossilized6s]

Thank you

It will be a free application. The player will be able to walk around in it like in a first-person-shooter game (well, without gun ). Probably I'll also add a virtual directional pad for people who are not used to playing such games.

I'm also planning to implement a "PDA" mode - you click on a plant and get a dialog with information about this plant.

I hope it will be also interesting for museums.

When I began the project, I at first created a simple tree. As the texture, I simply placed some lepidodendron fossil image on it, placed a lot of these "trees" in the scene and started it. Also it of course did not look very good, it made me shiver... this fossil, dead for 300 millions of years, came to new life. Almost mystical feeling

Sounds very interesting. Sign me up! Edited October 27, 2014 by fossilized6s

[LordTrilobite]

Sounds lovely! I think this could also greatly benefit with support for the Oculus Rift.

[Jurassic Jim]

Fantastic. Really amazing work you have performed. Just amazing how you have brought the scene to life. Congratulations

[phoenix64]

Thank you

@LordTrilobite:

Yes, this project would be amazing on Oculus Rift. But my current target frame rate is a minimum of 25FPS@1920x1080 on a Geforce GTX 770 (my card).

I assume it will need a reduced/special version and / or extremely powerful hardware (Quad SLI or such), because Oculus Rift needs 60FPS minimum (some say even more) to feel good.

So as I am planning reduced versions for slower cards anyway, OR support will definitely one of the last things to do.

[LordTrilobite]

Btw, if you need any help with modelling some creatures. If so, give me a shout. I would be glad to help out.

[Auspex]

Wow...

Google Earth Street View; Paleozoic edition!

[Clayton Jones]

I'd be willing to help models some creatures as well!

[Pagurus]

I'm impressed by your amazing skill and by all the time you've invested in developing it. Thank you for this terrific project!

[phoenix64]

Thank you for the praise

@LordTrilobite and Clayton Jones -> PM