Subdivision generator
This generator has been deprecated. Go to the current version or learn how to upgrade an old model.
Generation
The Generation properties are described in full detail under Generation Properties.
Forces
The properties in this group control the behavior of forces on this generator.
Random Seeds
Properties that have variance are given random values based on a seed value in this group. Vary the seeds in this group to randomize only the properties associated with the seed type.
Randomize All
Randomizes the value for all seeds used to compute this generator.
Segments
Accuracy
The number of segments in the underlying spine structure.
Length Style
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Relative | Length segments are computed based on the length of the spine. |
| Absolute | Length segments are set explicitly. |
Length
The number of segments composing spines.
Radial
The number of segments composing the radial cross-section of branches.
Cap rings
The number of segments composing the cap geometry of broken or open-ended branches.
Spine
Length Style
The method used to determine spine length – either "Absolute" or "Relative." When set to "Relative," two new options become available: Length % and Limit Length, which factor into determining the final calculated lengths.
Length %
When Length Style is set to "Relative," this value is used to determine how long the nodes of this generator will be as a percentage of their parent's length. Optionally, a length limit can be enacted, which will limit the maximum length of spines at the value set generically for length. (percentage)
Limit Length
When enabled, relative length spines will be capped at the length value. However, any individual node may be shorter than this value depending on the value set for Length % as well as the actual length of each parent node. (Boolean)
Length
The length of the spine.
Start Angle
The amount of angle offset from the parent node's growth direction at the point where each node occurs, where 0.0 is equal to the parent's direction, 1.0 is an inversion of the parent's direction, and 0.5 is perpendicular to the parent.
Roll
Uniform rotation of each spine.
Perturbance
Enabled
Toggles the effect of spine disturbance, jink frequency, and jink amount.
Disturbance
The amount of randomness applied to each angle along the spine length.
Jink Frequency
The sampling rate of the jink behavior.
Jink Amount
The amount to sample the jink behavior.
Note
"Jink frequency" and "Jink amount" work together to make the jink behavior. Either set to 0 nullifies the effect.
Return
Forces the spine node to return to its original growth path as if none of the perturbance properties were ever applied, even though in reality they are still in effect.
Note
Helpful when trying to recreate a tree with many knots and jinx, while keeping the trunk or branch on its original direction of growth.
Seed
Randomizes the values entered for the properties in this group.
Hand Drawn
Toggle Hand Drawn
Pressing this button will convert a procedural branch into a hand-drawn branch and vice versa. During the process, some properties (such as Allow forces and Spine:Perturbance) are disabled or enabled to provide a more seamless conversion.
Note
Converting to hand-drawn may result in a slightly different branch. Bifurcations will become disabled and/or the spline may twitch slightly during the resampling.
Control Point Style
Selects the type of control points that are used to form the Bézier spline from the following options.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Corner | Control point handles are independently rotated and scaled to best fit the hand drawing |
| Linear | Control point handles are rotated in unison (per control point) but are scaled independently, creating linear tangents. |
| Smooth | Control point handles are rotated and scaled in unison, creating symmetrical tangents. |
Curve Fit Scalar
The accuracy of the Bézier spline that is created after hand drawing. Higher values result in the creation of more control points. Once drawn, a spline can be resampled with the "Curve fit scalar" found in the "Resample" group.
Branch
Radius Style
Selects how the radius is computed from the following options:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Absolute | The radius of the branch is determined using real-world units. |
| Relative | The radius of the branch is a percentage of its parent node at the point where it was generated. |
Radius
The radius of the branch skin.
Intersection
Smooth
This property controls how far away the child's first ring is from the parent. The closer the child's first ring is to the parent, the harsher the intersection is; the further out the child's ring is, the smoother the intersection is.
Relax Scale
Averages out the vertices at the conjunction in order to remove artifacts.
Upper Spread
The amount to spread the weld segments towards the end of the parent branch, creating a "web" where the branches meet.
Lower Spread
The amount to spread the weld segments towards the start of the parent branch, creating a "web" where the branches meet.
Texture Pull
The amount to extend the blended texture region along the child branch, elongating or squashing the texture mapping.
Texture Density
Controls how tightly the texture is packed around the intersections.
Flares
Number
The number of flares around the branch.
Balance
An interpolation between equally spaced and randomly positioned flares.
Width
The radial spread of each flare.
Length
The distance out from the initial branch radius that the flares will extend.
Height
The distance the flare extends up the spine of each node.
Pinch
Compresses the flare area for a more compact and denser look without affecting the radius of the area where the vertices intersect.
Twist
Rotates the end of the flares, which is furthest away from the intersection, around the center spine.
Seed
Randomizes the values of the 'Flare' properties.
Cap
Border
Insets the cap from the branch to simulate bark thickness.
Note
A cap border greater than 0.0 results in an extra ring of cap segments.
Offset
Extrudes the cap geometry in the direction of the last length segment.
Note
Requires a Cap: Border value greater than 0.0.
Lip
The length of the ring edge surrounding the end of a trunk or branch.
Lip Sharpness
The width of the cap's ring edge. Scales from 0 to 1; at 0 the cap has a thin edge and at 1 it has a thick edge.
Angle
The rotation of the texture coordinates around the center of the cap.
Slope
The length to extend one side of the cap, creating a slope.
Note
Rotate the slope with "Angle."
Texture Coordinates
Base
Style
Selects the method used for UV coordinate computation.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Relative | Both U and V tile are computed based on the length and radius of the node. |
| U relative | U-tile is computed based on the radius of the node. |
| V relative | V-tile is computed based on the length of the node. |
| Absolute | Both U-tile and V-tile are set explicitly. |
U Tile
The number of times the material tiles around a branch.
Note
If "Texture Coordinates:Style" is set to relative, this integer becomes a floating point value and the actual value is a function of the radius of individual nodes. The computed U tile value is then rounded to an integer to avoid texture seams.
V Tile
The number of times the material tiles along the length of a branch.
Note
If "Texture Coordinates:Style" is set to relative, this integer becomes a floating point value and the actual value is a function of the length of individual nodes.
U Offset
Shifts the U coordinates.
V Offset
Shifts the V coordinates.
Twist
The number of full revolutions to twist the material per V tile.
Flip Twist
When this value is not checked, each branch twists in a counter-clockwise direction. When it is checked, each branch twists the same amount in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.
Detail
The properties in this group are ignored in version 8.0 and later.
Materials
Branches and caps can each have multiple materials to be distributed randomly. Use the button controls to add [+] or remove [-] materials per geometry type.
Material
A named material from the material bank, or set to "inherited."
Weight
The probability that a node will receive this material index (this weight ÷ sum of all weights).
Sync Index
When enabled (and multiple branch, cap, and frond materials are present), the distribution of cap and frond materials is synced to the distribution of branch materials. This ensures that "Branch 1" and "Cap 1" are always assigned together, and so on.
Displacement
Branch
Source
Selects the source of the displacement from the following options:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Noise | A generic, scalable noise pattern is used for displacement. |
| Use material | The material's height map (located in the normal map's alpha channel) is used for displacement. |
| Named Displacement Texture | A named displacement asset. |
Note
The displacement source is not exported for real-time use; it is used only as a modeling aid.
Mapping
Selects how the displacement is mapped to the branch from the following options:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Use base tex coords | Displacement is mapped on top of the existing Layer: Base coordinates. Tile and offset are applied after obtaining the base coordinates. |
| Overwrite base tex coords | Ignore the existing coordinates and map displacement explicitly by the other values in this group. |
Amount
The amount of surface displacement.
Offset
The amount to offset the depth of the displacement source. Values greater than 1 will push the displacement outwards and less than 1 will bring the displacement in towards the center of the branch.
U Tile
The number of times displacement is repeated across the U direction of the geometry.
Note
If Displacement: Mapping is set to "Use base tex coords," this value is a multiplier of the base U tile value.
V Tile
The number of times displacement is repeated along the length of the geometry.
Note
If Displacement: Mapping is set to "Use base tex coords," this value is a multiplier of the base V tile value.
U Offset
Shifts the displacement in the U direction.
V Offset
Shifts the displacement in the V direction.
Cap
Source
Selects the source of the displacement from the following options:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Noise | A generic, scalable noise pattern is used for displacement. |
| Use material | The material's height map (located in the normal map's alpha channel) is used for displacement. |
| Named Displacement Texture | A named displacement asset. |
Note
The displacement source is not exported for real-time use; it is used only as a modeling aid.
Amount
The amount of surface displacement.
U Offset
Shifts the displacement in the U direction.
V Offset
Shifts the displacement in the V direction.
UV Tile
The number of times displacement is tiled from the center of a cap.
Angle
Rotation offset for displacement texture.
Wind
Apply
Apply wind at this level.
Weight
The strength of the wind effect on this set of nodes.
Note
The left-hand side of the profile curve must be zero to avoid branch disconnections.
Rotation
Controls the direction of the vector along which this branch travels during wind oscillation. These values seldom change but can be modified to prevent neighboring branches from oscillating in the same direction (this is usually done in node editing mode).
Ambient Occlusion
The properties in this group are ignored in version 8.0 and later.
Physics
Use Frond Geometry
When enabled, frond geometry is made physical as well.
Bone Style
Selects how bones are computed from the following options:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Relative | The number of bones is based on the length of the spine. |
| Absolute | The number of bones is explicitly set per-node. |
Bones
The number of bones generated along the length of spines.
Note
If Bone Style is set to relative, this integer becomes a floating point value and the actual number of bones generated is a function of the length of individual nodes.
Radius Scalar
The percentage to scale the radius of the bones.
Length Scalar
The percentage to scale the length of the bones.
Density
The weight and stiffness of branch geometry in physics calculations.
Lightmap
Scale
Scales all of the geometry in this object's relevance in the automatically computed lightmap UV set. Use the distribution curve to control where the lightmap UV density is applied. The default value packs more at the base than at the tip. Keep in mind that the scale value is considered along with the geometry area and texture area of the object. In addition, every object's lightmap scale is compared to every other object and then the lightmap packing is determined. This means that your scale value may not be honored exactly or may get so large as to exhibit unexpected results. Use "Tools→Reset lightmap scalars" to go back to default values for the whole model.