Trees Tags Models (MAX)

Author:  Waringshot3

thanks goes out to kornman00 for extracting the sp and mp bitmap tags.






Ok let’s start



copy the file trees.shader_collections to tagsscenariosshaders

copy the tree_leafy folder to tagsscenariosobjectsnaturetrees and if prompted to replace any files click yes.



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Getting the trees into your level in 3ds max

You can just fire up the trees.max file and start a new level from there but if you already got a level and need these trees in the level look at using merge (just down a few lines).



or if you are using gmax or something else don’t worry I exported the trees into .3ds and .obj formats for you but you will have to set up the materials again (look down to where I explain each material so you know what to put in). 

The scale of the trees might be off so just scale them up or down on and if you want to see both sides to the leaves just untick backface cull in the objects properties and you will have to weld some verts, just select all the vertexs and hit weld and that should fix smoothing errors.




Using merge


Ok first thing is to backup you level incase something bad happens.

now the max file is from 3ds max 6 so anyone with max 6 or up will be ok.

when in your level go to filemerge and select trees.max (under max files)
You should get a small window open up, select everything in the list.

Now the trees should appear somewhere so just look around, if you cant see them use the select by name tool, select one of the trees (starts with %tree_) and hit the Z key. The camera will move to the selected tree.


Now to get the trees material in the material editor.
Make sure when you got the material editor open you can still see one of the trees!
In the material editor select an unused sphere, click on material in the tool bar and hit pick from object, now click on the tree and you should now have a multi/sub-object In the material slot.
If lost look at “materias.jpg” (its in the readme pic folder)

Note: if you look at any of the standard materials in the multisub-object and under the maps panel there will be bitmaps applied but you will need to clear the diffuse slots of all three materials and the opacity of number 2 and then reimport the pics.
notes: jpg and tif files are in the folder “max files".


here are the 3 materials

1: “ob_tl tree_leafy_trunk”		uses tree_leafy_trunk.jpg in the diffuse slot
2: “ob_tl tree_leafy_leaves!%”		uses tree_leafy_leaves.jpg in the diffuse slot and tree_leafy_leaves_alpha.jpg in the opacity slot
3: “ob_tl tree_leafy_trunk!”		Uses tree_leafy_trunk.jpg in the diffuse slot


Number 1 is for the trunks and branches

Number 2 is for the leaves, please leave ! and % on the end.

And number 3 is for small branches that don’t need collision, it must have ! on the end otherwise you will get open edge errors.


The “od_tl” in front of the materials name points to scenariosobjectsnaturetreesshaders

The ! symbol tells h2 to only render the triangles and not build collision around them.

The % symbol tells h2 that the surface is double sided and makes viewing of the triangle in h2 visible from both sides.



If you know about instancing you can skip this part. If not your about to learn my half ass explanation of instancing.

One thing about populating a level with trees or any other object that will be used a lot and has a shit load of triangles is to not copy the same object over and over but to instance it. Instance is what I call a real time clone but im sure others call it something different. 
This makes the game run faster because only one copy of an instanced object needs to be exported and that saves on ram!


From the 3ds max reference help file
“Copy method: Creates a completely separate clone from the original. Modifying one has no effect on the other. 
Instance method: Creates a completely interchangeable clone of the original. Modifying an instanced object is the same as modifying the original. 


Basically if you change something with an instanced object it will also apply the changes to the original object and any other instances that came from the original.
You can apply modifiers and other stuff but if you click on make unique or collapse the modifier stack it will make the selected object a clone and any changes done after only apply to that object and not the original or any other instanced objects that came from the original. 
One of the cool things about instances is that you can move, rotate and scale them without affecting all of the other instances, so you can have a small instance of a tree and a large instance of the same tree.



Objects that are instances + the original need to have the % (instanced (detail) object prefix) symbol at the start of their name. example “%tree_big_01”

For more info on Instanced Geometry look at the help file that came with h2v map editor and type in “Instanced Geometry” into the index tab.




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 Conclusion and stuff I don’t know anywhere else to put

Now if you are getting low frames per second you can speed up 3ds max by disabling the transparency. On the view port right click on the word perspective, top, left or front, move down to transparency and select none. 
The leaves will no longer be see-through and you get a lot more FPS. This in no way affects the final look of the tree when in game.
Look at “icanhavemoreFPS!.jpg” if lost


If you get low FPS when in h2v and you think it’s the trees you can lower the triangle count by selecting elements (in the edit mesh or poly modifier) and deleting them.
Look at pic “deletingtris.jpg” for an example


if you get spamed by h2tool about warnings about duplicate shader collection crap dont worry, its just that some guy who programmed h2tool to allow for more then 1 shader collection failed to do his job good.

If the trees don’t have any materials on them when in sapien then there must be something wrong with the locations of files or the material in 3ds max.
Maybe look at any errors h2tool says, check the “tagsscenariosshaders” folder to see if trees.shader_collections is there, check the shaders to see if the bitmaps are linked correctly and if thats ok then check the bitmaps. I did have trouble with kornmans bitmap tags so if you didn’t replace the 4 bitmaps I included then you might need to replace them and see.


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files list

 trees.shader_collections

 max files
	Detail_tree_leafy.jpg
	Tree_leafy_leaves.jpg
	tree_leafy_leaves_alpha.jpg
	tree_leafy_leaves_bump.tif
	tree_leafy_trunk.jpg
	trees.max

 Tree_leafy
	Bitmaps
		detail_tree_leafy.bitmap
		tree_leafy_leaves.bitmap
		tree_leafy_leaves_bump.bitmap
		tree_leafy_trunk.bitmap

	shaders
		tree_leafy_leaves.shader
		tree_leafy_trunk.shader

	exported
		trees.3ds
		trees.obj

	readme pics
		deletingtris.jpg
		icanhavemoreFPS!.jpg
		materials.jpg
		My_shader_animation.jpg


this is where the files need to be in order for stuff to work.


trees.shader_collections	Tagsscenariosshaders

detail_tree_leafy.bitmap	Tagsscenariosobjectsnaturetreestree_leafybitmaps
tree_leafy_leaves.bitmap	Tagsscenariosobjectsnaturetreestree_leafybitmaps
tree_leafy_leaves_bump.bitmap	Tagsscenariosobjectsnaturetreestree_leafybitmaps
tree_leafy_trunk.bitmap		Tagsscenariosobjectsnaturetreestree_leafybitmaps

tree_leafy_leaves.shader	Tagsscenariosobjectsnaturetreestree_leafyshaders
tree_leafy_trunk.shader		Tagsscenariosobjectsnaturetreestree_leafyshaders