The Tree Generator is the root node of any model. It controls various global parameters such as the initial radius, LOD settings, and leaf collision.
The radius of the tree area.
The amount to lower the tree below the ground plane.
The amount to rotate the entire tree around the origin.
Toggles level of detail preview.
Enabling LOD preview may slow down compute time.
LOD state is controlled with the LOD indicator in the tree window or via the CTRL + left-click key combo.
LOD state is determined based on the camera's position between the near and far LOD planes.
The number of discrete 3D levels of detail.
The distance from the camera to begin the initial LOD transition.
The distance from the camera to complete the final 3D LOD transition.
The distance from the camera to initialize fading the billboard.
The distance from the camera to finish fading in the billboard.
When enabled, leaf collision is active (either automatically or manually).
No automatic leaf collision.
Automatic leaf culling.
Automatic leaf spreading.
Automatically spread, then cull leaves.
Automatically cull, then spread leaves.
Distance to spread colliding leaves in order to reduce overdraw and z-fighting.
Amount of colliding leaves to remove entirely.
When enabled, various techniques are bypassed (and possibly resolution is reduced) to temporarily increase compute speed for high detail trees.
When disabled, welding is bypassed in degradation mode.
When disabled, leaf collision is bypassed in degradation mode.
Even though disabling leaf collision results in more leaf polygons, the tree will compute quicker since leaf collision is a bottleneck in the compute process
Scalar for reducing the cross-sectional segments globally across the tree while in degradation mode.
Scales the frequency of generators that are the end of the topological chain (e.g. leaves), or any generator with its degradation style set to 'always'. Topological leaves often house the majority of generated nodes and thus are the slowest to compute.
When enabled, the tree becomes degraded only while computing (while the left mouse button is held down). This adds to the interactivity of high detail trees.
When disabled, descendant nodes aren't generated while computing. This greatly increases the compute time for trees with large node structures.
When disabled, skin compute is bypassed and the tree is rendered as only a frame until the compute is finished.
When disabled, branch welding is bypassed while the tree is computing.
Edits to welding parameters may be difficult to view interactively with this option disabled since the effect is bypassed.
When disabled, manipulating force objects in the scene or editing force properties does not compute the tree until the action is over.
When disabled, Moving points or handles in the curve editor are not applied to the tree until the movement is completed.
Scalar for reducing the cross-sectional segments globally across the tree while actively computing.
When enabled, panning, rotating, and zooming are greatly accelerated in the Tree Window by only drawing the frame.
Useful for when when working with high polygon tree models.
Use this option to zip compress '.spm' files when they are saved to dramatically reduce the file size.
When this option is enabled, the geometry of the tree model is stored in the file alongside the procedural paramters used to generate it.
If you are using the SpeedTree SDK, you must have this option enabled.
When enabled, ambient occlusion (AO) is computed once the tree is loaded. This option is disabled if 'Embed geometry' is enabled, since AO is saved with the gemoetry in that case (this is primarily for high detail trees not intended for real-time use).
When enabled, leaf mesh vertex winding is adjust to match the average of the normals at each vertex so that two-sided lighting works correctly.
Controls whether or not the tree can break.
A multiplier for the maximum linear and angular force that the joint between branches can withstand before breaking.
A per mass multiplier for the spring stiffness coefficient of the joints between branches.
A per mass multiplier for the spring damping coefficient of the joints between branches.
A range to determine how much the branches are allowed to swing (in degrees).
The angle at which the branch will stay deformed if plastic deformation is enabled (in degrees).