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Computer Scientists Grow a Better Virtual Tree
Reservoir Hill points us to a story about a group of computer scientists who are taking steps to bring the creation of 3-D worlds to the casual user. As a proof-of-concept, Vladlen Koltun and the Stanford Virtual Worlds Group, using data collected by botanists, have developed software to create virtual 3-D trees with roughly 100 different tree attributes, all of which are highly variable. Quoting:
"The inability of casual computer users to build 3-D objects - you practically have to be a sculptor, Koltun says - is an anchor holding back the promise of virtual worlds. Koltun's software, Dryad (a tree nymph in Greek mythology,) lets users move through the 100-attribute tree space in a fashion similar to navigating city streets on Google Maps. As in real life, not all trees are equally desirable. Since no single user is capable of mapping out the best parts of the enormous tree space, this mapping of desirability is done collaboratively, leading to continuous refinement of the software."
Is it me or does building a better tree *nymph* seem like a more worthwhile project?
The Virtual Greenpeace will be pleased
Oh well - looks like fun, though.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Generating visually complex plant like shapes has been a mainstay of 3D modeling software and demos for a while now. These guys might have worked with botanists and expressed hundreds of attributes, but I don't see how this will translate to better tools for 3D modeling in general.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
http://ngplant.sourceforge.net/
Plant generators have existed for a while. There was a proprietary one (that I forget the name of now) that was very good, and there's the above open source one as well. (Which I haven't actually used.)
As for making it easier for users to create virtual worlds... This is just one small aspect of a world, and doesn't even fully support that, from what I can see.
"Dryad trees are truly 3-D; they can be spun around or viewed from any angle. They also can be downloaded in the OBJ format and loaded into any major modeling program."
So it only creates a static OBJ. There's no animation, no information on how it flexes... You can't make this tree sway in the wind without the same tedious work that's always been necessary.
Saying this helps create virtual worlds is like a crayon manufacturer saying it helps create art... Sure, as long as you only want non-professional art. (And yes, just like crayons, you -can- make professional art with this if you have a ton of talent and are willing to put in the time.)
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
..till computer scientists forget trees and grow better Bush.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Similar stuff:
http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/fractals/dla3d/
As noted aobove, tools for creating trees are pretty common, ie Blender now has a fairly powerful treemaker that is being used for the Peach Open Movie,
http://peach.blender.org/index.php/trees/
The author does mention that Dryad is 'easy to use', but there are a fair number of easy to use tree making tools already so not sure how 'revolutionary' it is.
LetterRip
Slartibartfast - The virtual fjord designer.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
a poem as lovely as a parameterized tree....
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
Sketchup (now Google Sketchup) is actually a very intuitive 3d modeling tool--probably the most intuitive by far, IMHO, but it actually suffers from a lack of depth. I'm waiting for Google to work their magic on it...still waiting, actually.
expandfairuse.org
The point of this is you no longer have to be a 3D wiz or artist to make decent 3D objects - you just plug in their attributes and they generate themselves.
So say you are a great programmer but a totally lousy artist - now you can actually make that cool 3D game you have been envisioning by yourself.
By Aristid Lindenmayer and Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz. Absolutley stunning book. Several (many) of the renderings (the palms in particular) are verging on realistic. It's out of print now and you definitely can't have my copy. I won't give it up!
It turns out it's available here http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop on the interweb for free.
Sadly Lindenmayer died the year before the book was published and the book itself is dedicated to him. It's one of those rare science books that makes a good coffee table book too.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
In the real world, trees know how to create themselves.
Whether the lack of realistic trees in virtual worlds is a particularly bad "anchor" is probably more debatable
"If you want an infinite number of possible trees then create an implementation for a universal Turing machine."
Such an implementation has already been created, we computer scientists call it "the computer". Now, no matter how powerful we make our "computer", no matter how (or if) we implement floating point it makes no difference to the number of possible trees a computer can generate.
Not sure if the post was a troll or an attempt at humour - but the insighful mod makes me sad.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Has anyone here downloaded Dryad (the software) and got it to work?
I tried it a few weeks ago when I first heard of (believe it was 1.0 not the January 1.1 release). On two beefy computers the program would start then proceeded to crash after 20 seconds of interacting with it. I never saw a tree. I wasn't worried about specs as the one computer has 3 gigs of RAM and an 8800.
I'm all for releasing public alphas or betas, but was surprised at how brittle it seemed considering the lack of warning or documentation.
I for one noticed the excellent tree models in Feralas in WoW, that area is just downright gorgeous. If they were more realistic they would probably be even more aesthetically pleasing. The human brain is pretty good at picking up on unnatural things so making trees as realistic as possible will make the game look better even to those who never look for the trees.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Frankly, who wants to live in a world generated entirely by a bunch of users dragging a bunch of sliders as far left as they'll go?