Want a game with Graphics that Inspire?  SpeedTree is the Environmental Solution

by Louis Bedigian

 

“No one – I mean quite literally, no one – no company, no developer, no artist, whose work we have ever seen has come close to the SpeedTreeRT package: wind effects, structural accuracy, textural beauty, incredible efficiency and overall aesthetics.”

 

 

One of the cool things about video games is the technology.  Every gamer loves to play them, but I also enjoy learning about the many different ways that the games come together.

 

Less than one year after the PlayStation 2 launch, Gran Tursimo 3 blew our minds with unprecedented, unbelievably realistic graphics.  Besides the look of the cars themselves, the thing that impressed me the most was the game’s environments, primarily its trees.

 

Breathtaking light and shadow effects were used to create a non-repetitious tree reflection on the vehicles.  If you looked up you’d see the sun peeking through the trees in a way that had never been done before.  Halo was equally impressive with its use of trees and sunlight – though I doubt anyone remembers that game for its graphics. :)

 

Two years later outdoor environments got a giant boost in realism thanks to one dedicated developer, Interactive Data Visualization, Inc., and their unique graphic program: SpeedTreeRT.

 

Just what the heck is a SpeedTreeRT, and why should you care?

 

 

 

 

Take a good look at the lighting, the shadows, the textures.  It’s unreal!  And it’s only a fraction of what SpeedTreeRT can do for the gaming community.  Game developers who use it will be guaranteed to have games that, at the very least, look like they’re worth playing.

 

Dedicated to bringing you the latest on all things game-related, GameZone Online interviewed IDV’s Kevin Meredith.

 

 

Please introduce yourself, your company, and what is that you do.

 

Kevin Meredith, Director of Business Development for Interactive Data Visualization, Inc., which is the developer of SpeedTreeRT, our real-time foliage solution. I try to do everything that’s not programming, so the programmers can program more. Much of my time is spent selling and marketing SpeedTreeRT.

 

How does SpeedTree work?  Does your program design the trees automatically?  Or is this a tool that allows game developers to make the trees they design look better?

 

KM: One of the innovations SpeedTree introduced is SpeedTreeCAD, which enables the user to modify the existing trees and plants in the library, or to build their own totally new species. Everything can be customized – the leaf & bark textures, root structure, height, length of the branches, angles of the branches, even how they respond to gravity and wind (or currents – we’ve got a new marine series of kelp, a sponge, fan coral, even a sea urchin). Once you get the tree the way you like it, you can use your engine to drop it into the world and let it do its thing. You can control many other things about the tree, too – LOD settings, lighting effects, etc.

 

Looks like the setting for a game, but guess what?

It’s not – it’s merely a demo showing SpeedTree’s potential.

 

 

I would assume that SpeedTree is a constantly evolving technology, one that is improved frequently?

 

KM: Yes, because of the nature of the game industry – very competitive, very innovative – our customers are extremely demanding, and we’re constantly getting requests for new features. In 18 months, we’ve issued four new versions, and we hope to release version 1.7 in July 2004, which will feature new wind algorithms that enable a directionally oriented wind effect. Right now, wind (or any other local event) makes the trees and plants move convincingly but without providing any clues about where the wind is coming from. That’s going to change soon.

 

Why target trees specifically?  What made them such a vital part of game design?

 

KM: Trees are really hard to do. Tons of polygons, complicated motion dynamics, subtle textures and lighting. So game developers seemed to agree as an industry that they would concentrate on other things. Games have great explosions, cool facial effects, amazing monsters, awesome machines etc., but foliage has traditionally been left behind.

 

Our belief is that it shouldn’t be that way, that trees and plants can look fantastic without soaking up processor resources. And we believe players will be very grateful for realistic flora. I suppose every developer of a new product thinks this way, but we imagine there will be a point when conventional game foliage – static, lime green, crosshatched, whatever – suddenly becomes laughably obsolete, dating a game just as harshly as sprites do now.

 

Why did we get into trees? We noticed the lack of decent tree software when we were working on a golf simulation project. We came up with several ideas no one had tried yet – for wind effects, for leaf texture billboarding, tree editing – and the technology just kind of evolved, to the point where we decided it was a much needed and viable product on its own.

 

 

Wow.

 

 

Was this a really difficult undertaking?

 

KM: I would say nothing a programmer does is easy. But we were able to accomplish this without any injuries or deaths. Lots of late nights, of course, and some swearing now and then, but the fact is we got it done.

 

How many months or years did it take before SpeedTree was ready for developers?

 

KM: I would estimate it at multiple developer years, from conception to our first sale to a game developer.

 

What do game developers have to say about your technology?

 

KM: Our customers have been very generous with their praise, to say the least. You can see a great collection of quotes on the entry page of our website, www.idvinc.com, with more on the “testimonials” link and more in the press releases linked from the Corporate/Press page. But they’re voting with more than their kind words. Since just the start of the year, we have licensed SpeedTreeRT for more than two dozen new games, under development by firms around the world – startups, mid-level players and several HUGE companies we don’t have permission to reveal yet. No other foliage solution in real time comes close to that level of acceptance.

 

How many SpeedTree-enhanced games can we look forward to playing before the end of the year?

 

KM: The first game released with SpeedTreeRT in it was Mythic’s Trials of Atlantis, which came out in October 2003. We’re also in World War II Online by Playnet.com, where our trees have significantly changed the way that game is played. AutoAssault by NCsoft is complete enough that it made a great demo at E3, but I’m not sure when it will be released. We’re in Warhammer Online and Wish by Mutable Realms, but I believe both of these will come out beyond 2004.

 

 

This shot makes me think of my own game ideas…

 

 

Imagine I own a development studio and we're working on a new adventure game.  We're using Maya and other top graphic programs.  We have some of the best artists in the world on our team.  Why should we add SpeedTree our game?  Why do we need it?

 

KM: No one – I mean quite literally, no one – no company, no developer, no artist, whose work we have ever seen has come close to the SpeedTreeRT package: wind effects, structural accuracy, textural beauty, incredible efficiency and overall aesthetics. We’ve been actively engaged in developing SpeedTreeRT for two years now, so it would take you at least that long to catch up. But we have another advantage, too: Two years of excellent input from hundreds of artists and developers around the world. In a sense, you’re not just competing with IDV, you’re competing with everyone who’s used SpeedTreeRT and had something to say about it, because many of their comments and suggestions have found their way into our software.

 

Also, to be crassly commercial about it, SpeedTreeRT licenses for $5,995 per title. That’s probably less than one good developer costs in salary per month.

 

So, in short, you need SpeedTreeRT because you cannot duplicate what we have created, and you cannot risk putting out a game with outdoor graphics that mark your game as passe.

 

What is the one thing you are most proud of accomplishing with SpeedTree?

 

KM: We love all our customers, and there are going to be some incredible games coming out soon. But for me, the proudest moment burned into my recent memory was watching the new Warhammer Online movie. It’s an incredibly well done reel, very dramatic, very sinister, and our trees are everywhere. At one point in the movie, trees are all you see, as the camera flies over a fantastic forest. For us, that was very moving.

 

 

Pic here:

Splinter Cell 3 could really benefit from the power of SpeedTree.

 

 

Where is IDV going next?  Have you thought about pursuing other environmental effects, such as water?

 

KM: No way. We’re sticking to trees and plants when it comes to game development tools. We’re also working with the US military on several major visualization projects.

 

For anyone out there who still doesn't get it, make it clear – explain why SpeedTree is a necessary component for game design.

 

KM: I recently asked my 10-year-old what he thought about the trees in a game he was playing. He got a discouraged look on his face, parted his fingers and jammed his hands together. “They look like this,” he said, imitating the classic crosshatch approach to tree creation. The point is, if a 10-year-old is annoyed by your graphical shortcuts, you better hope there’s not another game out there that’s doing it better.

 

Thank you Kevin for a detailed interview.  I’ll be keeping my eyes on all of the games utilizing SpeedTreeRT and look forward to hearing about IDV’s future developments.

 

 

For more information on SpeedTreeRT, visit: www.idvinc.com