Modular Tree

Changelog

What's New?

Official Blender 5.1 support for all platforms

Changelog

Release v5.5.1

Changelog

What's Changed

Auto-Update Tree

Node editor changes now automatically updates the tree (no longer dependant on "Generate Tree")

C++/Dependancy Updates

• Update to C++20
• Tidy up to packages
• Tidied up code with use of standard lib

Full Changelog: https://github.com/GoodPie/modular_tree/compare/5.4.0...5.5.0

Changelog

What's Changed

Leaf Generation

Quick generate no longer just generates square leaves and we have a new node for generating custom leaves.

• Created leaf presets for quick generate (Willow, Pine and Oak)
• Implemented Superformula for the overall leaf shape
  • Read about that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superformula
• Attempted implementation of Space Colonization for Vein Network. This is not a good implementation but it's a WIP
  • Read about that here: https://medium.com/@jason.webb/space-colonization-algorithm-in-javascript-6f683b743dc5
• New node for leaf generation (standalone)
  • This will generate a leaf that can be used in the Leaf modifier
• LOD Generation
  • Generates simplified versions at different levels of detail

Presets

• Tidied up the Pine, Oak and Willow presets
  • Tried to make these a bit more realistic but with the leafs, I'll need to do a bit more work

References

• Gielis, J. (2003). "A generic geometric transformation that unifies a wide range of natural and abstract shapes." American Journal of Botany, 90(3), pp. 333-338.
• Runions, A., Fuhrer, M., Lane, B., Federl, P., Rolland-Lagan, A.-G., & Prusinkiewicz, P. (2005). "Modeling and visualization of leaf venation patterns." ACM Transactions on Graphics, 24(3), pp. 702-711.
• Shinozaki, K., Yoda, K., Hozumi, K., & Kira, T. (1964). "A quantitative analysis of plant form — the pipe model theory." Japanese Journal of Ecology, 14(3), pp. 97-105.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/GoodPie/modular_tree/compare/5.3.3...5.4.0

Changelog

What's Changed

• Added support for Blender 4.3
  • Just involved testing. No major changes required.

Changelog

What's Changed

• Fix Quick Generation not working on all platforms
• Potential fix for not being able to generate trees on Windows

Changelog

What's Changed

• Removed 3D View tag
• Removed blend1 files
• Separated builds

Changelog

What's Changed

• Crown Shape Feature:
  • Added support for 8 botanical crown shapes (e.g., conical, spherical, flame) to control tree silhouettes, based on the Weber & Penn model

Changelog

What's Changed

• Growth Node Changes
  • Improved implementation of L-System implementation
  • Now executes off of the parent node instead of transforming it
    • Re-enabled pruning
    • Exposed additional growth node parameters

Changelog

What's Changed

Manifest has been updated to include the correct permissions and exported platforms

Changelog

What's changed

Leaf Generation

The leaf generation wasn't working as it was supposed to. It was generating a twig at (0,0,0). It was also hard to understand what was happening in the blend file (as someone who works with code).

This attempts to resolve the leaf generation by:

• Moving the node generation from the blend file to python (utilising the handy tool https://extensions.blender.org/add-ons/node-to-python/)
• Removing the fancy twig node and instead creating a base square leaf mesh to use.
  • Handles better on lower spec machines

Added support for Pivot Painter 2.0

This is probably a naive implementation but it's working in UE5. I attempted to get it working for Unity but I want to push out some QoL updates before I continue (i.e. testing)

• For each vertex, we are now baking in the following data:
  • stem_id - Which branch this vertex belongs to
  • hierarchy_depth - How deep in the tree (0=trunk, 1=branch, etc.)
  • pivot_position - 3D point where this branch connects to parent
  • branch_extent - Length/size of this branch
• These are visible in the spreadsheet view in Blender
• New node created to handle export of UV coordinates
• Documentation on how to use this in UE5

Small Cody Tidy-ups

• Working on Pivot Painter, I realised that I was starting to create a mess that would be hard to test. I've separated out some logic to their own modules.

The trunk and branch node sockets now have descriptions

• The node panel is a bit messy with all the sockets rendering below the groups but that'll be a fix for another time

No changelog for this release.