Some forest reference pictures

[HwitVlf]

Yesterday was my birthday and I took a short jaunt down some back roads near where I live to nice little nook I recently discovered. Anyways, I took pics of a few things that might be helpful/interesting for 3D modeling. Nothing great, just some tid bits that might inspire an idea.

Trees in this area were mostly tall, straight pines, but still, almost no two trees were positioned at the same agle. About 80% were nearly straight, and the rest were leaning in significant angles. Trees seek the sunlight. If there was a hole in the canopy, trees grew to lean toward it to catch the light.





Most games where I've seen a waterfall, the water pours off a sheer cliff and comes down in a single sheet. In the real world, waterfalls seem to have the water coming down in multiple, irregular streamlets. Because the water erodes the cliff face, its "drop-off" point is often cut down into the cliff and can't be easily seem from the side. ‎ 


One of the principles in Geology is the higher you go in the mountains, the larger the rocks in the creeks are. Simply because they haven't had time to erode down into pebbles and sand. ‎  Games usually have streams as well defined "water roads", but in mountain areas water is filled with large rocks like the picture below. Another geological principle is that streams in steep areas tend to form a series of plateau 'ponds' with short waterfalls connecting them. That can be seen a little in the picture too.


Because of the steep terrain in mountains and the fact that mountains are rocky by nature, water often flows in deep channels cut directly into the mountain's stone. The steeper the terrain, the more likely this is to happen in my experience.


Just a few pictures of multi-trunk trees that might be interesting to model. Some trees have multi-trunks by nature, but even single-trunk trees, have occasional "twins".




A tree bridge across a creek. Usually, the root end of the fallen tree is still buried in the ground. Also, the bark is the fist thing to rot off because it holds the moisture more than the solid wood underneath., so tree bridges are usually barkless smooth wood within a few years after they fall. ‎ 



As was mentioned in one of the links Verdite posted about modeling trees, there is usually a lot more dead wood in a forest than games show. Trees are in a continual process of dying and regrowing- the lower branches usually die off because the highest branches block out the light. In a dense forest, the ground is often more dead wood than greenery. There's just not enough light for stuff to grow.

[Verdite]

Thanks John!

The waterfall and the stream are fantastic shots. This is actually just what I needed today.

[dmpdesign]

WTB games with this stuff in it :P

[Holy_Diver]

Sometimes I wonder if people who obsess about realism in games do it because they are deprived of natural environments like these. Everywhere you look in the world it is replete with lush vivid imagery that we just take it all for granted. So why suddenly realism becomes so important within the context of a video game or anything I still can't figure out.

It's like if everywhere you looked all you saw is blue. So you sit down to play a game, and say, man I can't wait until this game is just as blue as the real world. One day we will achieve that lofty goal. It's a failing of the imagination on some level.

[Madison Lastrega]

Happy belated birthday my friend, hope it was filled with love and family........and presents :-) ‎  ‎  ........ML

[HwitVlf]

Thanks for taking the time to look guys :) And thanks for the birthday wish ML! My day actually had a healthy dose of all three of those things.

I mostly agree with what you said Mick; it's a miracle! ‎ 

[Verdite]

"Sometimes I wonder if people who obsess about realism in games do it because they are deprived of natural environments like these. "

Totally agree here.

"So why suddenly realism becomes so important within the context of a video game or anything I still can't figure out."

As much as I enjoy seeing good looking assets in games, I dont appreciate photo realism in games. Theres no style or skill in just replicating a photo image of leaves onto a photo-textured tree. When I think about games that left an impression on me the most, are the likes of KF2, and I first played that on my PS3.
I think the effort is needed to find a balance between something recognisable for what it is, and that still looks pleasant on the eye.