The next time you're frolicking through a dense forest in your favorite video game, be sure to bark out your gratitude to the widely used
SpeedTree program and its painstaking planting, positioning and watering of all the nearby faux foliage. Microsoft Games Studios clearly appreciates this in-game gardening, having just entered into a new agreement with Interactive Data Visualization Inc. for the use of SpeedTree RT, a cross-platform real-time tree-generating program. A variant of the software was previously employed in both
Project Gotham Racing 3 and
Project Gotham Racing 4.
The agreement will see SpeedTree RT, which has already been incorporated into the Unreal Engine, used for multiple unannounced projects on the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows platforms. We can't venture any guesses as to what these titles may be, but we feel safe in our assumption that none of them will be set in Antarctica.
[Via
GameDaily]
Read -- Press Release (PDF)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ranus Studios @ Feb 6th 2008 1:09AM
I read your articles for the puns, Ludwig. This one did not disappoint.
Ihavepants @ Feb 6th 2008 1:30AM
Is that a screenshot from any particular game or just a tech demo?
Einhanderkiller @ Feb 6th 2008 1:39AM
Looks like one of those "look at what our middleware can do!" screenshots.
Ihavepants @ Feb 6th 2008 1:32AM
Is that a screenshot from any particular game or just a tech demo?
Einhanderkiller @ Feb 6th 2008 1:39AM
Looks like one of those "look at what our middleware can do!" screenshots.
ThornedVenom @ Feb 6th 2008 2:20AM
I understand double posting, but how the deuce does one double reply?!!
Purple Haze @ Feb 6th 2008 1:34AM
Ok this definitely qualifies as news but it just seems so unimportant. Well next time I see a tree in a new Microsoft game I can thank speedtree I guess.
Ihavepants @ Feb 6th 2008 1:36AM
You made my glitch reference fail >.
Ihavepants @ Feb 6th 2008 1:36AM
Crazy triple gir post = eff tee double ewe.
JerJer @ Feb 6th 2008 1:38AM
damn i wish i had thought of trees first...
it's ok though there are plenty left: rock-based land layouts, sand-based land layouts...cloud layouts...
speed....building?
Einherjar Gabr @ Feb 6th 2008 1:43AM
And ultimately the SpeedCannonFolder.
Moofree @ Feb 6th 2008 1:59AM
"none of them will be set in Antarctica."
How about post-apocalyptic globally-warmed Antarctica?
Beatz @ Feb 6th 2008 2:02AM
Tree-humpers can now breathe easy knowing they weren't left out in this era of high-def porn. Enjoy your "wood"!
ThornedVenom @ Feb 6th 2008 2:22AM
Nothing like a good ol' sequoia before bedtime.
Clutch_beast @ Feb 6th 2008 2:16AM
Damn. I had an idea for a pretty much identical middleware three years ago at the Como Zoo Conservatory. Now, having done nothing to pursue the idea, I find out it's already been done.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Feb 6th 2008 2:20AM
This should be a game where you try to chop down as many trees as possible... choose between an axe, chainsaw, rocket launcher, gravity gun, portal gun, and a lightsaber
It's like GTA but replace hookers with trees!
ThornedVenom @ Feb 6th 2008 2:23AM
It'd only work GTA-style if there were money trees.
Korova @ Feb 6th 2008 7:04AM
In Lineage 1 you had to beat the crap out of these walking trees to get some resource. And each time they are hit they buckle a little and go "Uhhg". You had to hit them like 40 times.
Anyway, trees are pretty. I want an all birch game, please.
Dustin @ Feb 6th 2008 2:42AM
I had previously thanked speedtree.
When I was standing atop the Jerall Mountain foothills in Oblivion, looking out at the forest trees sway gently in the early morning breeze, all I could think was "wow."
t_m @ Feb 6th 2008 3:06AM
thanks for letting us know. My family in particular will be very glad to hear about the use of speedtree. They had been rather worried about it up to this point, so I'd better go and reassure them.
Halwende @ Feb 6th 2008 5:22AM
Er, there were trees in PGR4?? Well I'm sure they were erm, very well rendered as I zipped past them at 260kph :P
Stuart @ Feb 6th 2008 10:43AM
kph? Ludwig, can you explain this to me?
Ludwig Kietzmann @ Feb 6th 2008 11:04AM
Kilometres per hour. :)
Royale @ Feb 6th 2008 10:46AM
I chatted with these guys in the bowels of kentia at e3 several years ago about the speedtree. It was amazing then and is amazing now.
Shockgamer @ Feb 7th 2008 2:35AM
Now, even Videogames can go green!