I just purchased some $15  Palms from cornacopia....and they are some kind of X-frog....

Lot of tiffs and such...

Does anybody know how to install x-frog?

You can't install XFrog unless you buy XFrog, lol!  What you will use in this folder are the .vob files, along with the .tif textures, which will load autotically, don't worry. You won't be able to use the .xfr files if you don't own XFrog.

Attached Link: XFROG product page

Explains alot....I have no .vob files (just some kind of MPEG file....

could it be I bought some outdated x-frog trees?

Thanks for your help

Quote - You can't install XFrog unless you buy XFrog, lol!  What you will use in this folder are the .vob files, along with the .tif textures, which will load autotically, don't worry. You won't be able to use the .xfr files if you don't own XFrog.

The name of the product might help.  Most of the Xfrog plants over at Cornucopia are meant to be used as billboards and don't do well in anything below Infinite because of the billboard handling process.

Yo0u could always buy XFrog and never have to worry about another outdated stock Vue tree(; unless your jus an idiot like me who does in fact own XFrog and gets to lazy to use it ocassionally:P

Maybe I clicked Mac version or something...guess has to be a simple explanation. (yes they had billboards folder and a perspectives folder  in the zip)(I dont know what they are)

(all the other plants I have bough had a nice neat VOB file..just drop it in it and go)

these were the offending files:

Item: Senegal Date Palm (by Xfrog Inc) Cost: $14.95
Item: Coconut Palm (by Xfrog Inc) Cost: $14.95

(and yes Im a lazy person...basically Im finding out you only need 2-3 really good trees to make a killer wide shot).......So I figure Im gonna buy them (a set for jungle, a set for regular forest etc...)LOL

Well, according to Cornucopia this is what's included in the zip files:

For the Senegal Date Palm:  "The ZIP includes 3 VOB(Vue Objects), 3 XFR (Xfrog procedural definitions), 3 Billboard Renders(including imbedded alpha), and 3 Perspective Renders(including alpha channel), 1 or more bark textures from the real plant, 1 or more leaf textures from the real plant, are all included with your purchase of this zip."

The Coconut Palm is the same so I would try to download them again from your products page.  Make sure they're for Windows and not Mac.  If you find they're Mac files just contact support to get that fixed.

Also, take a look at the file extension and make sure it says .zip.  Look inside the zip file and see if the VOB files are there, as well.  I'm hoping you saved the zip file to your desktop or a folder (always a good idea) but if you didn't you still have some downloads left and you can do it then.

There should definitely be vobs in this, are you looking into the right place? You should find your trees under:
objects/static plants/trees/tropical
in your obejct collections browser.
This, of course if ypou let the installer do the job for you. I never use the installer, I prefer to do my own thing with the zip files.
But if there is definitely no vobs, start a thread in the store talk forum at Corn.

My asset list checks out with yours....maybe im dumping it into the wrong folder?

For the Senegal Date Palm:  "The ZIP includes 3 VOB(Vue Objects), 3 XFR (Xfrog procedural definitions), 3 Billboard Renders(including imbedded alpha), and 3 Perspective Renders(including alpha channel), 1 or more bark textures from the real plant, 1 or more leaf textures from the real plant, are all included with your purchase of this zip."

C/mydocuments/Vue/plants

Really appreciate all the help...this is how its coming out so far....

I agree with Bruno ... start a thread over at Cornucopia in the Shop Talk forum.  They'll give you a lot of good help.

I don't generally use the installer either since I don't keep my Vue assets on the same physical hard drive as my Vue program files.  I have a 350 Gb SATA drive that stores all of my Poser, Vue and Bryce assets outside of the 350 Gb IDE drive that houses the program files.  I generally set up a temp folder on my desktop and extract to that.  Then I move the different items to the appropriate folders out on my S drive.

You need to re-associate VOB with Vue as it is also a video format with DVD's...go into an explorer window and click Tools>Folder Options>File Types and scroll down once the list loads till you see VOB and then click Opens With>Browse to locate your Vue exe and select it. Click Close to leave that dialogue. VOB will now be associated with VueX[what ever ver. you own].. ...

As Bobby said vob are also DVD files, and they are associated by default with a DVD player. Best is to not modify this association, or you will have problems reading your DVDs on your PC. Simply open Vue, and in the Objects colections folder, browse to the object you want to load.

Thanks for all the help.....

Yes the association issue really shouldnt be a problem...(Ive seen MPEG on other assets that have worked)

I did try to load the trees as a static object and it worked! (I do wish the X-frog trees had an installer)....

The big question is can I use the trees in an ecosystem?

According to the product info you shouldn't have any problems using them but, since you don't have Infinite, you can't paint the eco.  Also, the plants will not vary when you load them, nor will they be able to receive wind if you're doing an animation.

That kind a sucks....I paid $15 each for what I thought were regular ecosystem plants.....(for the very reason of varying up repeadative patterns in forrest)

I didnt know there was difference in static plants.....

I got it to load as a static object....still havent figured out how to load as an ecosystem..

You'll have to create the ecosystem and then select the plants.  Then you'll decide the density so that your system doesn't bog down too badly.

When you're looking for plants to put in an ecosystem, look for solid growth plants.  Realm Arts, Incredibly Lush and Martin Frost, just to name a few, all do excellent work with plants that you can add to an ecosystem.

Paul,

You can paint any object as an ecoSystem, whether it be a static plant or a solidgrowth plant. I like Linda plants (LUSH) and use them almost exclusively. They are a nice balance of realism and poly count- and work well both at a distance and somewhat close up.

You're best off getting the 'packs' of plants, rather than one or two. I'd also suggest downloading the ZIP version of a file and storing it somewhere on your computer. Just uncompress and then create a folder in your plants or objects directory and move the unzipped contents there.

-C

Um, I know that chipp:D

Thanks will get the lush set

I have quite a few of Linda's plant sets (Incredibly Lush), along with a lot from Tony Mezaros (Realm Arts) and Martin Frost.  All of them come into a custom ecosystem wonderfully and can be scaled to your liking.

IMHO, you can't go wrong with plant packs from any of these creators.

Will give all those second look....

I probably could have bought all of 3 of them...for what I paid for those 2 x-frog static plants.

(I tried loading static palms once I was in the ecosystem editor...and just got crashes)

Ok...I now imported them as an "Object" and it didnt crash..... (although I am about to add it to  a scene with 23,000,000,000 polys) LOL

just for the record..... (they do import)

I tried a render test of a scene with solid growth plants and static object plants...

the solid growth plants took 2 minutes to render....

I cleared the teraine and repopulated it....with X-frog static plants....(from the object menue)

I stopped the render after it previewed for a 14 hour render....!

they really shouldnt have x-frog static plants on cornicopia without a seriously big disclaimer

The static plants are for close ups. The solidgrowth ones are better for ecosystems. You ever check to see the polys in the static plants? They're huge.

Trepz, the 'Paul' I was referring to was checkthegate. Paul is also his first name. Sorry about the confusion.

OH NO! I HAVE BEEN DOPPLEGANGERED !!! :D I went to look to see what his name was, and it wasnt listed so i assumed :P

Whats funny was...you look at the descriptions of the solid growth plants...sometimes they list poly counts.....(in the case of the date palm 50K).......

when you look at the poly counts for the Static X-frog Palm it s the same 50K polys

are they really the same poly count?

what is in those SG plants that makes them special? (I guess thats Vue's secret technology)

when I instance the static.....I get ridiculous render times (preview quality)........when I instance an ecosystem with SG plants....3 minutes (preview quality)

The X-frog plants really do look good.......(they should put a bigger disclaimer for a noob like myself)...(saying dont instance!)

Check out the thread "Jungle Help!" we are running tests to see how high we can populate an ecosystem....ROLF!.....Paul

powertech is winning with
108,826,805,123 Polygons
1,140,070 Instances

Quote - The static plants are for close ups. The solidgrowth ones are better for ecosystems. You ever check to see the polys in the static plants? They're huge.