Hi all,

I have some questions about Vue, I will start with this one:

I just started using this software, so I'm following some (old) vue tutorials. While I was following the FXPHD 201 tutorial (they use vue 8.5) , I found that the "Variable color" option (populating trees) just makes my trees all black. On the web I found that this problem started with Vue 9.

But I cannot really find a solution that works.

Thanks,

R.

Which video driver version are you using?

I'm using AMD 11.10 for my HD5870, if that is what you mean.

Oops.  I thought you were refering to the OpenGL display of your tree colors.  I do not have that tutorial to test with.  I'm able to change tree color by altering overall color and/or variable color of the tree ecosystems I'm using (both painted and dynamic) so far in Vue 10 Infinite.

ok, well, I can change the overall color, no problem there. However, if I use variable color it all goes black (the trees that is).

I'm using 10 xstream

Happens to any trees?  What kind of of eco population are you using?  Painted? Absolute?  Dynamic?

For me, it happens to all trees I use to populate.

Dynamic I guess, I know that it isn't painted for sure. Don't know about "absolute".

Absolute is when you manually click the populate button to cover a terrain with an ecosystem.

ok, then it's absolute ;-)

What I did was select the Color tab after loading a tree in the eco list and then put a check in the Variable color option and right-clicked the image below it to edit the function.  I then deleted the color node and the other stuff linked to the Color input and added a texture map node to the Color input and loaded a color image for it.

When I populated my eco, the generated trees used the colors from the image (depending on where they were located on the terrain, which the color image was overlayed on).  A lot of trees used the same color until I changed the function scale of the loaded texture map node image (from a scale of 1 to .1).  Then each tree began to contain more colors from the texture map, after clearing the eco and re-populating it again.

ok, will try that soon (vue is now rendering a large render). Will let you know if it worked.

Thanks for the effort so far!

Hi ShawnDriscoll, my render finally finished and I could try your method. It works brilliantly! thanks! the detail of different colors is even better than a simple gradiant.

(I used a picture of metal rust to create an autumn forest, wonderful effect)

Thanks!

Yey!

i have always had problems using the colour option for the eco systems,no matter what colour i pick it always makes the trees look unrealistic,i wish that there was some kind of preview so you had some feedback as to what the colour will end up like

Quote - i wish that there was some kind of preview so you had some feedback as to what the colour will end up like

A preview in your main OpenGL window?  How are you displaying plants in your OpenGL?  As billboards or as something else?  Or a preview in the Plant Editor?