Does any one have any idea how to make tree bark look realistic, using pp 2012?

Thanks.

There are such material files (mt5) supplied with the PP2012 content pack (Materials > Basic Materials > Woods). These will have to be edited for PP2012 but are a useful start point.

....I just checked them out and they seem insanely complicated for the so-so results they deliver, I'm having a hard time picking the nodes apart to see what's useful and what isn't. Shuy's shader is probably the way to go.

cspear, I totally forgot about the the materials that came with poser.

Shuy, your shader performed really well. I was impressed that the grain followed even when at an angle. It's also is relative to the size, which is impressive. I guess you use meters as you poser units? I would like it to react with the light in the scene a bit better, so I'm going to toy with it a bit, but a fantastic start.

I think that I use default poser units, but this shader use only relative sizes (%). Marble is 3d shader, it works even on meshes without UV maps, but is applied according to "zero pose".

Hmmm. I must change my computer. I still work on AMD and cannot use P9. I see that on your render my shader looks very different.

I have gc and IDL enabled. I also run AMD processor, but I don't see how that should affect the look.

I guess thet you use my shader with using printscreen as a colour source.

I have P7 and you have P8 or newer. I have brown bark, you have green :)

This is where I'm at so far. (my understanding of) your shader on the left and modified on the right. But now I'm looking at it it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and modifying something I don't understand is just going to make things worse I think.

Bark is not glossy - no specular. Why do you guys have shiny bark? Are you blind?

The node you should start with is Clay. That's for the reflectivity, not for the pattern. The pattern is hard.

Quote - Bark is not glossy - no specular. Why do you guys have shiny bark? Are you blind?

I can only speak for myself, I plead stupidity.

Well all I can say for myself is the bark pattern eludes me completely. It's something I have no success with.

As for the shininess of bark, that would depend on whether or not it was wet. Moisture would of course add shininess to bark.

First time I set specular = 0 but crack and scratch were unvisible, then I set specular .01. I know that it should look not natural but effect was better. I think that I cannot work with lights. I checked google and I think that shiny shader looks like plastic imitation of bark on cheap IKEA furniture, but with 0 specular it looks even cheaper ;)

I like last GeneralNutt shader - right trunk. No shiny and does not look flat, but I think that shadows of leafs make it black.

Some time ago I wanted make more relistic pattern (I do not know, if any tree looks like this one). I tried make procedural material with 2d shaders, but it requred good UV mapping, then I gave up. Moreover I do not understand all description of optical physics, which I found in threads about shaders and I'm too old to learn it ;)

You can plug into a specular node, then Alt Specular for better control.  But using SSS for bark?  Leaves and plants I can see the benefits, but actual tree bark?

I am only gonna make myself seem even denser, by explaining why I even thought to use SSS on bark, but maybe that's not possible. You can see though the stems of leaves right? I guessed with a bright enough light you might be able to see though thin branches too. The bark of a tree is made of fibers, or at least you can pull the fibers off in the inside of an old piece of bark. I can't go verify (it's cold wet and snowing last couple days) and never thought to try before, but I'd bet light can pass though those fibers. I have experimented on using SSS on trans mapped hair and it works no worse, maybe a bit better on some hair, than my other old stand by material for hair. So that's why I used SSS on it.

The blinn I used because I wanted the play of light from the side to look a bit better. I was looking at the way light played off the side of the tree in the morning, not shinny but it was kinda spread like I see from the effect of the blinn node, with rim lighting.

I had never thought to use the clay node, because when I think of clay, and that's about 90% of all the soil I have seen, it's shiny, to glossy. I never thought of how it looks when it's dried on something. I only had a short chance to try making the shader with clay node, and it does look similar to what I had, with default settings (likely used wrong the way I did it).

I would love to have the perfect procedural BB bark material, that makes every kind of bark in nature, but I'd settle happily for a half assed BB bark material. For now, just trying to hack together something. Shuy got me farther then I would have ever gotten on my own, and with time and BB's clay suggestion maybe I'll come up with something that if I hide it in the background it wouldn't draw my eye to it. If I had to use a man made maps, and the material in the end didn't look so wrong I'd be happy with that too.