Quote - Hi czarnyrobert,

congrats on making this very interesting software.  I have some questions.  I have vue 11.5 xstream.  (because I used to use C4D but I couldn't afford to upgrade it and have lost interest in C4D), and I have cityengine - the version that can export .obj

what is the integration thing with plantfactory and CE?  Or does one need lumen (which I can't understand what it is for - like is that just for making videos?)

I make still scenes for my comic with multiple panels but no video.  I would like to make cities with trees, cars and plants together.  Is plantstudio something that would be useful for me.  How would it work with CE in my situation?  Should I buy lumen and plant factory?  If so which versions - my main desire is for quick and easy premade stuff.  ie I would probably use preset plants.

sorry for all the questions.

Love esther

I have no idea about integration with CE - I don't have CE so far.

You should ask e-on technicach stuff about it.

TPF works fine with Vue, but with other applications you can just export to 3DS, OBJ or FBX format.   It means you get good geometry, and bones in branches (so you can animate them) but billboards are exported as static planes, and this is bad, as non rotating billboards produce poor results. 

Also Vue procedural materials can't be properly exported (just a generated bitmap, but this reduces resolution - good news is that I rarely used procedural materials for models I prepared - bitmaps offer nicer, more realistic results.  There is really very little procedural materials (if any).

But please check for details with e-on technical stuff, it was a couple of months since I didn't work on TPF, so maybe they suceeded to implement some more advanced integration with external applications.