Edit 9th October 2009: OgreSpeedTree 2.0 released, a major update to support SpeedTree v5.
Original announcement:
Ok, finally time to let this one out of the bag
OgreSpeedTree is an upcoming commercial library from my company Torus Knot Software Ltd, designed to make it ridiculously easy to get awesome looking trees created with SpeedTree tools running fast in your Ogre applications.
Features:
Gets realistic looking forests into your Ogre application with very little code Supports very large Forests with a progressive level of detail & batching system, meaning that close up you'll see incredibly detailed, normal-mapped trees while still being able to support a large draw distance GPU-based wind support Customised shaders supporting typical outdoor lighting models, integrated with Ogre's material system Dynamic shadow casting Written from the ground up to integrate tightly with the Ogre codebase, meaning existing Ogre code & plugins can co-operate with SpeedTree rendering Full source code availableFAQ:
Will it be open source?No. Even assuming that were commercially viable (and it might be, as dual-licensed GPL for example), we cannot distribute the code & shaders unless the recipient has a license for SpeedTree, since the techniques contained there expose their IP.
When can I get it?We're currently in a closed beta phase with early adopters as we refine the library. If you wish to be part of the closed beta, please email steve at torusknot dot com - please note you must sign up for a SpeedTree trial license first.
Will there be a trial version available?Yes. You must first become a trial licensee of SpeedTree, after which we can offer you a trial of OgreSpeedTree on the same terms.
How much will the full version cost?The full-source version with 3 months support will cost US$1495 per title (the same basis on which SpeedTree is licensed). You will also need to purchase SpeedTree.
Isn't that a bit expensive?That depends on your perspective - SpeedTree is a premium forest / foliage solution and is aimed at the upper end of the market; it is not a budget / mass-market solution and OgreSpeedTree's price reflects that. It is still much cheaper than doing the equivalent yourself.
What are the hardware requirements?Currently a card capable of shader model 2 is required (GeForce 5x00 / Radeon 9500 or better)
How fast is it?We're still tuning, on a current card you can expect 200-500fps in the above scenes, depending on the resolution and MSAA settings. You can tune the LOD settings for different classes of card.
Can't I just modify the SpeedTree reference application code to work with Ogre?Yes, but it operates entirely in immediate mode and won't integrate at all with the rest of Ogre. There is still a fair amount of work to do even to do a basic adaption. OgreSpeedTree lets you get started in as few as 10 lines of code and has been written from scratch to be well integrated with Ogre, thus is more future-proof and adaptable.
How does this affect JohnJ et al's PagedGeometry work?Not at all - OgreSpeedTree is specifically aimed at those who want to quickly use high-quality trees and foliage created with the SpeedTree tools. You can even use the two together if you wish.
I'm off to Siggraph next week, and I'll have a running version of OgreSpeedTree with me if you want to take a look at it. Drop me an email at steve at torusknot dot com if you're interested.
I'd like to thank IDV (creators of SpeedTree) for their co-operation in making this library possible.
Update: OgreSpeedTree 1.0 and OgreSpeedGrass are now out of beta and available for licensing.
SpeedTree® is a registered trademark of Interactive Data Visualisation, Inc. All rights reserved.
