May 10, 2004

REALnat: An easy way to build a forest

Before we start our discussion of Bionatics’ REALnat software, we have two announcements to make.

- As this issue of our 3D GIS Newsletter arrives in your inbox, deliveries of ArcGIS version 9 are taking place. Once you install and navigate your way through the new licensing program, those of you with 3D Analyst can begin to experiment with the wonders of ArcScene and ArcGlobe. These are the 3D viewing environments that come with 3D Analyst at version 9. There is one significant difference that you need to consider as you experiment with these two viewing environments. ArcScene accepts TIN and raster based elevation data. At this release, ArcGlobe can only employ grid based elevation data. Look for TIN support at the next major release. The 3D Symbol library that comes with 3D Analyst works in either ArcScene or ArcGlobe. Both environments will also import any custom symbols that you create.

- Gary Smith, principal of Green Mountain GeoGraphics, will be speaking at the New England GIS Conference this coming Thursday, May 13 at 10:15. His topic is “GIS and 3D: The Vision and a Reality Check.” We hope many of you will be able to come to the session and offer your thoughts.

One REALnat seed grown to different ages.

In the last issue we went through the steps necessary to create a tree model, starting with a picture of a tree. The process is not very difficult but it is rather time consuming. If you make a serious effort to build your own tree symbols, plan to have your digital camera with you at all times so that you can capture pictures of the desired species, age class and seasonal depiction. It is a great deal harder than you might think to image a tree that you can later turn into a suitable tree model. We have been trying to capture an Eastern Hemlock for the past 5 years, without success. They just don’t grow out in the open and taking a picture of one in a forest environment would mean hours of time in a photo-editing program to extract a suitable texture. Now let’s suppose that you want a tree with the leaves off or perhaps in flower. You will have to wait to photograph that tree at the appropriate season. Can your GIS project wait until the appropriate season?

We have found an answer to this problem. It comes in the form of a software program called REALnat that we found late last year. It is a product of a company in Gentilly, France called Bionatics. These clever folks are a world leader in procedural 3D plant modeling technology. Their work started back in 1978 and it has led to the “…creation of plant simulation growth software that respects the plant’s genetic coding and reconstitutes in synthetic 3D images the morphology and natural esthetics of the plant.”

Go to their web site, www.bionatics.com and you will see several different products to choose from. Bionatics makes software that fits in many different environments and support architects, landscape design, 3D animation, video game creation and virtual reality/simulator development. We, the GIS community generally fall into the virtual reality/simulation category. You will recall from our previous newsletters that we have stressed keeping file sizes small and polygon counts down. REALnat does just that and is the product used by the simulation community. Remember, the 3D animator is working to make a movie, one frame at a time. It can take weeks, months or years to make a final film. In the GIS world, we can’t wait that long, nor do we want to be limited to a single viewing perspective.

One REALnat seed saved in different seasons.

So, how does REALnat work? It is actually quite simple to use. The user selects a mathematical seed to start the program and then grows the tree to a particular age and season of the year. The seed is species specific and can be grown over and over again. Each time you start the same seed, you will get a slightly different tree. Once you are satisfied with your botanical skills, save the tree model in the OpenFlight format. You can save the tree as a billboard or multiple intersecting polygons, as we illustrated in the last newsletter. As you will recall, OpenFlight is one of the 3 formats that ArcScene and ArcGlobe will import to become a 3D Symbol. Want to age the tree and save it again? No problem, just change the age and season and you have the tree in a different presentation. Very quickly, thoughts of a being able to see your scene age over time or season of the year should become obvious to you. We urge you to try REALnat by downloading a copy of the software from the REALnat site. It comes with a horse chestnut tree seed that you can use over and over again and try importing into ArcScene or ArcGlobe.

Now it is time for the commercial part of this newsletter. When we found Bionatics late last fall, we were looking for an alternative to making individual tree models for our 3D work. Unfortunately, Bionatics also had a large deployment fee for their REALnat software, which put it out of our reach. Bionatics’ primary market is the big simulator industry, where commercial companies build simulators for the military and other large commercial organizations. Most of these include full hardware and software systems with fancy projection systems and many are one-of-a-kind. Clearly, the GIS market was quite different and, to make a long story shorter, we have convinced Bionatics to let us sell REALnat to the GIS audience and avoid the deployment fee. Normally REALnat starts with the software and 10 tree seeds. Bionatics has generously offered to make 50% more tree seeds available with each REALnat purchase through us, between now and the end of June. This means that the starter version includes 15 tree seeds and for the price of 20 seeds, the user would get 30 tree seeds. When you order the product, you will be able to pick the trees that you want for your geographic area. Bionatics has an ever-expanding library of over 500 tree seedlings in its nursery. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask us. We urge you to download the REALnat trial software to discover how easy it is to use.

In calling your attention to REALnat, we hope you realize that we are showing you a way to save considerable time and money. We have taken the initiative with Bionatics and now we want to share our success with you. Remember, the 50% more tree seeds offer is only valid through June.

In the next issue we will talk about converting models into ESRI’s 3D Symbols and organizing them into meaningful libraries.

We hope you find this information helpful and that you will feel free to contact us with questions, thoughts, comments and suggestions.

To learn more about Green Mountain GeoGraphics, visit www.gis-help.com or e-mail us. If you know of someone who would like to receive this newsletter, tell them to e-mail us and write "Subscribe" in the subject line.

If you'd like to unsubscribe, send a note to info@gis-help.com. Write "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Green Mountain GeoGraphics does not share, distribute, or sell its list of subscribers.