iniTree

Tree customization

Vertices are calculated every time you change the number of branches, of levels, or the tree opening. It is possible to costumize the aspect of the tree in several ways:

• SIZE MATTERS. COLORS TOO The lines / points / 3D elements of the tree (leaves or 3D branches) width, as well as their colors, can be constant or shrink their size according to their depth (witch gives you a better perception of the tree in the 3D world).
• A LOT OF ELEMENTS TO PLAY WITH You can draw the tree using a variety of elements: lines, for a wireframe style; points, for enhance the connections between branches; polygons, to perk up the tree with elegance objects; 3D branches, to have a more robust look and feel; 3D leaves, to add realism. All these elements are personalizable in terms of sizea and colors.
• GROW UP OR SHRINK DOWN, (ALMOST) LIMITLESS  You can change in real time the number of branches and the depth of the tree. You will see your tree grow up, shrink down, or expand up to a huge number of vertices and polygons. A smooth animation allows the tree changes to be more realistic and nice to see. Changing the opening value of the tree will result in a very elegant opening-flower-like animation.
• ALSO THE PROPORTION MATTER The proportion between different branch levels length can be modified, allowing you to give more importance to the begin or the end of the tree.
• COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL, OR INCOMPLETE AND CHAOTIC Decide if you want a complete n-ary tree or if some branches will not continue to grow. Branches can be uniformly distant between each others, or can be randomly arranged.
• TEXTURIZE YOUR WORLD Now you can apply a texture on tree branches, as well as on leaves.
• TO BE VAIN, YOU NEED A MIRROR You can also choose to draw a mirror-copy of the tree, rotated by 180 degrees. So you can double the fun.

All these possibilities of customization resulting in a huge variety of different tree-styles. You will get a hi-tech style, a style inspired by nature, pure fantasy, with strong contrast, elegant, symmetrical, minimal, rich in detail.

Let‘s see what you can do!

Vertices are sent to the GPU using “immediate mode”: in later versions a VBO will be used, so to optimize the dialogue with the GPU.

The opening allows to simulate a growth of the tree, as well as the increase of the depth and ramifications for each depth level. These changes update in time the structure of the tree, in a gradual manner., Interpolating the position of the vertices via animation ease-in/ease-out.

iniTree can can customize the appearance of the rendered tree in many ways, so as to enrich the details of the form, or simplify it to bring out the beauty of the geometry of the tree.

Examples of asymmetric trees / Leaves and Points elements customization

The lenght ratio between father and child in tree branching can be customized, as well as the completeness of the tree, and its texturing.

Examples of complete and incomplete trees / different number of polygons between branches / texturing 3D branches as well as leaves

tree creation

The algorithm is very simple and uses recursion. Here is what it does in pseudocode (for n-ary tree):

main{
    //...
    max_levels = 10 //the max num of levels
    tree(initLenght, 1);
    //...
}
 
tree(length, level){
    //...
    if(level<max_levels){ //is the end of the recursion?
        n = 3 //it is a ternary tree
        for(x=0; x<n; <++){
            pushMatrix()
            rotate ((360 / n)*x) along y axis
            rotate (aperture) along z axis
            drawLine(0,0,0, 0,length,0) //from 0,0,0 to 0,length,0
            translate(0,length,0)
            tree(lenght/2, level+1) //recursive call
            popMatrix()
        }
    }
}

Trees with leaves starting from half-way or from the root / 3D Trees!