I’ve been pushing quite hard to get this done before I head off to Qt DevDays next week, and luckily it all came together in the last few days:
Some of the notable back-of-the-box (if there was a box) items:
- Upgrade to SpeedTree v5 – supporting all the great new features. See the SpeedTree site for more details on this release.
- More lighting options – Ambient Occlusion, Ambient Contrast, Specular Lighting, Transmission Lighting, Global Light Scalar, HDR.
- Improved LOD fading – LOD transitions are now implemented via less perceptible techniques thanks to SpeedTree v5.
- Dynamic soft self-shadowing via depth shadowmaps – (was also demonstrated on SpeedTree 4.2 in OgreSpeedTree 1.1.0)
- Improved alpha to coverage support – alpha to coverage rendering has been significantly improved and is now enabled by default (you must render with at least 2xMSAA to see the effect), resulting in significantly smoother foliage edges and smoother fade transitions.
I’m just really, really glad to have got this done. SpeedTree v5 was quite a big change to handle, but hugely worthwhile, the guys at IDV have done a great job. I made the choice from v1 to do a ‘deep’ integration (ie all objects are first-party Ogre objects, everything uses Materials and RenderQueues properly, etc), which made the transition considerably more time consuming than using the higher level pass-through interfaces, so this took some effort. I like it this way though, it means it’s a ‘real’ integration as far as I’m concerned, not just a simplistic bolt-on.
There’s still more to do, not least of which a demo that’s more interesting than just a technical performance test 
But at least I can tick off one of the major things on my TODO now. I’d been putting in quite a few extra hours to try to handle this, and my Qt presentation preparation, and Ogre, and consultancy, and it has taken its toll a bit – I’ve been spending more time at the desk and think that was a contributing factor to me straining my back at the gym last weekend. Hopefully that’s just temporary, I’ve been a lot better these last few months.
Hope you like the shots anyway. I know, I’m pimping them all over the place in my Twitter, here and on the Ogre site, but a guys gotta make a living, right? 
October 9th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Nice my man, nice
October 10th, 2009 at 10:16 am
The tree visuals have gone from ‘They resemble trees and it’s nice they were able to cram so many into a scenario.” to “Each and everyone of them looks like it could have been hand modeled.”.
October 10th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Looks awesome Steve, good job. Would love to see a vid with camera flying through trees showing the LOD transitions in action.
P.S. Just a little opinion on the demo scenes which might work – The only thing now making those screenshots look immediately unrealistic is the unnaturally flat ground. Try add a slightly bumpy terrain to plant the greens on – I know its just to demo the trees, but for future presentations I think it would make a big difference for a tiny change. Just an idea.
October 10th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
@Paul: oh yes, terrain integration is first on the list, I just haven’t had time to focus on anything but getting the foliage looking great. I also want HDR, some dynamic sky and probably some water, those palm trees are crying out for a beach. I’ll probably build a demo against Ogre trunk with the new terrain once I get time.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Sweeeeeet
October 12th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Those screenshots look beautiful Steve.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
GG steve.. the screens look amazing man and after you add in the new terrain im sure its gonna be mind blowing..
October 13th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Beautiful work Steve! Not that I haven’t come to expect that from you.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
It looks absolutely amazing…