Most people use 3d trunks that branch off, probably at most 1,000 polies, then add billboards for leaves throughout.robmar wrote:did that already. with the tree loaded the FPS takes quite a hit, I guess its just too complex an object to run in real-time well.
I´ve seen some RT 3D that handles trees on large landscapes from that french guy, had thought they were meshes but guess he´s using another technique..
The sapling add on for Blender makes it easy to create endless variations on trees that do a decent job of pretending to be what they say they are.