The Biotope has released the 2.0 version of The Grove, their tree growth simulation software for Blender, bringing significant upgrades including faster simulation speeds and compatibility with SideFX Houdini.
The Grove 2.0’s main feature is its significant speed increase. The revamped simulation now operates 5 to 20 times faster than its previous version. This speed is facilitated by a completely rebuilt simulation powered by a high-performance Core developed in Rust, a language known for its speed and stability. The core, which is now platform independent and compatible with Windows, Linux and macOS, enables users to grow older trees and more of them at an accelerated pace.
The Grove 2.0 has been made independent of Blender. The Grove Core handles all the hard work from growing trees to building finished 3D models, and is portable to any app with a Python API, with the first compatimodels andg Houdini. The integration with Houdini allows users to plant, grow, prune and build trees in a procedural way.
The update also includes several improvements in bending, center of gravity and solidify features for growing trees, as well as the addition of new tools like Stake and Automatic pruning. Simulations are now saved within the working .blend file or .hip file for Houdini and are portable and move with the file.
Despite the launch of 2.0, the developers consider this as a conversation starter and are seeking user input for future improvements. While the simulation is more separated now, the Grove’s integration with Blender is reportedly better than ever.
The team also made improvements to UV maps and attributes, reducing the amount of data used for each tree model.
Find out more about this release on The Grove’s website.
Excited to see such big progress for this tool; getting a huge speed boost and embracing Houdini, etc.
Even more exciting is the fact that I see Steve Burke still active in the 3D domain. I still have the image you created of the African shaman, using 3ds Max 2, from 30 years ago. You and Eni Oken were among the main reasons and motivations for me to continue striving to learn and excel in 3D art 🙂
Hi Igor,
Thanks, and good too see you still at it as well. I was also a big Eni Oken fan . . . she had her own wonderful take on everything. Those early days of max were very fun but definitely enjoying the current moment with so many new creative tools available. Plasticity and Renderman 25 are the newest shiny baubles I’ve been playing with. So much to choose from these days.
It would be interesting if they didn’t have this mind boggling clause in their licensing:
“The Grove is developed for artists. Do not sell or distribute 3D models of trees grown with The Grove. Because come on, that would be too easy.”
That limits its use case quite dramatically… and “too easy” is apparently the best argument they have come up with.
Well, in other words they are saying the same Reallusion says with the models created with Character Creator 3 or 4, you basically cannot sell them, you can use them in your projects, but not sell them in a market I’m afraid.
I get it though. It looks like this thing is made to spit out variations of the same species very quickly, so a small group could flood the market.
And so can you with growfx, and those you can sell as much as you please. And for some reason they haven’t crashed the plant model market or their sales of growfx.
If at least they would provide a well rounded argument instead of just “eh, it’s too easy otherwise”. How old are we? 5? Like… “the price and development is based on assumption y and you need to buy branch packs for z, and if you can sell finished trees then user a and b can just reuse branches from them and we won’t be able to keep in business” or whatever it actually is. Provide reasoning, not such a stupid non-argument.
GrowFX is a great tool. I hope the developer makes a standalone version that can be accessed from other DCC applications.
Apart from GrowFX, though, every serious tree creation tool has restrictive licensing for generated trees. I wish it weren’t so but I can’t begrudge the developers for trying to earn a living. Tree-generation tools are niche products.
Also GrowFX, while purpose-built for trees, is more of an all-purpose tool. It primarily generates and surfaces splines. The Grove encapsulates the science of how trees grow into an easy to use tool and provides ready to go twigs. It does a lot more of the heavy lifting when it comes making a final, realistic result. GrowFX requires more artistry, research, and texture work from the user to get similar results.
Sadly no try version!
Yes sadly, that is something to work on.
no animation tools sadly.
thats a big oversight
product will fail
The Grove has growth animation, wind animation and breeze animation for the twigs. And the Houdini add-on creates a skeleton so you can add even more dynamics. It has animation tools.
oh i read over the website and it makes no mention of that.
imo should be highlighted cos the other tools for tree animation are poor (grow FX is horrific) and average (speedtree)
I bought it 2018 – see access to Grove Core 2.0 Indie and Grove 11 on my account – this means the newest update allows me to use the Indie version, right? Twigs still separate purchase; is the app able to output gameready assets yet?
great update! Also houdini update is next level! btw. bought it some years ago, also because of the very enthusiastic mind behind Wybren.