SpeedTree sprouts new licensees

IDV has announced a bumper crop of new licensees for its SpeedTreeRT foliage middleware.

The technology is being used in Sega’s forthcoming tactical action RPG Valkyria Chronicles and Funcom’s Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. It’s also being used in Sacred 2: Fallen Angel by Ascaron, Sky Gods by BlackFoot Studios, Bongfish and Destineer’s Stoked and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth 3D. Developer Torus Knot has also created OgreSpeedTree, an integration for SpeedTreeRT into the open-source engine OGRE.

“Valkyria Chronicles will reward players with both amazing gameplay and a first-rate environment,” said Ryutaro Nonaka, producer at SEGA. “SpeedTree is a very important part of the game’s graphical excellence.”

Pål Frogner Hansen, project director for Age of Conan, added: “In every land we created for the game, we faced a series of crucial decisions about the foliage. How many trees should we place? What species make the most sense where? Where do we want the trees to be something the player can use tactically, such as for cover or to fire weapons from?”

“We custom modeled a number of trees to match Robert Howard’s dark vision. SpeedTree made it easy for our artists to experiment with tree shapes, textures, root structure and more, quickly scrolling through extensive variations until they achieved just the right look and feel. If Conan himself could walk among the trees we’ve created for him, we think he’d be right at home.”