Today's package will contain three thickets. These are constructed using my WIP tree builder script for GMAX. I've scrounged up a convex hull script that I modified for use with my tree foliage. It takes the entire area of the foliage and makes a single shadow casting bubble.
The release versions will not have shadows cast by the trunks. I figure this is not a big deal because the thicket trees are no more than 4 years old, and it would highly likely their shadow would be super thin anyway.
I've previously suggested taking these thickets and building them into a zone AOE which grants cover/concealment bonuses. If the environment is dark and shadowy enough, the thicket alone might be enough to obscure a creature, or even a PVP player.
The thickets will be created from a combination of maple-like, poplar-like, and olive-like trees. I did not differentiate the growth on anything other than their leaf colors, so feel free to change their bark types or rotate their element parts as you need them. I left all the branch sections and leaf sections as individual unwelded elements as part of the larger model. Leaves and branch/trunk sections are separate because they use separate textures.
Here is an image of the dynamic shadow bubbles.
A thicket of 2.5 meters is enough to make neverwinter explorer very uneasy. I highly suggest not attempting to view these in the explorer.
A thicket of 5 meters is enough to anger the toolset.
Neither thicket affects actual gameplay in any noticeable way.
I am still testing the 10 meter thicket. I can assume nwexplorer will crash, and the toolset will go beyond sluggish. If it affects gameplay, I may resort to looking for a concave hull system to wrap the branch/truck model. That should reduce faces and other waste.
