For those who don’t know the tool: The Grove by F12 is a biologically driven tree growth system for Blender and Houdini. It simulates yearly growth and exports animated meshes for DCC and real time pipelines. It sits between modelling and layout, replacing static tree assets with parametric growth.

A measured update, not a rewrite

Dutch developer F12 has released The Grove 2.3, a new version of its procedural tree generation system for Blender and Houdini. The update focuses on workflow refinement, storage reduction and export behaviour rather than introducing a new simulation model. The Grove simulates tree growth year by year using a biologically inspired algorithm. Parameters control branching, apical dominance, tropism and environmental factors. The result is a procedural tree that can be edited non-destructively and regenerated at any stage. The software is delivered as a Blender add-on and as a Houdini plugin.

Version 2.3 does not alter the core growth algorithm. Instead, it introduces new interaction tools and structural changes to data storage. Growth simulation data now occupies roughly 75 per cent less storage than in previous versions. This reduction is achieved by limiting the recording of certain editing operations, including Prune, Bend and Draw. As a result, older files may load with reduced edit history in some cases. The release notes describe this as a trade-off between storage footprint and full historical edit retention.

The reduction is significant for productions that store multiple growth iterations per asset. Vegetation assets are often versioned across layout, look development and lighting. A three-quarter decrease in simulation data can materially affect scene management, particularly in large environments.

Drawing trees directly in the scene

A key addition in 2.3 is the expanded Draw tool. In earlier versions, artists could draw branches onto existing trees. The updated Draw tool now allows users to draw complete trees directly into the scene, either from the ground plane or from arbitrary surfaces. Drawing can begin from geometry, allowing trees to be placed on terrain meshes or architectural elements without manual alignment. This shifts some layout tasks from object instancing to interactive placement of growth.

Drawn strokes are converted into growth instructions. The tree then grows according to the defined biological rules rather than remaining a static curve structure. This maintains the parametric nature of the asset. For layout artists working in Blender or Houdini, this means that trees can be sketched into position rather than generated from presets and repositioned after the fact. The difference is subtle but practical. It moves early composition decisions into the growth stage itself.

Subdivision for cleaner branch geometry

Another addition is a Subdivide option intended to smooth segmented branches. Procedural tree systems often represent branches as chains of nodes connected by straight segments. At lower resolutions, this can produce visible angular transitions along the branch.

The Subdivide option adds additional nodes between existing ones, reducing visible kinks. Subdivision is applied selectively and is not equivalent to a global mesh subdivision modifier. It operates at the growth-structure level rather than purely at the mesh output level.

For rendering pipelines that rely on displacement maps or high-frequency bark detail, smoother base geometry can reduce shading artefacts. The release notes include before-and-after comparisons showing reduced angularity along curved branches. These images suggest a visible improvement, although final render quality will still depend on your shading and tessellation settings.

Automatic bark texture scaling

Texturing adjustments form another part of the 2.3 update. The Grove now automatically scales bark texture repetition around the circumference of branches based on their thickness. In previous versions, artists needed to manually adjust bark scaling to prevent visible stretching or excessive tiling on thicker trunks. The new behaviour calculates scaling from the branch radius, automatically aligning texture repetition with geometry.

This is an automatic scaling of bark texture, which repeats around branch circumferences. No additional user input is required. This is a small change, but in vegetation workflows, small changes reduce repetitive corrective steps across dozens or hundreds of assets. No new shading model is introduced in 2.3. The change concerns UV scaling behaviour rather than material definition. The Grove continues to output meshes compatible with standard Blender and Houdini shading systems.

Export adjustments for real-time engines

Export behaviour has also been revised. The release notes state that The Grove now uses a split seam structure intended to align better with real time engines and modelling tools such as three.js, WebGL and Rhino. The split seam structure separates end cap geometry and allows per point normals and UVs where supported. In practical terms, this affects how branch junctions and cut ends are represented in exported meshes.

Real-time engines often rely on explicit vertex normals and clean UV seams for correct shading and normal map interpretation. Adjustments at export level can reduce the need for manual cleanup in downstream tools.

The vendor supports common interchange formats, including FBX, OBJ, and USD. Animated exports, including growth over time and wind motion are available via Alembic. These formats are standard in both offline VFX and real time pipelines.

Houdini Indie and Blender support

The Grove 2.3 expands support on the Houdini side by adding compatibility with Houdini Indie. Houdini Indie is the lower-cost edition of Houdini from SideFX, targeted at individual artists and small studios. Previous limitations restricted some editions of The Grove to full commercial Houdini licences. The addition of Indie support broadens access for freelancers and small teams.

According to coverage by CG Channel, the update makes The Grove available in Houdini Indie environments, although the vendor release page remains the primary source of technical detail.

On the Blender side, The Grove is compatible with the Blender 5 series. Blender is developed by the Blender Foundation. The Grove is distributed as a Blender add-on and integrates directly into the host application interface.

Editions and pricing

The Grove 2.3 is available in three editions: Starter, Indie and Studio. All editions include the Blender plugin. The Studio edition adds full Houdini support.

At the time of writing, pricing listed on the vendor site is 99 euro for Starter, 199 euro for Indie and 799 euro for Studio. The vendor also offers separate Twigs geometry packs containing leaves, flowers and fruits, priced individually.

Production considerations

The Grove remains a specialised tool focused on biologically plausible growth rather than purely parametric mesh generation. Its value in production depends on whether growth behaviour is part of the creative requirement or simply a means to an end.

Version 2.3 does not introduce a new solver or simulation paradigm. Instead, it refines interaction, reduces storage overhead and adjusts export behaviour. For studios already using The Grove, the update appears incremental rather than disruptive.

For new users, the addition of Houdini Indie support lowers the entry barrier. The storage reduction may also make the tool more viable in asset dense scenes where file size becomes a concern.

As always, new tools and updates should be tested in a controlled environment before deployment in live productions. Behavioural changes in data storage and export structure should be validated against existing pipeline assumptions.

// F12 The Grove homepage
// https://www.thegrove3d.com/

// F12 The Grove 2.3 release notes
// https://www.thegrove3d.com/releases/23/

The post The Grove 2.3 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

GGro is a free Houdini add-on created by Gio Gargiulo. It is distributed as a set of Houdini Digital Assets designed to generate procedural organic growth structures. The tool is currently in beta and available at no cost via Gumroad. GGro is intended to create growth-based structures such as coral-like forms, branching organisms, fungal shapes and other biologically inspired geometries. The system operates entirely inside Houdini and does not rely on external solvers or third-party dependencies.

Nodes, solvers and scope

The add-on consists of multiple custom nodes grouped into solvers, influence nodes and utility tools. These are used to control how geometry grows over time, how it reacts to attractors or obstacles, and how the resulting structures are managed downstream in a SOP network.

The solvers drive the growth behaviour itself. Influence nodes modify direction, density and interaction. Utility nodes handle tasks such as meshing and organisation of the generated geometry. Exact implementation details are not documented beyond the node descriptions provided with the download and a wiki, that you can find HERE. Behaviour beyond the supplied examples is Not independently verified at press time.

Installation and compatibility

GGro is installed by placing the supplied package files into Houdini’s packages directory. Once loaded, the nodes appear inside Houdini like standard HDAs and can be wired into existing procedural setups.

No minimum Houdini version is specified on the official site. Platform support is not explicitly stated. GPU usage, performance characteristics and memory behaviour are not documented in the available material.

Intended users and use cases

The author positions GGro primarily toward motion design and experimental procedural work. Example imagery shows abstract organic structures rather than production-specific assets. There are no claims regarding suitability for VFX shots, asset pipelines or simulation replacement. GGro does not claim physical accuracy. It should be understood as a procedural growth generator rather than a biological or scientific simulation.

Current limits

As the tool is labelled beta, node behaviour, naming and stability may change without notice. There is no published licence text beyond the statement that the tool is free. Commercial usage terms are not clearly defined in the available sources. As with all new procedural tools, artists are advised to evaluate stability, performance and reproducibility before introducing GGro into active production pipelines.

GGro official site
https://giogargiulo.com/ggro

The post GGro grows strange things in Houdini, for free first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: UVPackmaster by Łukasz Czyż (glukoz) is a GPU-accelerated UV packing plugin for Blender. It automates the tedious job of fitting UV islands efficiently, using CUDA or Vulkan acceleration, and is widely used in texturing workflows for VFX, games, and real-time assets.

Dynamic tiles, dynamic thinking

The newly released UVPackmaster 4 marks a structural overhaul of the popular UV packing add-on. Developer Łukasz Czyż rebuilt the engine to allow features that the 3.x architecture could not support. The first visible result is Dynamic Tiles, a system that automatically calculates the number of UV tiles (UDIMs) needed during packing, rather than forcing users to assign them manually.

Texel density tiers for texture discipline

Another key addition is improved texel-density management. Users can now define per-island density before packing, and introduce texel-density tiers (groups of islands linked by shared scale rules). This enables consistent texture resolution across materials without iterative rescaling.

Group layout for atlas workflows

A new Group Layout Mode enhances control over texture atlas creation. It lets users manage UV groups directly during packing, particularly useful for environment assets or game-ready atlases. Interface refinements also include the option to reposition UVPackmaster panels freely within Blender’s UI.

A re-engineered core

The 4.0 release refactors the underlying codebase for long-term extensibility. According to official statements, UVPackmaster 3 will continue to receive maintenance updates until at least 2027, but will not receive any new features. The redesigned engine introduces better multi-platform stability across Windows, Linux and macOS, including Apple Silicon.

Still a GPU workhorse

As before, UVPackmaster can use either CUDA or Vulkan for acceleration, allowing both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs (and Macs) to benefit. The packer continues to support multi-threaded CPU fallback, UDIM workflows, per-group packing and heuristic search algorithms to improve UV fill efficiency.

Licensing and support

UVPackmaster 4 is priced at US $53 for a single-user licence, with higher-tier studio options available. It supports Blender 2.83 and later on 64-bit systems. As always, we recommend testing new software releases in controlled conditions before full adoption of the pipeline.

The post UVPackmaster 4 unwraps a smarter way to pack first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

In nuce: 3D artist-slash-industrial designer Jorge del Valle has released his free UV Checker Map, which allows 3D models to be checked for texture distortion – and then downloaded in a resolution of up to 8K.

In toto: The checker maps are user-definable (for example in terms of grid size, colours and numbering). In addition, the text colour can be automatically adapted to the background via convenience functions – which should increase readability. Digital Production would like to thank Jim Thacker from cgchannel.com, who first pointed out Valle’s web app (which was already released in 2021).

Clicked further: The UV Checker Map Maker online app is available at uvchecker.byvalle.com . Jorge del Valle is a former employee of Weta Workshop; his creative work can be viewed via artstation.com On 24 July 2020 , Digital Production reported on the free UV Checker Maps by user Maurus Kamehameha.

Source: cgchannel.com (message from Jim Thacker)

The post Still a checker or already a checker map? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Blender’s node-based simulation framework was recently made available. This is according to a report from 28 November this year, published on cgchannel.com.

In toto: By means of these nodes themselves, it should be possible to create new tools and procedural content in Blender – by linking nodes together. Together with version 3.5 of Blender, which is due to be released in March next year, the node-based simulation framework should be part of the regular version of Blender.

We started working on basic simulation support for #geometrynodes. There still many limitations, but it's already fun to play with. #b3d #devfund pic.twitter.com/M05Hd25Miz

— Jacques Lucke (@JacquesLucke) November 24, 2022

Twitter posting by Jacques Lucke: As can be seen from the Twitter post by software developer Jacques Lucke from 24 November this year (see above), the planned support for geometry nodes is in progress; although this is currently still subject to – quote Jacques – “many restrictions”, it is already giving the developer a lot of pleasure.

Click further: The geometry nodes can be tested for simulation purposes via builder.blender.org .

Source: cgchannel.com ( message from Jim Thacker)

The post Node-based simulation framework for Blender? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.