The method I'm about to show you is first used in Turboman's Triamid Ruins campaign.
His take on it was a bit different tho.
It's also a nice oppurtunity to say THANK YOU for your work on that map as it is one of my all-time favorits.

(Just look at it! It's a beatiful scene!)

So, let's start.
First, I have to make the basics clean. The trees/plants will be made from StaticMeshes more specially, from GIBS.
Building from Meshes will give you the advantage of building your trees freely, populating the map with awesome-looking plants.
But it comes with a price:
-The meshes MUSTN'T have any collision to avoid possible bugs.
-Not having collision means that you can walk trough them, shoot through them, and they will be "invisible" for the AI.
-They will look a bit blurry if watched from up-close.

(A scene I made with this technic.)
Let's start with an example:
Make a 512x512x512 room, with a 256x64x64 column in it's center.

Open the ACTOR CLASS browser and select DECORATION.
Highlight the class BOULDER.

And now let's navigate back to the 3D VIEWPORT.
Right click on the ground and press ADD BOULDER HERE.

Higlight the BOULDER on the ground and then click to the first option called:  BOULDER PROPERTIES

There, expand the ADVANCED tab and set the parameters to the following values:

(bMoveable False will make it impossible to move the decoration with a mover)
(bStatic True will make it static, impossible to be moved, it can levitate etc.)
Collapse the ADVANCED tab.
Now, expand the COLLISION tab and set the parameters to these values:

(The decoration (Tree piece) will online "collide" with the "game's world".)
Collapse the COLLISION tab.
Expand the DISPLAY tab.

Let's click to the MESH option:

Click to that that button circled on the picture above. That buttons brings the mesh browser up.

Clicking to the circled are will expand the searching menu:

Let's find SQUIDTAIL3:

We can use this gib as a tree piece.

Close the MESH BROWSER WINDOW.
Click to the USE button:
(It will use the last mesh you highlit. Now, it was the gib so it will use the gib.)

You can see that the boulder became a gib.
It doesn't look like a plant eh?!
Look for DRAWSCALE in the PROPERTIES WINDOW:

Modify the original value (1) to three. This will make the gib appear three times bigger.
DRAWSCALE can be used to make your meshes bigger / smaller.
If the value is 1 then the mesh will appear in it's original scale.
If you set the value under 1, like to 0.5 then the mesh wil be only half as big as it used to be.
Set the string above 1 to make it appear bigger.

Now, expand the MULTISKINS tab:

Click to this one from the list:

Click to the "dots-button" to bring the TEXTURE BROWSER up:
Let's find a texture for the bark...
Click USE to give the tree the desired texture. It will set the latest texture you highlit in the browser.

Now, position the branch.
You can move the branch the same way you move brushes.

Let's duplicate this branch, so you won't have to modify another Boulder.

All I did was duplicating the branches and placing a PLANT2 decoration on their top.
Feel free to use other gibs as tree parts.
Let me show my example:

Have fun and feel free to give feedback and don't forget to show your trees out!

	Molnár "makemeunreal" Balázs
	makemeunreal@gmail.hu