How to create billboard trees in blender?

I don't think it's possible. The gmt export options in the max plugins is where we define billboard and which side it rotates.
 
Maybe... I have tried it once, but whole object was rotating, not individual meshes, and it was rotating in very bad way.

I am just making my first steps in rF2 modding. I use Travellers blender addon, but so far I only used it for exporting .fbx. But it is really meant to be for exporting .gmt, and I still haven't got to use it well in that way. I would preffer .fbx. Maybe then it would be possible to get something in combination with gjed. But it is complicated... Travellers script are also unfinished. Hopefully he'll find some time and motivation to continue them.
 
Hello guys. I tried a long time to create billboarding trees in blender but with no success but i have to say now i found the way how to do it. So the trees are rotate well with proper pivot point. When somebody would be interest i can share some instructions.
 
You can do it with Gjedit as well, as long as you find a way to assign 99% Alpha to Vertices color for GMT (can be done in 3dsimed, not sure if possible in blender), here is guide:

svictor said:
Here is an easy method to do billboards tree without using expensive 3dsmax (using 3dsimed+Gjedit instead).

In 3dsimed (must done this 1st):
1. Isolate all trees from other objects, then explode all objects into one piece.

2. Batch edit all material and set shader to any of the Stamp Vertex, such as T1 Stamp Vertex or Bump Specular Map T1 Stamp Vertex.

3. Press hotkey Ctrl+A and select Faces > Vertices RGBA, change Alpha value to 254 then click OK.

4. Select Save rFactor2 model to export GMT.

In Gjedit:
1. Select Open FBX/SCN from menu, click Open and find the tree GMT file you saved (you maybe also need to set Path to texture folder). Then click Load at bottom.

2. On the tool bar, click 6th button "Pick instance from list", click the instance name (there should be only one in this example) and hit OK.

3. On the tool bar, click 5th button "Open instance editor", find the section "Screen-Aligned Quads", and select "BB" box, then choose one of the 5 align methods button (they have different effects). You will see the tree rotating and facing you right way (if not, there must be something wrong with vertice alpha or shader setting, or the mesh is not a triangulated quad).

4. Last, on the tool bar, click 3rd button "Export meshes and mats to .gmt/.scn file", choose a folder, then hit Export All or Export Selected.

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gJED download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/download-gjed-build-1108-dx9-shaders.23333/
Click to expand...
 
With 3dsimed, would it not be simpler to just isolate the texture and substitute with the desired image file of the same dimension? The object could then be resized at will?
 
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