Loading 3D models of tree's and plants into gazebo
I have been trying for some time to load models of tree's and other plants into gazebo with different levels of succes. What I want is something that not only looks like a tree visually, but also provides a similar LiDAR response to what I would expect from a tree. I am currently running Gazeb 9 on a Ubuntu 18.04 and am using blender 2.79 for my project.
When I use blender to export the 3D model of a tree to dae I get the results like the ones in the examples below:
It seems like the pine needles sometimes is not being rendered and therefor not included in the camera view.
In blender the same exported dae model of the pine tree looks like this:
It seems like I can see more needles on the version in blender, so I assume some where lost in the gazebo rendering.
I have the following questions:
Is there a guide to blender for exporting models with colors and materials to dae, so gazebo can load them directly. Currently I have to redo the coloring afterwards manually in the dae file, or else they will become completely dark.
Is there some configuration I could set to improve the rendering in Gazebo 9 for smaller object i a 3D model ?
What would be recommended the method to generate a orchard of these tree. Currently I do each tree as a static link in a sdf model, but I am unsure if this is the best approach in terms of rendering in gazebo ? To many plants or tree and the gazebo FPS value goes below 5 or even 1.
I know there is a trade-off between the second and third question. But currently I would like to know what is possible and what kind of options do I have to improve my environment modelling.
