   Trees
  I was playing with SpeedTreeMAX and imported some trees generated with SpeedTreeCAD. The problem is that I notices I must use a specific format to load the model/animation, a format that will load only with SpeedTreeRT SDK. The thing is that SpeedTreeRT is not avaible for trial download (as I downloaded SpeedTreeMAX). I'm unable to export any tree to .X format.natFx is exporting the model to.X but the textures are wrong. Instead of the color wich should represent the transparency I see weird lines and colors.   
  Most exporting with those tools to non-native formats are reserved for the paid versions.   ;  What about some free tool or some free trees that are lowpoli like SpeedTree makes? I could make some bones and animate them bit I still need some models. I've searched over the internet and only found trees that are very highpoli.   ;  Well that seems to be the typical great free asset search of the internet for tress. The thing with why SpeedTree tress are great is actually in how they handle the actual leafs using camera directed billboards. So its actually a mix and match between rendering engine tricks and the base trunk mesh. Most of the free stuff out there are made by people like you giving up and modeling something and putting it out there. Sad thing is there is much to be desired in quality. So you etheir will have to end up settling for the crap that is premade out there for free, pony up the cash for something commercial even as simple as Treemagik, modifying and open source program like Arbaro to suit your needs, or just finally sucking it up and modeling something from scratch.   ;  I guess in not so hard to make camera directed bilboards. The main problem will be the large number of drawcalls. But I guess SpeedTree also draw bilboards separately to turned them in the face of the camera.   ;  About the number of Draw calls, you could substancially reduce it by using point sprites and generate polygons on the fly using a geometry shader, or you could use geometry instancing.   