DarkTree 2.5 is an advanced procedural shader authoring tool.  By combining any of 100+ procedural components into a texture tree, you can interactively create photo-realistic textures, surface shaders, and animated effects. Example Darktree shader tree. The textures generated by DarkTrees are calculated in 3D space instead of being derived from bitmaps. Because of this, DarkTree materials can be rendered with full detail at any size, map seamlessly onto any shape, and can be easily changed during the creative process (or over time for special effects). DarkTree textures and shaders can be saved out as bitmaps or brought directly into a 3D application via the included Simbiont plugins Example concrete and rusty steel shaders. .

DarkTree Sightings game: Doom III movie: Minority Report movie: Blade II game: Icewind Dale II movie: Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius movie: Black Knight game: Dark Age of Camelot movie: Driven movie: Red Planet game: Icewind Dale I game: Planescape: Torment game: MechWarrior 4

DarkTree 2.5 currently supports RenderMan, 3ds max, LightWave, Cinema4D, Animation:Master, and an API for creating your own plugins. Third parties have made Blender, Fusion, messiah:studio, and Mental Ray (for Softimage XSI and Maya) plugins available using the DarkTree plugin API. 

Since the release of DarkTree Textures 1.0 in 1998, DarkTree has proven itself a reliable and powerful tool in computer game, TV, and film production. DarkTree 2.5 continues to push the boundaries with the addition of new plugins for RenderMan and Cinema4D, large format and UVW bitmaps, and new APIs that allow you to write your own procedural components and DarkTree-based plugins.