CGside shows the difference between using opacity maps for vegetation versus geometry regarding render times.

Saving resources might not permanently save on render times, and with creating landscape environments, opacity maps, while convenient, might take longer to render with Karma in Side FX Houdini.

This new tutorial from CGside shows a workaround that can reduce render times when working with natural environments by converting the opacity maps to geometry.

The tutorial covers all the settings, but if you want to download the file with all the custom textures and the model, it’s on cgSide’s patreon.