License

The Grove is split up in parts that are available with different licenses. The Grove Core is a library application that is used either directly from Python or by several application dependent add-ons.

The Grove 2.1 Core end user license agreement

1. The Grove Core is copyright (c) 2014 – 2024 Wybren van Keulen, F12 / The Grove. All rights to copy and use the software are reserved, with some exceptions for a licensed user. Read on to see what you can and cannot do.
2. The Grove Core is made for artists, not content creators. As a licensed user you can grow trees for use in your own personal, research and commercial projects, with the following exceptions:
   • You may not sell or distribute simulations or 3D models of trees grown with The Grove Core. Because come on, that would be too easy. This also applies when using your own textures and / or twigs.
   • You may not sell rendered images of just trees that are meant as stock collage material. This does not include stock images where the trees are not the main subject, and part of a bigger picture.
   • You may distribute tree models in games or realtime presentations or realtime visualizations, provided that:
     • the trees can not be extracted,
     • and the trees are not the main subject,
     • and the game or realtime presentation is the end product, and not a tool to create games or realtime presentations or realtime visualizations.
3. A starter license is bound to a single person, the licensed user. As a licensed user, you may install and use The Grove Core on your work computer, and on one additional computer like your laptop or home computer, as long as they are both yours and The Grove Core is used only by you.
   • A starter license is personal, and non-transferrable.
4. An indie license is bound to a single person, the licensed user. As a licensed user, you may install and use The Grove Core on your work computer, and on one additional computer like your laptop or home computer, as long as they are both yours and The Grove Core is used only by you.
   • An indie license is personal, and non-transferrable.
5. A studio license is bound to a single company branch, and grants the company branch the freedom to install The Grove Core on all its machines at a single physical studio location, to be used only by employees of the company branch. Tree simulations and models and twigs may be shared internally.
   • A studio license is bound to the company branch and is non-transferrable.
6. Except for installation purposes outlined in points 3 and 4, you may not make copies of The Grove. You may not distribute or share the use of the software or any of its parts.
7. The Grove is a simulation software for growing trees. In its continued development, it tries to get as close to nature as possible, but it is still a simulation and they are not real trees. There will always be some level of abstraction. Presets are an estimation and give no guarantee for the life of a tree in real life. And even in real life, no two trees are ever the same.
8. The Grove gives absolutely no warranty, with the only guarantee being the best intentions to create a fun and rock solid program. If in any way the install or use of this program causes damage, loss of time, money, data or clients, you will not hold The Grove responsible.
9. The Grove may change this license agreement with every new release. Upgrading to the new release means you agree to the new terms.
10. Have fun growing!

The Grove in Houdini

The Grove in Houdini is the Houdini add-on for The Grove. It uses The Grove Core to simulate trees and to create models of these trees. The output of The Grove in Houdini is subject to the license of The Grove Core. The Grove in Houdini has the same license as The Grove Core, with one addition. You may tweak the digital assets to fit your own or your studio’s pipeline.

The Grove 2.1 in Blender

The Grove 2.1 in Blender is the Blender add-on for The Grove. The add-on part is open source and is released under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license. Feel free to modify the add-on to fit your pipeline. The add-on uses The Grove Core to grow its trees and to create 3D models of those trees – the resulting tree models are subject to the license of The Grove Core.

Attribution

The Grove Core is developed in Rust, using the PyO3, Serde, Serde JSON and Noise libraries, all under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license.

The Blender add-on is written in Python and uses Python libraries, under the terms of the Python Software Foundation License Version 2. The add-on also uses NumPy, under the terms of the NumPy license. The Grove in Blender makes use of Blender’s bpy API, under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 3.0, compatible with the Apache 2.0 license of the add-on.