grass question

[JesseP]

Hey all,

Just installed the Forest Pack Lite and am trying to figure out how best to get the program to work for my needs.
I make lots of landscape backyards and typically use the Hair/Fur mod but the new version of MAX I installed doesn't seem to be working very well with my alpha channel planes so I am trying to get your package to work for use instead.

My question is how can I get the grass to come up to the edge of my decking with out it going past/over the edge of the decking. I often times have to run grass in between step pads and around curves and If I use the grass as a mapped plane scattered across a flat surface lots of the border planes either come just short of the edge, leaving a gap, or go past the edge of decking too far.

I'll attach a couple images of the issue I'm having to better explain what my challenge is.

[JesseP]

Here is what I am trying to replicate

[iToo]

In this case you should use a smaller clump of grass. The billboard of your scene is too wide, and it is difficult to adjust the distribution at the edges.

Of course, using smaller objects it is necessary to increase the density, and the number of items grows. So you must balance between the size and density to get the best result. The right values depends of each scene.

I also suggest that you set the "Boundary Check" to "Size" in the Area options. On this mode, the boundary checking is more precise, using not only the position of the items, but also their size.

If that helps, the same issue is discussed here, although in this case using 3D grass. You will find a ready-to-use scene in the post:

http://www.itoosoft.com/forum/index.php?topic=1105.0

[JesseP]

Thanks,

Working on a couple plans right now... I will try this out and report back with the results.

[JesseP]

Couple trials, still not getting it but will keep playing with settings.

[iToo]

What render engine do you use ?
For VRay or Mental Ray perhaps would be better to use directly the 3D grass of the sample scene.

Have you enabled Boundary Check->Size for the first scene ? It seems some blades are outside of the spline area yet.

For the second image, if you use the "Full" distribution map, i suggest to enable also Transform->Translation, to disguise the grid effect.

[JesseP]

Using the scanline rendering. Target direct light + Skylight for lighting. I Have never used Mental ray or vray. Honestly I do 2 or 3 of these scenes each day so I need to bang them out as fast as possible... while still trying to maintain some degree of realism. kind of a catch 22 perhaps but it's hard to find a e few extra hours to test new stuff as that's basically a whole plan I'm having to pass up on to do so. When I was using the hair/fur I saved presets and could load the grass with only a few clicks. hoping I can get to that point with your plugin once I figure out the settings.

I'll try your suggestions and get back with some more updates...

Thanks very much for the assistance.