Itoo Software Forum

Forest Pack => Forest Pro (*) => Topic started by: alexrecentspaces on July 06, 2014, 09:35:57 AM

Title: Best Workflow for Scattering over Undulating Surfaces?
Post by: alexrecentspaces on July 06, 2014, 09:35:57 AM
Hi folks,

I have a complex large-scale undulating ground surface (grass), which I would like to cover using FP. I have always struggled with differing heights on the same surface, since FP sometimes struggles to deal with how to scatter objects up a ramp/slope.

Any ideas for how best to approach this?

The Free Presets that come with FP for large grass areas are great but each "clump" is quite a large object, so you often get issues going up slopes and on tight bounds where you get grass spilling over the boundary. Even with the tighter boundary checking you then get holes. My workaround for this has been to shrink the global size of the grass object and have tonnes more of them displayed, but this has obvious drawbacks.

I'd love some input on how best to deal with this sort of thing.

Many thanks in advance.
Title: Re: Best Workflow for Scattering over Undulating Surfaces?
Post by: iToo on July 06, 2014, 06:22:54 PM
The key here is to combine two types of clumps, small and large, for inner areas and edges respectively. You can see an example in the Grass Edges tutorial (http://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/tutorial_grass_edges.php). Instead of small clumps, you may use the "detail" presets.

The same technique would be used for sloped/flat areas. In this case using two Forest objects, and the Surface->Slope Range (http://docs.itoosoft.com/display/FORESTPACK/Surface#Surface-SlopeAngleRange) parameters. For example, one Forest with large clumps limited to 0º-30º, and other Forest with small clumps for 30º-90º.

Also i suggest you take a look to Surface->Scale to fit slope (http://docs.itoosoft.com/display/FORESTPACK/Surface#Surface-Scaletofitslopedareas). This feature may be very useful to fill holes in sloped areas.
Title: Re: Best Workflow for Scattering over Undulating Surfaces?
Post by: alexrecentspaces on July 07, 2014, 09:43:59 AM
The key here is to combine two types of clumps, small and large, for inner areas and edges respectively. You can see an example in the Grass Edges tutorial (http://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/tutorial_grass_edges.php). Instead of small clumps, you may use the "detail" presets.

The same technique would be used for sloped/flat areas. In this case using two Forest objects, and the Surface->Slope Range (http://docs.itoosoft.com/display/FORESTPACK/Surface#Surface-SlopeAngleRange) parameters. For example, one Forest with large clumps limited to 0º-30º, and other Forest with small clumps for 30º-90º.

Also i suggest you take a look to Surface->Scale to fit slope (http://docs.itoosoft.com/display/FORESTPACK/Surface#Surface-Scaletofitslopedareas). This feature may be very useful to fill holes in sloped areas.

Thank you very much - this is exactly what I was looking for. Very helpful.