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Author Topic: Merging library/template objects and forest automat materials  (Read 1999 times)

TG4018

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Merging library/template objects and forest automat materials
« on: February 03, 2016, 09:19:29 PM »
Hello,

The plugin is excellent! However, despite always using the same object from the library when creating new Forest objects, I always get tons of library objects in the template layer, e.g. in my case I have ten objects called "_forest_library_ZH27RLA", as well as tons of materials with different names of the form "forest_automat_[hexadecimal number]". Is it possible to make all the forest objects using the same material and library object use one and the same object? In other words, merge all "_forest_library_ZH27RLA" into one, and maybe even make them all use the same "forest_automat_[hexadecimal number]" material?

The many automat-materials make rendering all the materials in the slate material editor slower, so that's a bit of a performance problem apart from the annoying clutter aspect of it all. The multiple library objects is just cluttering as far as I've been able to recognize, but maybe it could possibly slow down performance as well when they start growing very numerous?

I'm using 3ds Max 2014 x64 and Forest Pack Pro on Windows 7 x64.

Thanks!

iToo

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Re: Merging library/template objects and forest automat materials
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2016, 08:49:19 AM »
Hi, the issue about templates layer and objects included in them is discussed here:

http://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=3446.0

Regarding auto-materials, there is exactly one by Forest object and are used to collect all materials defined in "Geometry->Material" parameter.
So they don't correspond with any specific model, this is the reason we assign a random/unique name. Perhaps we would use a name more meaningful with the Forest object, but this may cause undesirable side effects (i.e. if the Forest object is renamed).

In any case, i suggest you ignore (as far as possible) these auto-materials, and work directly with the materials defined in "Geometry->Material". Or when this parameter is void, the material assigned to the custom object.
Auto-materials are rebuild dinamically by Forest, and always use instances of the original materials. So usually it's not a good idea to deal with them.

I hope that helps to understand how this stuff works, and why it's problematic to modify it. Thanks.


Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

TG4018

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Re: Merging library/template objects and forest automat materials
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2016, 07:17:30 PM »
Thanks, but what if I want to merge Forest objects from a different scene and Max complains about the duplicate names? Thing is, I created one scene with a Forest object in it, and then created another scene with another forest object based off of that, so I have multiple scenes with Forest objects using the same library objects. In the current scene, I'd like to import (using Max's "merge") the Forest objects in these older scenes into the new one. Obviously, the library objects have the same name. Should I "merge" or "auto-rename" them?

Also, why can't I just delete the library objects with duplicate names, so long as I don't delete all of them? From what I understood from the replies in the thread you linked, Forest pack uses names to identify the library items?

iToo

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Re: Merging library/template objects and forest automat materials
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2016, 09:44:36 AM »
Well, Forest can check if exist duplicate objects, but only when a model is imported from the library. Once in the scene, Max follows its own rules and unfortunately none of the Merge options works as we like:

- 'Merge': creates a duplicate object in the library layer. Altough with the same name, for Max both objects are different.
- 'Skip': ignores the new object. This doesn't create duplicates, but the new Forest object will loose its reference to the library item.
- 'Delete old': same as Skip, but reference is lost in the other Forest.
- 'Auto rename': same as 'Merge', but duplicate items will have different name.

Anyway, this specific case did not raise until now. I think we can do something about it. May be an option in "Forest Tool" to check and remove duplicate library items.
I just added it to our to-do list.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software