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Author Topic: Path Distribution Mode - Randomness  (Read 1399 times)

Bruce Hart

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Path Distribution Mode - Randomness
« on: January 24, 2020, 06:40:43 AM »
Hi
I've been using the Forest Path Distribution mode to make cascading ivy tendrils that follow curved planter edges.  The concept is really great, however I struggle to get true randomness with the Random Geometry ID mode.  Many items seem to maintain a uniform repeating distance and also the same order as they are added to the list.  Also - changing the random seed number just seems to shuffle the same sequence along the path, as opposed to randomizing the order of items.

In the attachments you can see a comparison between the Forest Pack path randomization and that of RailClone.  The Forest example has had the probability of each item randomized, but as you can see the same items seem to often line up together in sequence and appear in uniform distances along the path.  I've used random scale/rotation factors in the Ivy example to help, along with manually shuffling the order of items in the list using the up/down arrow buttons.

Also - is there a way or possibility to make the random move translation to shuffle items along the path?  Right now it translates each item in world space and not relative to the path direction.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.  Thanks

Rokas

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Re: Path Distribution Mode - Randomness
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2020, 07:28:21 AM »

Looks pretty random for me. I see no apparent pattern.

Regarding Translation along path. There is an effect to translate in local XY instead of world XY
Rokas

Bruce Hart

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Re: Path Distribution Mode - Randomness
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2020, 02:36:18 PM »
Hey Rokas
Thanks for taking the time to demonstrate that.  You are correct in saying it is randomised, however I still don't think the sequence is shuffled all the way along the path as happens with RailClone.  In my test attached you can see 11 letters arrayed along a spline with no intermediate vertices.  You will notice that there are many letters that have the exact spacing apart (purple dimension), and there are numerous letters that are paired together and repeated at the same distance.  On the right hand side you will even see a seven letter sequence that is repeated exactly.  I think what's happening here is the list of items is randomised and that sequence is repeated along the path with some smaller randomisation applied to each subsequent sequence.  Unfortunately this results in discernible repeating clumps of items in some situations in my opinion.

This is not big deal of course, but perhaps the individual items could be shuffled a bit more all the way along the path similar to RailClone?

Cheers
« Last Edit: January 24, 2020, 02:50:43 PM by Bruce Hart »