Itoo Software Forum

Forest Pack => Forest Pro (*) => Topic started by: blanker on July 22, 2021, 11:38:54 AM

Title: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: blanker on July 22, 2021, 11:38:54 AM
Hi iToo team,

Would it be possible to add to the future versions option to distribute selected objects along individual splines within one Forest Pack object when using Path mode for Distribution?
The same way as it works with Areas when you can select which models you want to be included in each individual area.
But when we use Distribution Mode as Path there is only Geom ID option (Random or Sequence) which applies to all selected spline.

Other potential option might be to assign specific models based on spline segment Material ID?
Similar way as it works in RailClone when different Generators can be applied to different spline segments based on Material ID within single RailClone object.

Thanks
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: Paul Roberts on July 22, 2021, 11:59:30 AM
Hi.

Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds like a good idea but unfortunately, the Spline mode doesn't evaluate properties on a per spline basis, only globally, so it would require some deep changes. The ability to access material IDs in Forest Effects may be easier though, we'll add it to our wishlist and investigate if it can be implemented for a future update.

Many thanks,
Paul
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: blanker on July 22, 2021, 12:05:28 PM
Thank you, Paul!

Would be also great to have an option to randomize distribution spacing along the path.

ATM the only solution we found is to use Translation transform, but it would apply translation based on the axis direction (X,Y or Z) and not the spline direction (in situations when spline is curved or have angled or perpendicular sections going in different directions)

Thanks
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: Paul Roberts on July 22, 2021, 01:39:50 PM
No problem. Out of interest, what are you trying to do with this feature? I'm curious to know whether RailClone could be used, and what might be missing to make it suitable.

Paul
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: blanker on July 22, 2021, 05:11:57 PM
Sure. Probably the most common example of this feature use would be in scattering hanging and edging plants along the edge of planter or wall when it goes around the building or some site features/landscape elements and need some natural irregularity in scattering to look more realistic.
The only work around we found atm is to include empty (disabled objects into geometry list to add some visual gaps. but it's not always easy to achieve the result you want and also pretty hard to control.
So to have a simple feature to set random offset values along the path would make it easier to control and it also can be used in combination with disabled objects to add even more variation.

Cheers
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: Paul Roberts on July 23, 2021, 01:13:41 PM
Thanks for the extra information. Unless you are using Forest Colour, then RailClone could be a solution. It is also capable of instancing and huge amounts of geometry. If you use RailClone for high poly objects it's a good idea to do the following:

In that way, you can be sure that all objects are instanced and efficient. Another option if you really need to use Forest Pack might be to just distribute triangles using RailClone and then use them as Markers to place geometry in Forest Pack.


(https://i.imgur.com/sapiHqA.png)


Cheers,
Paul
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: blanker on July 27, 2021, 10:12:42 AM
Thank you Paul for investigating it. Really appreciate it!

RailClone can be a good solution for that if we need to scatter one plant.
Probably the limitation (or complication) of this method would be when we need to scatter more plants (3-4-5 or more) since as far as I know RailClone behaves differently with materials and there should single Multi/Sub material applied to the whole RailClone object in contrary to Forest Pack which picks individual materials for each model/geometry. So if we'll use more plants we'll need to combine their materials into one massive Multi/Sub material and reassign all Material IDs for the geometry elements to make sure that materials won't get mixed up. And if we'll need to add extra plants later one it'll turn into massive headache.

So the second solution would work better for that where RailClone will be used as a marker to distribute Forest Pack objects.

Probably it's still would be nice to have this simple setting within ForestPack to randomize distance between instances along the spline to avoid these more complicated work arounds. Is it possible to implement it from the technical point of view?
I remember that MultiScatter had this option back in the days (haven't used it for ages now)


Thanks
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: Paul Roberts on July 27, 2021, 11:47:47 AM
Hi!

We've added randomising the position on splines to the wish list. In the meantime, you might be interested to know that RailClone can take the materials from the source objects now. All you need to do is enable Use Segment Colour from the style rollout. No more creating multi-sub object materials - hurrah!

(https://i.imgur.com/ciAqQm6.png)

Cheers,
Paul
Title: Re: Distribution along Path - Select models per spline
Post by: blanker on July 27, 2021, 03:51:23 PM
Thanks Paul!

And big thanks for the tip about RailClone! It might seems as a small tick in the settings, but it's a true game changer for complex setups. Hurrah indeed!

Cheers