forest color

[MQ4267]

hello, i'm a new user as of Wednesday.  I followed the tutorial last week about using forest color, get color from map, it worked, but i can't get it to work again.  i've attached screen shots of what i have for materials and the rendered result.  it worked once, but not since then.  even when i follow the tutorial again.  finally, i did get it to work using my own files from scratch, but today downloaded the tutorials and notice everything is VRAY.  Is forest color and get color from map only for VRAY?

thanks,
steve

[iToo]

Hi, at first glance your settings seem correct. Just be sure you have the field surface assigned in Forest (Surface rollout), and it has the mapping in channel 1. Forest Color->Map takes the UV coordinates from it.

What render engine do you use ? Forest Color works with V-Ray, Mental Ray and Corona Renderer. You can check the compatibility list here.

[MQ4267]

i upgraded to latest version this morning.  here's what i tried from scratch in a new scene.  i've also archived it and attached to this message.  thanks for the help!  PS - i'm not doing anything in the "material" roll-out for the forest object.  should i be doing something there?  i'm sure it's something simple

EDIT: i use mentalray and 3dsmax design 2014.  although i have design 2015 installed.

1. create plane 50ftx25ft
2. assign bitmap of football field to diffuse color in a&d material, uncheck 'real world' mapping
3. assign a&d material to plane with view map in viewport turned on
4. uncheck real world mapping on plane, bitmap shows perfectly

5. create mrproxy grass clump
6. assign a&d material with diffuse color only, a greenish tint

7. create forest pro object by clicking on plane
8. gemotry rollout > custom object > click > click on mrproxy
9. distribution map rollout > full > density scale in units > 40'
10. transforms > enable rotation with defaults > enable scale with defaults
11. create camera from perspective viewport
12. create photometric light place up higher than plane, near camera
13. test render, adjust mrexposure control

14. open slate material
15. instance "field" and "grass" materials
16. drag out "grass" diffuse color map to create Forest Color
17. dbl click forest color to display properties on far left
18. enable "override"
19. enable "get color from map"
20. drag a line from bitmap of field to the none button under get color from map as instance
21. change blending mode to "normal"
22. change from "random values" to "as texture on surface"
23. test render - grey/white grass renders
24. change "mode" from xy to uv test render again - grey/white grass

25. "map channel info" tool shows Plane001 ID 1:map

thanks,

[iToo]

Thanks for the details, i see the problem: Forest Color is not supported on proxies. You must use a standard mesh as Custom Object.

[MQ4267]

ah!  sure, the one time it worked i wasn't using a mrpoxy, i just created a grass clump on the fly to follow the tutorial...

so, i created some grass blades inside this scene and it worked great. 

i import > merge some grass blades from another scene file and not so great, renders white again.

i import > merge some other grass blades from yet a different scene and it worked again.

seems the difference is that grass A was an editable mesh.  grass B was an editable poly.

so import > merge edit mesh - doesn't work, import  > merge edit poly works.

I tried collapsing and converting from the edit mesh to an edit poly, resetting Xform, removing and readding the material and it didn't work.  i'm going to see if i can change the problem grasses (meshes) to edit poly from within the scene file.

also, another thought, i use "real world units" by default... is it possible this is causing an issue?  ultimately for the plane that is the football field, i have real world turned off.  but typically when i create new objects they default to real world.

[MQ4267]

yep, if in my original grass scene file, i convert/collapse  to an edit poly, i put an edit poly on top of the edit mesh, then collapse to modifier stack results.  it seems to work if i import that object via the merge command.  so i think i'm all good!

EDIT: it looks like the script i use to create blades of grass on a surface, uses pflow. now it seems, all i have to do is create the clump of grass and then rightclick > turn to poly and it works just fine with forest color.  confusing, but working .  who knows.  thanks for the help.