Forest Object on different height levels

[thefox]

Hi,

seems obvious but if I scatter eg. people on different floor levels on top of each other it does not work properly? Probalby some z-projection of objects?
Eg. changing boundary distance makes scattered objects on upper levels dissappear..

Solution: a forest object for each level?? Would be not too handy..

[Rokas]

Please watch today's - tutorial

Paul(I guess it's Paus voice, isn't it) explains how forestpack works:

[thefox]

Thanks Rokas.

Yes, that's what I was assuming. (Actually just had a very quick glance at the written part of the tut)

There is some strange behaviour like complete disappearing of upper levels if e.g. the exclude / include from boundary value is changed. Maybe others too.

As you can see the projected objects do not vary from level to level but are the same. Checking the "randomize stacked" option is helpful but limited as the scattering appears on the same distribution areas (white color values), understandable too.
Maybe possible to vary this with lowering the overall count to something reasonable and keeping a dense scattered image as distribution. Have to try that. *edit*: nope. Doesnt work. Scattering is z-projected as well, not only area and distribution image. Too bad.. :S

Paint area does not work either- as this is z projected too it cannot be varied from level to level- and once you use it it will make other levels disappear and keep only one level visible...

[Rokas]

As you can see the projected objects do not vary from level to level but are the same.

Is this Your main problem?
You can change uv`s of your surface

[Paul Roberts]

Hi,

Thanks for the great explanations Rokas. I just wanted to add that when using UV mode and adjusting the UV coordinates to get randomisation per level, it is then also possible to paint a custom distribution map if you also want to scatter objects in different areas for each level. I find using Viewport Canvas is good for this as it keeps it all in max and gives you good visual feedback (once the file has been saved).

Cheers,

Paul

p.s. Yep, it's my voice

[thefox]

Great! Thanks for this helpful explanation to both of you!
So in Rokas' solution your adding a poly mod, selecting faces of one level, adding uwmap and continuing that procedure for the other levels.
Yes, changing from XY to UV does indeed make sense, blind me!

Was working a little with canvas panting but found that theres no need as its possible to paint scatter areas. Thought of painting colors for rotation though (like in my other post )
Good guess, using it on an unwrapped texture.

*edit* just saw your answer to my post- actually the same technique with viewport canvas would apply to using a RGB color map to control rotation and paint it on the fly.
Not as super-easy as I was hoping, would work for eg. selecting green color to make things (people) orient to one direction will work, drawing in other directions would need some gradient between colors and therefor ist not too handy..
Anyways, will dig through that 2012 thread. Thanks.

[thefox]

..well. Oops. Gradients of blue for sure for z-rotation. Not RGB.