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Author Topic: Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry  (Read 3631 times)

MN3180

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Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry
« on: April 24, 2013, 07:11:50 PM »
Hi there,

I'm having difficulty with my current scene, it is a stately home so the gardens are all geometric and mirrored across the site.

I have lots of topairy hedges which have forest pack running mainly off a UVW distribution.

I wish to run the mirrored side of the gardens off the geometry which is an instanced mirror, I do not wish to collapse the stack as the hedges are easily update-able off splines.

The problem I am facing is that the distribution is inverted on the mirrored side. i.e. the hedge geometry is pointing into the hedge instead of out of it.
Also the horizontal hedge components are running off a surface and area distribution, this is not working at all on the mirrored geometry.

The only way I am getting around this at present is attaching the mirrored geometry to a box on the horizontal base geometry. On the vertical geometry (uvw distribution) I'm using a combination of this and mirroring the UVW's in a unwrap UVW modifier.

Is there any better method than this? I am using the very latest version of FP.

iToo

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Re: Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2013, 09:14:26 AM »

Please, upload a test scene using the same technique you used for the mirrored geometry. I'm trying to reproduce the case here, but i'm not sure if i'm following the same steps. Thanks.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

MN3180

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Re: Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2013, 11:26:45 AM »

I've emailed you a test scene as requested as it is too big to attach here,

You will see from the camera view I have mirrored the hedge geometry from the left to the right.

This is the exact process I took:

Hide forest pack objects, select and group hedge geometry, adjust group pivot to mirror, mirror an instance, ungroup all, add respective new geometry to respective forest pack.

You will notice the forest pack Forest HEDGE TIDY SIDES is inverted on the left hand side.
(Side note: I have noticed the forest pack on the taller curved hedge section was already inverted on the left hand side before I mirrored it, but the rule still applies it is inverted on the right hand side)

The remaining forest packs are using surface area mode and these aren't working at all on the mirrored geometry.

Thanks for your help

iToo

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Re: Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2013, 01:54:50 PM »

We have not received the scene. If you sent it, please try again using a web sharing service (as WeTransfer), to be sure the message is not blocked by any server.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

MN3180

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Re: Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2013, 04:11:18 PM »
Hi Carlos, here is the link https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90438619/test_mirrored_hedge.max

On a side note, I'm adding lots more geometry to my forest pack and I'd like to use the add multiple items dialogue, except some or all of the geometry isn't listed here, even when show all is selected in the lister. In the main scene listed it is all there. I am having to add them manually one at a time for now.

Thanks

iToo

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Re: Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2013, 05:39:06 PM »

Ok, i see the problem. I suggest the following procedure, instead using the Mirror tool:

1) Create a Reference of the object, not an Instance.
2) Apply a Mirror modifer.
3) Apply a UVW XForm and set U/V/W Tiles to -1.

In this way, the part of the object that generates the surface is instanced, but you can add modifiers to it.

Quote
On a side note, I'm adding lots more geometry to my forest pack and I'd like to use the add multiple items dialogue, except some or all of the geometry isn't listed here, even when show all is selected in the lister. In the main scene listed it is all there. I am having to add them manually one at a time for now.

Yes, you are right... the name selector doesn't work for objects generated from splines. Strangely anyone reported the problem until now. We'll fix it for the next update.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

MN3180

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Re: Forest pack on instanced and mirrored geometry
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2013, 05:57:24 PM »
Thanks for the solution Carlos. Glad you're able to sort out the Lister too as it's been a bugbear of mine for a while. I suppose no-one's reported it because like me it's quick enough to work around, and difficult to fathom why it may be.

Cheers

Dan