Itoo Software Forum

Forest Pack => Forest Pro (*) => Topic started by: LucaMel on March 05, 2019, 04:22:38 PM

Title: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: LucaMel on March 05, 2019, 04:22:38 PM
Hi, yesterday I updated my ForestPack version from 6.1.5 to 6.1.6. I'm currently working on an exterior rendering, and when I re-open the .max (3ds max 2016) project the ForestPack objects disappear from my scene. It's the first time this is happening to me (I use FP since version 6.1.2).

As you can see from the attached images:
1 - when I open the scene only one FP object appear (the pebbles in the road in the top part of the image);
2 - FP object (for example Forest005) appear when I select it in Scene Explorer and after I go to the Modify Panel, but is not correct;
3 - the correct version of the object appear only after reapplying a preset I saved (in this case "erbaMix001", thank God I saved it!), you can see that in the image the position, number and scattering of the proxy boxes are different.

Same thing with the upper section of the hill, on top part of the image:

4 - FP object (in this case Forest004) appear when I select it in Scene Explorer and after I go to the Modify Panel, but is not correct;
5 - the correct version of the object appear only after reapplying a preset I saved (the same "erbaMix001"), you can see the position, number and scattering of the proxy boxes are different (and now they are correct).

Any suggestion? How can I be able to open and work on scenes correctly from the start as with the previous FP versions?
Thank you
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: LucaMel on March 05, 2019, 04:23:11 PM
Images 4 and 5
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: Michal KarmazĂ­n on March 05, 2019, 04:30:06 PM
Hi,

Sorry to hear you're facing these troubles. Would you mind to send us (http://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=3648.0) your scene to have a look at it here? Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: LucaMel on March 05, 2019, 04:55:11 PM
Ok, thank you, I'm sending you the scene file using Wetransfer. I cleaned it up a bit, and I'm sending no maps, the scattering is based only on face IDs of the poly objects. The scattered items (grass and rocks) are from the basic library.
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: iToo on March 06, 2019, 10:02:42 AM
Hi, thanks for the scene.

Checking it, i see the parameter which stores the distribution map is not correct (it is "0"), for the affected objects. That causes the FP distribution is empty when scene is loaded.
But when you select the FP object, the plugin detects this problem, and automatically assign the default distribution map ("Dense").

We are investigating why the distribution map is set to a wrong value.

Meanwhile, if the problem happens again, you can fix it easily editing the FP object and selecting the Distribution Map manually.
Once saved the scene, the FP object should keep the right Distribution map.

I apologize for any inconvenience.
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: LucaMel on March 06, 2019, 10:29:16 AM
Thank you for checking.
I did what you said, I re-opened the scene, and checked the Distrubution Map.
It was on Image>Dense, but I need the Full setting. So I switched to Full and the FP objects appeared and correctly matched the preset "erbaMix001" that I saved.
So then I saved a second preset ("erbaMix002") and resaved the scene (I thought: maybe I changed the Distribution Map AFTER saving the preset?), but when re-opening again the last saved max file scene the issue persists, no scattered objects are visible and the Distribution Map is set back to Dense.......
Maybe there's something buggy in the plugin setting the Distribution Map / Saving Preset functionality?....
Waiting for a solution...
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: iToo on March 06, 2019, 10:57:30 AM
Ok, problem seems to be in the Presets feature. We'll check it.

Anyway, i would suggest you use the Library Browser to store your presets (https://docs.itoosoft.com/forestpack/forest-library/editing-a-library#Editingalibrary-Tocreateanewpreset), instead the "General->Presets".

This one is very limited because cannot save all parameters from the Forest object, and practically we keep it only for compatibility.
It was created before the Library Browser supported to store presets.

Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: LucaMel on March 06, 2019, 11:24:56 AM
It's strange because in that scene I have 3 FP objects: Forest003 (the road), Forest004 (upper hill) and Forest 005 (lower grass field).
When I open the scene Forest003 opens and displays correctly, with correct Distribution Map set to Full.
Forest004 and Forest005 do not (they always switch to Dense)...
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: rivoli on July 22, 2019, 03:57:58 PM
thought I bumped this up. I have the same problem happening quite often: scene works correctly, close, open again and some random forest objects are empty. just select them, dense distribution map is assigned, and they start working again. presets have nothing to do with this in my case, as I'm not using them.
it's a bit of a pain when opening scene with many forest objects, as you have to select them all one by one, but one can manage. it's more of a pain when they are xrefed from another scene and you can't even select them in the current one.
is there any news, solution to this bug?
cheers
m
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: Rokas on July 22, 2019, 04:05:02 PM
thought I bumped this up. I have the same problem happening quite often: scene works correctly, close, open again and some random forest objects are empty. just select them, dense distribution map is assigned, and they start working again. presets have nothing to do with this in my case, as I'm not using them.
it's a bit of a pain when opening scene with many forest objects, as you have to select them all one by one, but one can manage. it's more of a pain when they are xrefed from another scene and you can't even select them in the current one.
is there any news, solution to this bug?
cheers
m

It would help If You could send (https://forum.itoosoft.com/faq/how-to-send-a-file-to-itoo-software/) us such a scene to debug the issue.
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: rivoli on July 22, 2019, 08:03:09 PM
Hi,
this is a very stripped down version of a problematic scene. Only the empty forest object, spline area and custom geometry. Hope it's useful somehow.
cheers
m
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: Rokas on July 23, 2019, 08:49:12 AM
Thank You for the scene we will check it with our developers.
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: rivoli on July 26, 2019, 04:27:13 PM
Hi,
don't know whether it's relevant or not, but one of those Forest objects which had a full distribution map which was later automatically changed in dense, was also suspiciously linked to a map named 0. The map had no extension whatsoever, and I couldn't figure out if it actually was a map/texture or not. It showed in asset tracking as a missing file, but there was no such map in the scene.
Though it rendered fine locally, this scene just kept failing to render on Rebus. It took me a whole day, but eventually I pinned it down to the above mentioned Forest object. As this particular object was hidden, I didn't even think it could be related in any way at first.
It would be great if you could find a solution to this weird behaviour, as it can get really annoying.
cheers
m
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: rivoli on June 02, 2020, 04:15:48 PM
Hi, I'm bumping this one up. Same old bug, still there. Random forest objects fail to build correctly after saving and reopening a scene, with "full" distribution maps reverting back to the default "dense".
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: Arphalax on June 04, 2020, 07:39:44 AM
Hi,

I had the same problem today.

Created a few forest objects, saved, saved a new file. I noticed the error because I had to open the first save to verify something, then I noticed some FP object were missing, the error said something about the distribution map wasn't loaded or something like that, I selected one of the objects and it was regenerated automatically but with the default distribution map. I applied the correct map save the file and re-open it, but the error was still there...

I tried a few things like saving again from the second saved file (still opened), exporting just a few objects to test and the error still was there.

I had to load one of the faulty saves again, re-assign the maps and pray, and for some reason it worked that time. maybe praying helps. :/

Just hoping this won't happen again, it took a few hours to continue my work.

Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: Rokas on June 04, 2020, 09:07:59 AM
Would You please send (https://forum.itoosoft.com/faq/how-to-send-a-file-to-itoo-software/) us Your misbehaving scene to investigate.

Thanks.
Title: Re: FP instances disappearing when reopening scene
Post by: Arphalax on June 04, 2020, 07:15:44 PM
I just checked for the files and I overwrote all of them, sorry,  but will post if this happens again.