Itoo Software Forum

Forest Pack => Forest Pro (*) => Topic started by: Paul Roberts on July 23, 2014, 02:37:54 PM

Title: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on July 23, 2014, 02:37:54 PM
In order to explain the main features of Forest Pack in a simple and accessible way, we are making a new series of short Tips & Tricks tutorials.   

As with our RailClone tutorials, these will be created by request, so if you have an issue you would like to see featured, please post your ideas here. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes.

Thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: mikegentile on August 06, 2014, 06:43:44 PM
i know a lot of people use forest in the archviz arena
i have some really cool ways to use it for placing homes in large communities as well as placing cars in parkng lots
-mg
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: TL1895 on April 18, 2015, 12:43:57 PM
i know a lot of people use forest in the archviz arena
i have some really cool ways to use it for placing homes in large communities as well as placing cars in parkng lots
-mg

+1 for those, both :)
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: jshulters on June 04, 2015, 05:57:36 PM
I've also been trying to develop a slick solution for populating cars in parking lots, and while it works, it's by no means perfect. I'd love to see an official Itoo tutorial that addresses this topic. 

My basic workflow has vray proxies in a library (with pivots at the front center of the vehicles, and including an "empty" car with a higher probability so not every space is occupied), and they are distributed using the splines of the parking striping (where you need to make the heads of the parking stripes the "first vertex"), using "Custom Edit" in the Tree Editor to be Random, Along a Path (the striping), and Spacing 20' or so. They don't end up positioned correctly (or random enough) , so I usually have to set Center Displ. to 0%, Transform rotation Z 89-91, and Translation X & Y to 5%. However, I generally have to still go into Tree subobject mode to modify things (scooting the vehicles away from the curbs a bit more, remove identical cars that end up next to each other, etc). I've tried different arrangement of the pivot points to get around having to adjust center displacement and to use the Z Offset to move the horizontally away from the curbs, but it doesn't seem to have an effect. The other biggest problem is that 3ds max limits multi-sub materials to 1000 slots, and the Forest material generated with a library of more than 40 or so vehicles chews this up pretty quickly...if I included all the vehicles in my library the materials get mis-assigned so some cars end up grey or with just incorrect materials...so I always have to use fewer cars.

I can attach a max file in anyone is interested in seeing my setup. If anyone has some more clever solutions that require less manual clean-up, I'd love to hear them! Thanks!

John Shulters
Ascension Studios
www.ascensionstudios.com
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on June 05, 2015, 10:43:27 AM
Hi John,

Thanks for the suggestion. I think that would make an interesting topic for a tutorial, I'll take a look into it, paying attention to the issues you mention.

Thanks too for the detailed description of your process. I can see that it would work well for many circumstances and I'm sure other users will find it helpful.

Kind regards,

Paul
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: IT1371 on October 23, 2015, 09:14:17 AM
I suggest adding (some how) the ability to area exclude entire layers from forest: what ever object drops in a specific layer/s I want will be excluded from distribution.
This way it will be possible to to exclude many objects without ever opening forest.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: CM1251 on November 10, 2015, 05:07:51 PM
Not sure if this would be possible in RC or FP but I've been populating parking lots and roads with cars for a while now but would like to be able to keyframe animate them but have them still glue to the surface.  I know this is possible with CivilView but I've already developed a fairly large library of vehicles for FP.

Is this possible; does this feature already exist; or is it entirely not possible with either plugin?

Thanks!
Tanner
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on November 10, 2015, 06:54:02 PM
Hi Tanner,

At present it isn't possible to animate individual cars at sub object level however we have plans to overhaul some of these features of Forest Pack so we'll keep it in mind for a future release.

Many thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Terri Brown on March 07, 2016, 12:19:48 PM
Hi Forest Pack crew,

First off, thanks a mil for all the tutorials that you guys are constantly churning out. It is such a useful resource, and super clear and informative. Hats off and thanks again for helping us master the plugin.

I often have this rock wall to model - the volcanic stone is prolific in Mauritius so it's more often than not included in my workflow. I have tried many different methods to create the wall with geometry, and would love to use Forest Pack in the process. If you could show us how to go about this I would be eternally grateful. (the trick is in getting all the rocks to align in their grouting without leaving gaps inbetween).

Thanks a mil,
Terri
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on March 07, 2016, 07:26:46 PM
Hi Terri,

Thanks for the suggestion. I've added it to our wish list.

Cheers!

Paul
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: thefox on May 25, 2016, 07:04:48 PM
FP is one of the best solutions for natural environments - beside various other uses.
But I personally still struggle with really realistic grass fields..
The presets included in FP are good so far, but a even more realistic approach would be better.

If I use those presets on a larger field of grass it looks a little flat and fake.

I created some presets myself to avoid this flatness and handwork might be necessary sometimes too.

There are some ways:

- adding deformation to the ground below
- adding color variation from texture on surface
- adding noise or other variations to control scale, rotation and objects selection
- use FP objects as exclude objects to paint in other FP objects

and / or natural environment "behavior" like

- clumps of long grass at trunks of trees or along stones (where a mowers cant reach)
- or at bigger trees no grass but some dry area around trunks, those even maybe slightly lifted

And such..

Maybe it's not really a topic for a tutorial, but can be - it as well could be some thought for future presets or a discussion topic in this forum about user's tips & tricks.

;)

Niko
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Marko Spasic on March 03, 2017, 10:07:39 PM
Could you make some tutorial about scattering clouds.
 I use Octane render and in v3 we got support for VDB files, I think V-ray also supports VDB files.
All renderers have day light system but without clouds.
It would be good for nice looking sky  ;)
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: amitgedia on March 28, 2017, 10:43:43 AM
it would be great if you developer guys make some presets like brick patterns, roofing styles, scattering buildings like new york cityscape.. these types of presets are very useful for archviz..
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on March 28, 2017, 11:28:12 AM
Hi, Thanks for the suggestions. There are some Roofing presets coming up in RailClone 3, they're not in the current beta, but they'll be available to try out soon. There some cladding styles, mainly planks,  too. In addition there are macros for a couple of standard brick bonds but it wouldn't be too much work to add some more.

I'll see what we can do.

Cheers.

Paul
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: amitgedia on March 28, 2017, 03:39:22 PM
hi Paul,
thanks for listening me, it was just a suggstion as these are regularly used stuffs which an archviz artist requires so thought a suggestion might be useful also in railclone other varieties of fences would also be useful like certain wrought iron railings of different style, just a suggestion though more you know about the development of software and for it to not get heavy and laggy...
thanks again for listening me...
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: UR4828 on March 29, 2017, 01:32:57 PM
Hi,

would it be possible to save the 3ds Max project files for the tutorials in a format that can be read also by users of older versions (i.g. 3ds Max 2015)? Not everybody is willing or forced to follow the "subscription hype" of some software companies ;).

TX,
Henning
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on March 29, 2017, 04:35:14 PM
Hi,

Apologies for that, most of the tutorials should be saved as far back as 2013. Could you let me know which one your are following and I'll fix it.

Thanks for reporting the issue.

Best regards,

Paul.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Marksman on October 30, 2017, 12:14:37 AM
Can you please make a tutorial for railclone expressions? Thanks
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on October 30, 2017, 10:20:53 AM
Thanks for the suggestion, that's high on our list but we're making some changes to improve Effects for Forest Pack 6 (due out soon), it makes sense to release a tutorial once these new features are available. In the meantime though you can find quite detailed documentation here: https://docs.itoosoft.com/forestpack/forest-plugin/effects

I hope that helps,

Paul
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Terri Brown on November 29, 2017, 01:29:30 PM
Hi,

Apologies for that, most of the tutorials should be saved as far back as 2013. Could you let me know which one your are following and I'll fix it.

Thanks for reporting the issue.

Best regards,

Paul.

Hi Paul,

The Photo Scans tut is in a version I can't open with 2014. Please can you ammend?

Thanks a mil,
Terri
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: PQ4494 on February 01, 2018, 02:25:14 PM
Hello,

I wonder if there is a good way to select all objects connected to the Forest Object (scattered objects, surface, area splies etc). I searched for it here and googled, so if I over looked anything please forgive me.

I know of these ways so far:
- select from scene dialog (doesn't work for me - if i tick select influences/dependencies it selects the forest object when i select the scattered objects, not the other way around)
- right click Select Forest Custom Object ( I can only select one thing, not what I need)
- switch to old select dialog where you could activate "select influences"

The old comparission: MultiScatter had "Select all Dependencies". Would it be possible to add that kind of option? Or does anyone have a script for it? Add it to Forest Lister would be superb.

Thanks and best regards,
Daniel
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Michal Karmazín on February 02, 2018, 11:19:30 AM
Hi Daniel,

Currently, using Select - Select Influences would be the recommendable way. This is something that has been requested often. It's on our wish-list and we'll prioritize it. For example, adding a "Select All Influences" option to the quad-menu along existing Select Forest Area, Select Forest Surface & Select Forest Custom Object options might be the way of implementing it.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion, your feedback is very important to us.

Best regards,
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: RealViz on July 18, 2018, 11:06:09 AM
Hi, could you add an "Update All" button to Forest Lister? I know its in modify panel under the Display->Build, but in Forest Lister is fast for animation etc.
Thanks
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Rokas on July 18, 2018, 11:27:35 AM
I agree with You, RealViz . Added to out to do list.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: RealViz on July 20, 2018, 08:17:11 AM
And good will be button or check box "freez all FP" in lister? :-)
Edit:
For us it would be good to have a wirecolor in lister. But I understand that this is a specific feature only for us.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Rokas on July 20, 2018, 09:48:21 AM
add for consideration as well. Thank You for all suggestions!
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: RealViz on August 30, 2018, 06:46:27 AM
And I have another tip. Global/Local density of point cloud in lister?
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Rokas on August 30, 2018, 08:10:44 AM
And I have another tip. Global/Local density of point cloud in lister?
Agreed. Added to the list.
Thank You.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: RealViz on November 05, 2018, 11:02:37 AM
Hi, I have another suggestion. When I work with groups on FP I can move each object inside group individualy what is great. But sometimes I want move/scale/rotate group together. I can select whole group by rectangular selection mode, but in high density FP its very hard to select correctly. Is there any chance to button or mode "Select whole group". When i click on one object inside group whole group wil be selected.
Thanks
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: RealViz on December 04, 2018, 01:08:52 PM
Hi,
now i working in large scene with many subtypes of trees and I have Willow_001, Willow_002 ... 012 etc.
Its hard to orient, because the name cant describe character of the tree. Is there any chance to popup thumbnail when i focus some tree/object in Geometry? Something like attached screen. Or its there any technological problem (UI of 3dsmax etc.)?.
Of course it will work only from library objects.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Rokas on December 04, 2018, 01:39:21 PM
RealViz Thanks for all Your suggestions. Keep them going, just please do not post this to Tutorials request topic.
Feel free to create new threads with Your ideas.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: full-blood on December 10, 2018, 07:08:22 PM
Hello,

I have a proposition for the presets. I don't know if there is already a way to do it.
It can be great if you can import only selected part, as just the "distribution" or "surfaces" data for exemple. As this you it can be quick to repeat the same to all forest objects.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: QK1362 on February 18, 2020, 10:53:28 AM
Is it possible to scale the Forestpack around the exclude spline?

and will there be an official FStorm support for the existing libary?

thanks in advance...
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Rokas on February 18, 2020, 03:56:55 PM
Yes it is possible:

(https://i.imgur.com/2W5hEva.png)

Attached max file.

Fstorm materals, we're aware of FStorm and we're keeping a careful eye on it, As you can imagine we already support a lot of render engines and we have only limited resources, so we have to focus on those that are most popular. That said as FStorm progresses, if a critical mass of users is reached we'll certainly look into it. Thanks for your comprehension.

Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: SamR on July 06, 2020, 11:20:06 AM
Apologies if I've put this in the wrong place. First time commenting on this forum.

I render using Vray GPU and have 2x 2080ti. So a total of 22GB to play with.
I have a project coming up that will have an incredible about of forest pack on a huge landscape..planting, grass, gravel, ponds..the works.

I've been looking online and I couldn't find anywhere a rundown of the best practices and techniques when using vray GPU with forest pack.

Obviously, I have limited memory and need to keep render times down (as much as possible).

So, I guess I’m just looking for tips and tricks to make sure I don’t run out of memory Midway through the project and more sure I’m not rendering for a week haha.

Hope that all makes sense and thanks in advance

Sam
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: JG_archviz on October 07, 2021, 01:39:15 PM
not sure if its mentioned, but could you implement some thing like a sort by "name" function into geometry list? When i load multiple items via library, they don't always come sorted by name ... and if you got a bunch of them its kinda time consuming to order them for later selection.
Title: Re: Suggestions for Forest Pack Tips and Tricks tutorials
Post by: Paul Roberts on October 07, 2021, 04:14:20 PM
Thanks for the suggestion - added to the wishlist!

Paul