Suggestions

[SR1351]

Here are my suggestions that I think would be welcomed by the community.

1) Moe Lines in grass - options for direction and options to follow boundaries of surface edges.  This is really hard to accomplish every time manually, especially with boundaries of surface edges like planting beds and such.

2) Better Edge mode with Geometry - Edge mode works great but takes the render way to long to first load the calculation then render.  Can we have an option to fill the surface then edge just the last 1-2 foot to edge with smaller detailed grass, this is WAY WAY faster than edge mode.  I know we can do this manually but wouldn't be hard to make this more automatic in areas options. Could also add a edge mode up top near line or paint mode where you can choose certain models. Hope this makes sense.

[Paul Roberts]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion, we always appreciate feedback. I agree that lined grass presets would be handy, I'll add that one to the wish list.

For edge mode, that's tricky. As you point out it can slow down renders, although generally speaking only with huge huge distributions. This is because for each clump near the area's edge, Forest Pack must check each blade of grass against the spline and store the results in an array. On the other hand, if you were to use smaller clumps around the perimeter, at a certain scale you might end up with so many scattered objects that this causes an issue instead. It's something we'll have to think a bit about. If you're not already though, I would also recommend optimising where you can, perhaps by separating the scene into different areas, some near the camera with edge mode enabled and further from the camera without. Frustum and distance culling may also help out.

Could also add a edge mode up top near line or paint mode where you can choose certain models. Hope this makes sense.

I am a little unclear on this point, would you be able to expand a little what you mean.

Many thanks again,
Paul

[SR1351]

Under Areas, you can set scatter by paint mode or by spline mode, etc.  It would be great to have a mode that scatters from every edge boundary.  The distance you set is from the boundary in.  This would be what would work great in using objects for edging instead of edge mode.  It's like how you can do it with splines for every boundary edge and assign more detailed grass for that.  But much easier and faster.

This is what I meant also by making a object based edge mode, so you can automatically choose that and it would set the Surface Area Boundary Check to Size mode and object edge mode also under Area could automatically be assigned for edging.

With boundary mode there could be a way possibly to add a black and white checker image so that it maps from the edge in, that would enable us to tile it more and get the mower lines we would need. Or possible a map something like that could drive the Transforms or material tint?  Hope that makes sense.

[Paul Roberts]

Thanks, that's clearer now. I'll pass the suggestion over to our development team.

I assume you already know the technique shown in this video, but I'll add it just in case or for other users who find this topic.


It seems long-winded, but it's much faster to set up when it's not being explained

Regarding the last point, I'll pass that on to our development team too, but there might also be something that can be done with existing procedural textures. Let me think about this to see if I can find a solution. I'm pretty sure I've done something similar with Forest Effects in the past.

Best,
Paul