Switching from generate to custom edit mode for animation

[K Gazzard]

Hi there,

I often render animations with FP and find that to fix flicky assets coming on and off, I need to switch to custom edit mode. However, I find that I need to have all items visible in the display settings otherwise it doesn’t maintain the correct density. This is especially important if I have to edit the forest in generate mode and switch between custom/generate. Is this a bug? Ideally it would be great to not have to worry about the display density, and that fp would remember the number of generated assets, not displayed assets.

I have thought of saving the fp as a preset just before switching to custom edit mode, but that is time consuming on lots of forests.

Thanks in advance.

[Michal Karmazín]

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing these issues. First, I'd like to mention that switching to Custom Edit mode shouldn't typically be necessary. Could it be that you're using the Camera > Distance Falloff feature? For walk-through animations, we recommend avoiding this option, as it can cause unexpected behavior. As noted in our online reference guide:

'Be careful if you use falloffs with camera motion, because items may appear or disappear suddenly (the distance to the camera changes when moving).'

As you mentioned, when switching modes, only the currently visible items are processed, and you should receive a warning if there are hidden items. To avoid this, you can either increase the Max Items limit in the viewport or disable it entirely by setting the value to zero.

I hope that helps.

Best regards,

[K Gazzard]

Hi, thanks for your reply.
No, falloff or distance isn't the issue in the cases I have had. Sometimes it's in using splines imported from OSM data, which can sometimes contain many separate shapes, and possibly some shapes overlap. (I'm talking massive exterior scenes with predominantly planting) However, I've had this issue with more simple spline setups too.
I always tick 'include hidden items' when switching, but I just wondered if it could be made so that FP remembers the settings for density when switching back to generate mode.