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Author Topic: Understanding FP Materials  (Read 5086 times)

Mike Truly

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Understanding FP Materials
« on: May 04, 2010, 05:11:35 PM »
I have a question about how to handle FP Materials properly.

Let's say I have a bunch of different area splines and FP objects.  I have these different areas defined so that I get trees of different densities, locations, etc.  BUT... the entire forest will consist of basically two tree types.  So I create 2 different materials for these two kinds of trees... we'll call the materials TreeA and TreeB.

So in each of the FP objects, I have defined two tree types and each one has a material... one is TreeA and the other TreeB.

Now I understand what FP is doing here in the geometry tab... it is making two kinds of trees and for the materials assigned in the slot, it is making a multi-sub material in the background somewhere.

But here's the problem and question...  I have only two tree materials that I want to use.  Later I decide I want to edit the two materials used in some way and have the entire forest (all FP objects) use the updated materials.  Problem is, it seems that as I change the two materials in the Material Editor... it is NOT changing the materials that are used by the FP objects!  Why not?  What is the proper method to have all the FP objects affected when the two tree materials are changed.

Because currently, I have a bunch of FP objects (that I didn't realize) that are not being updated when changes are made to the materials.  When I originally made the materials and dragged them onto the material slot in the geometry tab, I chose 'Instance' which I would have thought would have made the FP materials used always update when I changed the materials themselves.

(On my other post about shadow problems... I am currently trying to determine why some trees have shadows that are twice as opaque as others.  But first I must get all trees using the same two materials and not a bunch of different multi-subs that are not responding to changes in the original two materials).

Thanks!
Sincerely,

Mike Truly
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Mike Truly

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Re: Understanding FP Materials
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2010, 06:09:14 PM »
OK, I think I know a little bit about what's going on now.

Let me describe how I created these FP objects.

First I create FPObject1 in the normal way (I choose an area spline, define geometry and materials, define distribution, etc.).  Then it's time to create another FPObject using a different area spline.  So I selected FPObject1 and hit 'Clone' and this makes FPObject2.  I then linked FPObject2 to the new area spline, and assigned the new area spline in the settings, etc.  When I used this method, the materials that were assigned to the original FP object were not instanced to the main materials (even though the name was the same)... so the tree materials never updated when changes were made to the main materials.  In total, I have seven FP objects in the scene.

Now I have just walked through each of the FP objects and assigned the materials again as instances and now they are all updating properly.

Thanks!
Sincerely,

Mike Truly
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iToo

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Re: Understanding FP Materials
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2010, 06:35:35 PM »

You are right, i just verified this issue: the Clone operation is creating copies of the materials, not instances. This is not a correct behaviour, we will fix it.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

Mike Truly

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Re: Understanding FP Materials
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2010, 11:11:15 PM »
Thanks Carlos... I didn't realize it needed fixing, just thought I was doing it wrong.  But now I better understand how the FP materials work.

Thanks again.
Sincerely,

Mike Truly
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