Itoo Software Forum

RailClone => RailClone Pro (*) => Topic started by: TL1895 on April 27, 2015, 07:36:51 PM

Title: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: TL1895 on April 27, 2015, 07:36:51 PM
I really need some stone walls style.  This comes up on the majority of projects and I'd love to be able to use RC for them, especially for larger areas.
 :o
It seems like I could modify a default books/bookcase style to make this, but I have not had the slightest success, so far.
Maybe it is not possible?  I am guessing no matter what, I'll need to make the capstones as a separate RC object, or just poly-models.

Trying to make a dry stacked stone wall for large areas of retaining walls and for building veneer.

Here is an example:


Thanks a lot
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: Paul Roberts on April 28, 2015, 02:30:10 PM
Hi,

Thanks for the question. Dry stone walls are problematic because there often aren't clearly defined rows which makes them tricky to construct. If you're ok with the rows being visible then you may find this post  (http://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=2318.msg9221#msg9221)useful, it demonstrates how to create a wall with rows of different heights.

If you need a truly randomised look the the best way is to fake it by creating some segments that are made of multiple stones that jigsaw together. As an example (using a fracture modifier)  I've  created some tetris-like blocks of random stones.

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/4935c591331543f3a169b44b9f9763f0.jpg)

We can then randomise these in an A2S array. The blocks interlock in an attempt to hide visible rows and columns. The more how have the less likely you are to see repetition and in the style you can also use Mirror and Transform operators to create even more randomisation.

The stones have 10 material IDs that can be randomised per segment in RailClone. The final graph looks like this:

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/94651d10727f4ed782e81f5e0d75a24c.jpg)

It looks more complicated than it is. There are three main areas for each generator. First we randomise the segments (a), these then have padding applied to ensure they jigsaw together correctly (b), and then finally the material IDs are randomised (c). The Material operator can only randomised one ID at a time,  so in this example we have a chain of 10 material operators per input, 1 for each ID you need to randomise.

The final result with the randomised segment and materials minimises obvious repetition:

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/04076b88bba645c99f71591d33788424.jpg)

Please feel free to take a look at the attached file and let me know if you have any further question. You may also find this post  (http://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=2904.0l)useful which is a completely different usage but deals with a somewhat similar problem.

Many thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: Rokas on April 28, 2015, 02:47:16 PM
Nice one!
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: TL1895 on April 28, 2015, 03:07:38 PM
Wow, that is great!  Thanks for the thorough answer and example file.
I'll give this method a shot for this project and make my own jigsaw parts, too.

Many thanks for the attention to the forum and everyone's posts.

All the best,
TL1895
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: Macker on May 01, 2015, 12:08:27 PM
That's amazing.
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: TL1895 on May 01, 2015, 05:46:32 PM
Hello Paul,

I've been making progress, and have a question...probably easy, too  :P
In the image below, the red circled part on the left side...that is a linear 1s sharing a spline with
the main 2S array.  This is supposed to be the concrete backup wall.  I cannot seem to make RC give it the material
the base segment has.  It seems to inherit the material from the Array 2S instead of the base geometry.

Must I make a separate RC object in this case?

Thanks again,
TL1895
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: Rokas on May 01, 2015, 06:32:35 PM
Hi TL1895,
Your backup wall Material should be not randomized in RC (Which is correct now) and it must always be material ID, lets say= 1 both in editable poly and RC.
Others should randomize from 2 to 20 or whatever You want . Or it would be simpler to make backup wall material 21st in this case (in editable poly and RC) and leave everything else intact.

Probably due to server burn issues, Paul's Attached file gone missing.
I attach my modified version for everyone to enjoy with couple of improvements:
(http://i.imgur.com/iaILhc5.gif)
Full credits to Paul Roberts, Thank You !


BTW TL1895, nice bricks too ;)
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: TL1895 on May 01, 2015, 06:56:14 PM
Hi Rokas,  Nice improvements!

I changed my walls to randomize mats 2-31.
So, I just cannot seem to find where in RC I may tell the backer segment to use mat id1?
Could you please post a screen-cap of where one would make that setting?

Thanks for the suggestions,
best regards,
TL1895
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: Rokas on May 01, 2015, 07:13:40 PM
Hi TL1895, please download above style again and delete previous download. There is one big mistake I fixed now- top part segments overlap with middle ones, sorry.

Regarding Your problem, i may said wrong things, sorry.

Now i looked again how material is constructed. It uses multitexture plugin. And it is one material. Not multi sub object.
You do that. and assign back end wall material = 1. And that should do it, since you randomize from 2 to 31. I hope i am right this time.

(http://i.imgur.com/fKquTIu.png)
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: TL1895 on May 01, 2015, 07:27:46 PM
That was what I tried first, actually, but it did not help :(
It seems to randomize the 1S and 2S no matter what I change!
I'll keep trying, but this seems like it ought to be more simple to accomplish. I must be missing a minor, but, important step somewhere.

Thanks again for the efforts Rokas

TL1895
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: Rokas on May 01, 2015, 07:33:13 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/nNOWfI6.png)
One problem i see- do all materials in black rectangle randomize from 2-31 ?
Other problem, why l1 generator do not get id 1.

I would love to help You by having Your scene, and borrowing your style ;)
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: TL1895 on May 01, 2015, 07:43:18 PM
One problem i see- do all materials in black rectangle randomize from 2-31 ?  Yes :)
Other problem, why l1 generator do not get id 1.  How to do this, please?  :-[

I would love to help You by having Your scene, and borrowing your style ;)
Thanks, sent you PM
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: Rokas on May 01, 2015, 09:31:24 PM
ok, we figured this out:
multimaterial must be set up in this way:
(http://i.imgur.com/0e6j41M.png)
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: FC2603 on October 06, 2023, 08:49:28 AM
Sorry to dredge up a very old thread but this is exactly what I've been looking for. I've been trying to create a dry stone wall by scattering on surfaces but can't get it to look the way I want, so this is pretty much perfect.

I've downloaded the max file but am getting a display limits problem because my scene is set up in metres. When I open the file directly and work in cm it's fine. Merging into my scene seems to adjust everything to metres (all the values have converted, the stone scales are correct) but is enormous and gives the display limits warning.

I've looked through the style editor but can't see anything that could correct this. Any ideas?!

Would love it if this was part of the RC library!
Title: Re: Is this possible/feasable with RC Pro?
Post by: FC2603 on October 06, 2023, 11:00:11 AM
Solved it, just need to amend a couple of expressions which used values in cm. Once converted to metres it works great.