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Author Topic: Passing Attributes from Railclone to Forest Pack  (Read 509 times)

jpjsenior

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Passing Attributes from Railclone to Forest Pack
« on: January 06, 2022, 06:42:33 PM »
Hi there,

I'm wondering if there's a way of passing an attribute, specifically 'ArrayCounter' from a Railclone object to Forest Pack. So that objects scattered by Forest Pack on to points of a Railclone array, using Distribution>Reference>Mesh Faces, can each have the corresponding ArrayCounter index assigned. Hope that makes sense!

I guess the more generic question is, can we expose an attribute in Railclone that can then be read into Forest Pack? At the Forest item level.

The specific use case is that I have a bunch of sub-arrays generated from clipping splines set to Area in a single Array2S Railclone object. And then, in Forest Pack I have a light scattered on each of the mesh faces within each array. Hoping there is some way to transfer the ArrayCounter attribute so the lights can be picked and turned on or off per sub array(per room in my instance), which could be automated or defined by the user(haven't got to that bit yet:))

Be great if anyone knows if this can be done, even if it means going via maxscript, that would be fine, but would like to know if it's possible in the first instance before looking deeper into it. I know there'll be other workarounds if this isn't possible, just think this way would be cleaner when in use on projects.

Cheers,
Jon

 

Rio

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Re: Passing Attributes from Railclone to Forest Pack
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2022, 10:22:59 PM »
Jon Senior of Bristol famous AIM is that? (Tom B here 👋)

I can't quite picture your case use but are you aware that the latest Railclone can handle lights?

Also not sure what you mean by end user (Max user or some final product?), but could Vray/Corona lightmix element play a part here?
« Last Edit: January 06, 2022, 10:28:53 PM by Rio »

jpjsenior

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Re: Passing Attributes from Railclone to Forest Pack
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2022, 10:48:44 AM »
Hi Tom B, the one and only!

Fancy seeing you round these parts! Hope all's well mate!

Cheers for the message. I did see that RC5 allows lights scattering and originally started down that route, but couldn't think of a way of getting the level of control for the end user to manually set the on/off states. I realise you could randomly set each sub array to an on/off state with some expressions in Railclone, but if you need to be more specific for artistic reasons then you're at the mercy of clicking the random seed button and hoping you get lucky. Maybe I'll have another attempt at it with just Railclone.

By end user, I just meant whoever is using the preset once it's finished. So it'll be the folk on the team at the place I'm currently at.

The outcome of this one will hopefully be a RC preset that enables a single spline to autopopulate interior spaces with furniture, lights, wall decoration etc. For external views of apartment blocks and the like..

Will keep tinkering at it.

Be good to catch up properly at some point, over a beer!

Jon





Rio

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Re: Passing Attributes from Railclone to Forest Pack
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2022, 12:17:38 PM »
All good ta mate! Hope the new gig's working out well

I see what you're saying now. Hopefully someone else will chime in as I don't have much experience of exporting parameters to the UI level, although looking at the railclone menu now I can see it looks like it can be done. I wonder if you can use a selector or conditional node to switch between a light and a null object.

also check these maps out: https://wparallax.com/ might be useful for your purpose, I've found them a game-changer. Can be set up to work well with Railclone. Eventually I'd like to start creating my own using something like you're describing.




Rio

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Re: Passing Attributes from Railclone to Forest Pack
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2022, 10:35:55 PM »
Yo Jono! It was bugging me that I didn't know how to expose a parameter, so had a look at the docs and indeed it does expose any parameter node to the UI menu. So used a selector with index exported to a numerical node to switch lights on and off (ignore the off light, it's not neccesary, you can just use a null segment).

There's no 0 input in selector so 1 is the on light and 2 is the null (off).


Rio

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Re: Passing Attributes from Railclone to Forest Pack
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2022, 10:36:35 PM »
And yes please to a beer, if I ever get out of the house again!