z-rotation not adapting well to surface

[mats_mono]

I'm creating some ground tiles, and I've run into a problem.

I need to be able to align the tiling of the array (to follow a street curb, for example). I use "Auto align to: Spline" in the Clipping Area section, since it's an incredibly easy way to control the rotation of several clipping areas with different alignment. So far so good. (See "z-rotation-aligned.png")

The problem arises whenever the tiles are on a sloped surface, and the sloping is another direction from the tiling. The tiles rotate, but not aruond the normal axis of the Surface polygons (which would be desireable), but rather around the Z axis of the RC-object... or something?. (See "z-rotation-global.png")

If you instead choose to rotate the Segment (in the "fixed Z rotation" for instance), each segment follows the terrain beautifully, but of course, the tiling is all messed up. (See "z-rotation-segment.png")

The work-around I've found so far, is using "Deform: Bend", but real-life concrete tiles don't really bend ... so I'd like a better solution. (See "z-rotation-bend.png")


I've made another version of my tiles in ForestPack, where you can simply choose to align objects to the normal of the base geometry. Is there any way to do this in RC? Any other ideas on how to get cleaner tiling? 

[Michal Karmazín]

Hi,

If you want to avoid deformations, when using the L1S Generator, Segments can also conform to the surface on the Y-Axis. This is enabled individually for each Segment and can be found under Properties > Deform > Deform > Align Y with Surface. However, this approach would require preparation of splines for the L1S Generator (luckily, in case of a regular pattern that isn’t time-consuming). Please find attached a sample scene showing this kind of set-up.

Best regards,

[mats_mono]

Thanks, but when working with large terrain models - that are also being revised constantly - an L1S is not the most convenient of options. But I will keep it in mind for when I have a particularly problematic model, that's close to the camera.

I hope you consider looking into this issue, and find a fix in a future update of RC.