ForestPro is awesome.

[tricky]

That is all.

[tricky]

Ok, it is *kind of* awesome, but I am now pulling my hair out trying to get my render nodes to render it properly!
Everything has been installed correctly.
All vray proxies are mapped correctly (using UNC).
Renders fine locally.
Buckets of nodes don't show the forestpro proxies.

Will keep testing.

How frustrating.

[tricky]

ForestPro is getting less awesome by the minute. Now, after restarting our servcer to try and get our render nodes to work properly, I am told by my workstation that the license server for ForestPro is nor running, even though my server tells me it is.

[plastic_]

did you install forestpro on each rendernode using the itoo installer?
forest uses bitmaps for distribution patterns, by default they are included in the max user paths, but on render nodes this may require some manual work.

I had some troubles with the license manager too, I'm using the license locally now.
At least you can activate the same license a few times, so you're not stuck with the remote license server.

[tricky]

Manually managed to get the license server up and running (by NOT chosing the recommended settings and instead specifying the IP and port of the license server).

However, it seems that ForestPro has somehow buggered up my Vrayproxies.

My scene comprised of 5 different vrayproxies of bushes distributed over an undulating surface. Additionally, I had a 'box' bush copied along an undulating spline.

I cannot get either the vrayproxies that I used within the ForestPro objects to render, or the ForestPro objects themselves to render correctly. Its as though ForestPro has corrupted the vrayproxies or something odd like that. In the same scene, if I manually place a few more proxies (using the same files) those bits render with DR just fine.

I've attached a couple of screengrabs to help explain.

The rendered image (with a simple override material applied) shows how my render nodes aren't rendering the forestpro objects, or the original vrayproxies that they are comprosed from. However, freshly created vrayproxies (using the exact same files) render just fine.

Any ideas????

[tricky]

did you install forestpro on each rendernode using the itoo installer?
forest uses bitmaps for distribution patterns, by default they are included in the max user paths, but on render nodes this may require some manual work.

I will check this. I did use the same software, yes, and chose the render node options.

[tricky]

Could it be something to do with the scene being an xref scene? i.e. This is a very large project with each building xref'd in, the cars files xref'd in, the trees xref'd in etc. The ForestPro objects are also being xref'd into the scene that basically is just cameras and daylight system...

[judderman]

What I like about this thread - the demise of forestpro's awesomeness

I really liked forest lite, so might see if I can convince a few in here of getting the pro version.

[tricky]

You would not believe how much swearing is coming out of my gob at the moment! This is doing my head in. Vray DR and ForestPro seems not to be compatible (for me at any rate). I REALLY hope it is just me.

[plastic_]

I'm using Forest Pro with Vray proxys and DR...no problems...
It may have to do something with Xrefs...I didnt try that.

I had one issue where the source objects were hidden on localhost but not on DR nodes, but that was fixed, I think.

You should invite Itoo Software to this thread, usually they are quite responsive with support.

[glorybound]

Will the new features in MAX 2011 replace the need for a Forest Pro?

[rfellers]

As I understand it you can't xref the forest object itself. That has to reside in the primary part of the scene.

Ryan

[plastic_]

Will the new features in MAX 2011 replace the need for a Forest Pro?

Which features? I don't see any proxy/scatter related features in 2011?

[peterguthrie]

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/ken/s...ing_in_3ds_max

(more of an advanced painter replacement)

[flino2004]

I use forestpack pro in xref all the time without problems...
what I usually do with the plants is I copy them in my project folder individually
make sure that your insert point is 0,0,0 after that I create the proxy there
on my landscape file a merge the max file of each tree with the proxy on it.