Scattering V-Ray Proxies

[ShaunDon]

Heya folks! Does anyone have a way of scattering V-Ray proxy objects seeing as how the max scatter doesn't work with proxies? I'm trying to generate a forest for an aerial shot and need to randomly distribute a few different proxy trees, but it's too big an area for Advanced Painter to be efficient or consistent enough in distribution to work.

Thanks!
Shaun

[percydaman]

the scatterer plugin from peter watje works fine. The advanced painter plugin works as well. Look for the painter plugin at scriptspot if memory serves.

[ShaunDon]

Where were you finding the Scatterer plugin? I could only find compiles for max4, and max8 refused it when I tried.

Advanced painter, unless I'm using it wrong, requires that you paint on the trees. I've got an enormous area (a couple mountains) and it would take me all day to distribute trees that way.

I'm playing with the WkScatter script now, hopefully that will suffice.

Thanks!
Shaun

[Dynedain]

Blur's Script Pack includes an object replacement script. You could scatter some kind of dummy object, then use Blur's script to replace the dummy objects with your proxy object.

[ShaunDon]

Good thought -- but the max Scatter creates all the newly scattered objects as a new single object, unless there's something I'm missing? Which is why I presume that proxies won't work. Maybe then use a script to detach each element from the scatter object?

I feel like I'm jumping through hoops to do something which on the surface seems so easy! And the WkScatter only aligns them to vertexes, which creates a uniform pattern that doesn't really work for a forest...

Thanks guys,
Shaun

[percydaman]

I haven't had a problem using the max 4 scatter in max 8. I'm looking at the UI now. I use it all the time, when I dont want to paint the proxys individually.

[jow]

I second peter watje's plug-in, works a treat...

[ShaunDon]

Holy shit does it! Just found a version for max6 here and it works great. Thanks guys!

Shaun

[percydaman]

[sjmoir]

You could also try a Crowd helper object. It has a scatter function that allows you to use a distribution object, rotate / scale proxies (or whatever you're scattering) randomly etc. It can be set to keep scattering until the distribution object or surface fills up with instanced proxies (which have adjustable boundaries). Personal record: about 17,000 trees.

I'm going to check out Peter Watje's plug-in, sounds interesting.

Edit: looks great. Won't work with 9 though...

[ShaunDon]

Oh max9... I'm dying to put all our 64-bit machines to full use, but the idea of orphaning most of our plugins just kills me! C'est la vie avec Autodesk...

Shaun

[percydaman]

that sucks it doesn't work with max 9. Now I know why I'm still using max 8 even though max 9 is installed and ready to go on my machine.