MultiScatter Texture Alternative

[REDVERTEX]

Hi Guys! We're transitioning from Multiscatter to Forestpack Pro, so far both plugins work great with V-Ray. The only thing we're missing from Multiscatter is the Multiscatter Texture. Any chance we can see a V-Ray alternative for Multiscatter Texture that works independently from Multiscatter?

[peterguthrie]

why not use the forest pro equivalent?

[REDVERTEX]

The Forest Pro equivalent doesn't work with objects that are not scattered with the plugin. We want to use it for objects that usually are not scattered (cars, people, etc.)

[peterguthrie]

ah ok, have you investigated the vraymultisubtex?

[jacksc02]

Check out the crossmap from vizpark

[REDVERTEX]

Crossmap doesn't have an option for colors, just bitmaps. And 40 Euro per workstation seems a bit steep for a simple plugin.

VRayMultiSubTex works well but it's based only on Object or Material IDs. We use the IDs for masks in the post processing, so it's not a good option for us. Any chance we can get a random function for VRayMultiSubTex that isn't based on Mat or Obj IDs?

[vlado]

VRayMultiSubTex works well but it's based only on Object or Material IDs. We use the IDs for masks in the post processing, so it's not a good option for us. Any chance we can get a random function for VRayMultiSubTex that isn't based on Mat or Obj IDs?

We can certainly add a random option, but we still need to take the random seed from somewhere. This could be the render ID, the object ID or the material ID. Which one would be most appropriate? Or all of these combined?

Best regards,
Vlado

[REDVERTEX]

Does it have to be ID? We're using all these IDs and usually the objects that we want randomized have the same IDs. (eg. all cars are ObjectID 9)

Isn't it possible to randomly assign the colors to the objects using the map based on a separate seed that has nothing to do with Object or Mat IDs?

I'm not sure how MultiScatter Texture does it exactly but it doesn't seem to be linked to any Object or Material IDs.

[duke2]

Try bercon maps (on maxplugins.de). I recently added forest pro support to BerconGradient in random mode.

[vlado]

Isn't it possible to randomly assign the colors to the objects using the map based on a separate seed that has nothing to do with Object or Mat IDs?

Of course, but you still want consistent results f.e. in an animation from one frame to the next, so the color has to be locked to something. It is easy to choose a random color for each object, but what about the different parts of that object which have different face material IDs? Do you want the colors to be different between those components as well? Do you expect the color to be consistent if you XRef a scene into another scene (an object might be randomly assigned one color in a scene, but some other color when XRef'd into another scene)?

I'm not that familiar with MultiScatter, so I wouldn't know...

Best regards,
Vlado

[REDVERTEX]

Yes, we need the colors to be consistent between all frames of the animation, so it can't be based on the position of the object. We need the colors to be the same for the whole object, regardless of the mat id of the different faces.

For XRef scenes, it's important for the colors to be the same when the scene is rendered separately and when it's used as an XRef. E.g. if a box is blue when I render my file, it should remain blue when somebody xrefs my scene and renders my box.

We mainly need this for randomizing colors of cars and vegetation in big scenes.

[vlado]

Ok, so that makes using render ID or node handle out of the question; would it be ok to use the object name to randomize the seed?

Best regards,
Vlado

[trixian]

I'd like to inject that as far as I have seen, as of recently, the most advanced/complete randomization setup for materials is Vizpark's VPcrossmap.

It might be bad karma/sportsmanship, but I'd really like to see that kind of functionality if you guys are making your own.

That being said, I have had some issues with DR slaves rendering different random textures while using their "Walls & Tiles" material which uses VPcrossmap for texture selections and distributions, but I don't know if this is the plugins fault or on my end.

[oligophant]

While on the subject,
Vlado, Could you please make the vraymultisubtext read materialbyElement mod, right now i do several versions of the same shader changing only the diffuse texture, that way it simplify things for me. Im using MultiMatteElement to assign especific ID from the material ID itself. Is this possible?

[REDVERTEX]

Ok, so that makes using render ID or node handle out of the question; would it be ok to use the object name to randomize the seed?

Best regards,
Vlado

Hi Vlado,
I think that the best and easiest way to do this is just extend the "Get ID from:" list of the VRayMultiSubTex with a few more options. This map already has great features and adding few more options how to distribute the maps(colors) will make it even greater.
Here is a list of options that can be added:
Name, Node handle, Render ID, Element, Face, Particle ID

If you are using xref scenes you can choose Name to keep consistency. The other five options will be great added value to the map.
Thanks.

Kind regards,
Dimitar Nenov