Chaos scatter update

[mathematic]

Hello,

We see many cool updates of ChaosScatter in 3dsmax:

https://docs.chaos.com/display/VMAX/Chaos+Scatter

Do you have an estimated time of when we will see these features in Maya ?

Thanks

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi, thanks for posting. Which features do you need the most?

[Matador]

Hi Vladimir,
it would of great usefulness to have:
- area distribution controls as in Max (splines with near and far trimming with density or scale choices).
- the option to use the near and far commands should be also be available to use on the general scatter (the regular scatter without the curves for the areas). Maybe this is the edge trimming setting in Max?
- override of the scatter surface color with a texture.

The scatter as is, its already pretty useful and robust, these additions would enable us to abandon the use of 3rd party scatter solutions as the Chaos one seems more stable and practical.

Thanks for looking into this.

[petya.georgieva]

Jumping in quickly here,
Hi Matador,

Area distribution alongside Edge trimming and some other goodies will be available in our next release that should become available in the first quarter of this year.

Near and far controls are available only for Areas however. Is there a case that isn't covered by areas and you'd like us to consider? Some more details would be beneficial so that we can strengthen the case.

Unfortunately Scatter Surface Color Texture will likely not make it to this first release but we will be looking at it for the future versions.

Hope this helped and thanks

[Matador]

Hi Petya,

great news to have edge trimming on the next update!
I could be using a wrong nomenclature for these... the "area distribution" i was talking is the what we have when we use curves or textures to limit the scatter, the "general scatter" is the regular case where we pick a surface and apply the scatter to the entire area, without limits.
So, it seems that we will get the trimming on both scenarios? That would be great!

One last request... one that comes around many times but i forgot to mention, is it possible to evaluate a displaced surface and apply the scatter accounting for that displace? A stoned terrain with fine detail for example.

Many thanks for the update and your time over this.

[petya.georgieva]

Ah, I see. Edge trimming unfortunately does not have a near and far control. It can only remove instances or full mesh parts of instances that are beyond the bounds of your target geometry. For more control over this perhaps a solution would be to use maps in the density slot?


We don't have a specific option for evaluating displaced surfaces.
One solution I am aware of and have tested is to add the displacement texture to the Translation map. You will need to enter relevant values in the From and To attributes.
Another one which is slightly easier is having two meshes - one lower poly with displacement as a texture and another high poly with the displacement baked to mesh (you can use the Maya Displacement to mesh tool). The high detail mesh is used as a target and hidden for rendering. The low detail mesh is used for rendering.

Does this help? If there are cases that can't be covered with the above mentioned solutions, do share and I will try my best to escalate accordingly