VRayFur efficiency for grass?

[snivlem]

Hi Just wondering, the VRay Fur is excellent for quickly generating grass however it has one (seemingly) massive disadvantage and that it creates huge compile times for large fields of grass/golf courses etc...Rendering large fields via this method this is not the most efficient.

I was wondering if it were possible to theoretically be able to have a hypothetical VRayGrass node whereby it works exactly the same as VRayFur however it uses instancing rather than unique strands? Possibility of instancing individual strands or clumps, I think the Maxwell grass may work like this???

Would this improve the big compile times? I understand of particle instancing workflows in Maya but the VRay "Distribution per face/per area" works beautifully.

[Morbid Angel]

have you considered vray scatter? instancing does not work with vray fur yet.

[snivlem]

have you considered vray scatter?

I'm not in a position to be able to buy it currently (complicated situation, but I'm not going to buy it out of my own pocket for the company I work for)

instancing does not work with vray fur yet.

Yes, this is exactly my wishlist item. It would be extremely useful, like Autograss for 3DS Max or Maxwell's grass (which I assume has instancing support).

Maybe I should not request VRayGrass, but more something like VRayFur with instancing support. Anything to make large patches faster for compiling and less memory consumption.

[Morbid Angel]

You may want to try these free alternatives:

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/do...s-a-surface--2

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/do...sc/c/sppaint3d

[snivlem]

Thanks Dmitry, I've tried them all, I've even written my own streamlined script based on particle instancing. Still get patchy grass with massive amounts of particles which I don't have this problem with VRayFur.

[Morbid Angel]

I hear ya, I had the same request for vlado, hopefully it will happen sooner then later.

[vlado]

Would this improve the big compile times?

Nope; the compile time is when the hair is generated and it will be there regardless of the actual shape of the hairs. However we are working on a level-of-detail feature that would help a lot with this.

Best regards,
Vlado

[snivlem]

Thanks Vlado, that sounds like a very useful solution!