Un-populate?

[TheBadger]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but...

I have a population of fake stones following a simple shape to make a ring for a planet. When fully populated Terragen slows and my ability to move in the 3D preview window becomes difficult.
(my memory is not used up, so I am not sure why it slows anyway)

I want to know how I can un-populate the stones without having to enter smaller values (0) and repopulating at that.
I tried unplugging the node but the population did not vanish. I could copy the node and delete it, but thats not a great way to go.

Perhaps I know this answer but can't remember?  Maybe I can hide the node (D Key) and still edit the content?

Thanks

[bobbystahr]

click the enable box on the fake stone dialogue. you'll still be able to enter into the dialogue you just won't have feedback till you re enable.

[Dune]

Temporarily disabling is indeed best. Having them shown as boxes also helps, but clutters your view. I have the same with populations, slow response in 3D preview.

[PabloMack]

I have your same sentiments. I vote for a "Depopulate" button right next to the "Repopulate" button. Of course you will have to wait for the repopulation when you want it back. But when you change something that is going to require a repopulation anyway, having the population markers gone helps speed up what you are doing and they are not obscuring your view. Furthermore, you would not have to remember to re-enable the population when it comes time to render if you had an "Unpopulate" button. I often get half-way through a render realizing that I forgot to re-enable something like a population.

[TheBadger]

Hi,

I was afraid you guys would think this is a stupid request.
But I just have a funny situation. I am using a thickly populated ring, in order to precisely align my rings with objects in space. Making the ring very dence with fake stones allows me to see very clearly where the rings are in relation to other objects (I may or may not need it so dense for rendering, not clear to me yet).
But the result is that I cant move at all in the 3D preview window.

I was curious if it could be possible to just click the population off and on? So it did not have to repopulate, Sorta like the D key, but where the node is not tuned off, just the stones, leaving full access.
The problem with the D key in this, is that yes it turns off the stones and frees me to move in the preview window, but it also turns of the area box for the stones.

I needs to be able to tilt and turn the rings into certain positions relative to other objects, and thats very hard to get right without the stones to see by.

[jo]

Hi,

There is the "Hidden" preview mode for turning off populations which are slowing down the preview. The parameter is the "Preview mode" popup on the Populator node. This stops the population instances drawing but leaves the bounding box and manipulation handles, so you can still see the area covered and manipulate to directly. The display of those is controlled by the "Show b-box in preview" parameter.

This is a better solution than enabling or disabling nodes, which you might forget to enable again.

I'm kind of interested as to why no-one thought of trying the Preview mode parameter on the Populator node!

Regards,

Jo

[TheBadger]

lol Thanks jo! I really have no idea why I did not know that.  but I don't think I ever really needed it before now though. Sure glad to know its there.

Solution found.

[Dune]

I'm kind of interested as to why no-one thought of trying the Preview mode parameter on the Populator node!

Actually I don't know why I answered Michael the way I did, probably a beer too much. I use the preview button all the time of course! Sorry.

[bigben]

Their computers don't suck enough    One of the first things I hunted down when working with large populations

[PabloMack]

Okay, so "b-box" means "Bounding Box". I'll start using it. Thanks.