QuoteWell, Mr. or Mrs. Green_Meklar.
Male, unmarried and, if you don't mind nitpicking, all lowercase.
QuoteWhen going for a population, do the following:
[stuff]
1. Yes, I'm aware that the terrain needs to be ready before a population can sit on it.
2 and 3. Actually, I managed to figure out this trick on my own. I usually just use rough values rather than your tab system, but I most certainly make use of the pointer coordinates displayed below the preview when positioning the population.
4 and 5. This is one of the sticky parts. Like I say, I got a case just before I posted replay 12 in which a maximum altitude set on the density shader resulted in the trees going above a certain altitude.
6. Hmm...this is something I should definitely keep in mind for the future. For the time being, though, my problems don't involve displacement after the compute terrain node.
Quote1. there is an option to go inside your nodes (if you already dint knew, right click --> Internal Network
Um...I'll take a look at that.
*goes and takes a look at it*
Interesting, but I'm not sure if it's a good way for me to understand the working of the shaders better. Most of the time when I do it, it doesn't show anything at all, although my population does show one...um...subnode?
Quote2. are you using a surface shader to limit the population or distribution shader....when you add distribution shader it doesnt turn on by itself even though you have specified what to use as blending shader (in this case distribution shader) you have to click on the checkbox that is beside the blending option...
How would I tell the difference? The population has a checkbox where it says 'use density shader', that's checked, beside it is a text input field which says 'tree layer' (the name of the shader with the maximum altitude set), and below the text input field is another checkbox that says 'invert density shader', which is not checked. The tree layer is connected with a white line to the compute terrain node at its input port, and the population itself is connected to the compute terrain node at its terrain shader port and to the tree layer at its density shader port. Is that the way it's supposed to be?
EDIT: Whoops, forgot about the second page for a moment.
QuotePopulations ssues do seem to occur after extreme displacements
'Extreme' meaning...?
QuoteThe objects have to sit on something and the 'sit on terrain' chooses that surface, generally the Compute Terrain node but you could use another node such as the last node in your shader tree. The 'Use Density Shader' defines the distribution across the terrain so if you plugged in a checkerboard image then you objects would be distributed in a checker board fashion.
This is what I had assumed so far. However it doesn't always appear to work that way for me. For one thing, creating or deleting a connection between the compute terrain node and the density shader node changes the way the population works.
QuoteIf your using a "Surface Layer" as your distribution be aware that if your pretty much anywhere other than the "top" of the planet make sure "Use y for altitude" is un-checked in your altitude settings.
Okay, I'll have to go make sure of that.
QuoteThis issue is something that I agree needs to be cleared up.
[fix method follows]
Oh, so there is in fact a bug associated with it and not just me messing stuff up? That's reassuring, especially considering you said how to get around it. Still, does your fix method theoretically change the way the population works, or only the way the nodes are represented on the screen? Is it necessary to use the fix before doing certain things in order to make the population work correctly?
