Feature Request: Population Modes

Started by WAS, September 03, 2018, 08:42:38 PM

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WAS

Currently we have a square plane based Populator, which is fantastic for natural work. I propose we build upon this for unnatural work such as man-made construction.

Similar to "Object to Sit On" able to to take faces of TG primitives, it would be cool to have a new mode for the Populator that works like a chain. Matching up bounding boxes of all objects in rows and columns.

It would sure make making walls, road sections, curbs, and all sorts of things a lot easier to work with than stripping down the Populator to work like you want, especially matching up bounding boxes. A warper could be incorporated for column warping, like a fence that follows the boundary of a road or something.

Just some ideas. I often want to do things like a pasture, with fences, or curbs on roads, but get discouraged by all the manual work just to start the ideas.

Dune

Guardrail  ;)

You have a point, as making a lot of small fields with fences is quite some work. I don't know if it's possible at all, though.

cyphyr

#2
I would like to see an option to limit rotation by steps (stepped rotation if that is the right way of phrasing it). So rotations would be limited to a set degree, say every 180°, 120°, 90°, 60°, 45° or 30° (I think that should cover most possibilities). This could be used for creating various grid like structures.

I would also like to see a rotation modifier input so rotation could be implicitly controlled by a function or grey scale output. This would allow objects to be placed of curving roads and rivers or to lie perpendicular to an objects normal (and other exciting options).

I'm working on a city scene at the moment where I'm using sets of populators (4 in each set) all referencing the same object and each rotated by 90° to the last. Kind of works but it is not ideal and the masking is becoming quite overly complex.

Quote from: Dune on September 04, 2018, 01:48:20 AM
Guardrail  ;)
That must have been quite tedious! Worth the effort ...
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WAS

Quote from: Dune on September 04, 2018, 01:48:20 AM
Guardrail  ;)

You have a point, as making a lot of small fields with fences is quite some work. I don't know if it's possible at all, though.

That's a lovely scene. Very convincing. Guardrails was a word I was looking for too. Lol :P

Coupled with Cyphyr's idea of rotation modifiers and stepping, this populator mode would be super powerful.

I know getting the row and column system down based on bounding boxes of a object wouldn't be too hard, but making it practical, being able to warp the populator and rotate objects accordingly is where things get wishy.


WAS

I'm kinda reiterating this idea as I'm not sure what my friend is conveying :P (He's mad I'm not getting it)

But he is explaining that in the past he has worked with populations in applications that work on a grid? Objects are placed in the intersections of the wire-frames and the whole plane can be warped?

He doesn't use Terragen and he comes from Bryce days (my dads friend technically)