v2.1 population settings

[Mr_Lamppost]

I have started this topic as the topic I started about a specific issue in the support section has developed into a more general discussion which is more usefully placed here.  There may be some repetition between here and there:

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=8294.0


Ignore for now the fact that the population covers an area greater than that specified, that was the purpose of the post in the support section.  In this example there should be 11 rows of 11 objects; the population is 10m X 10m and the objects are spaced 1m and 1m apart in both the a and b directions.  This generates rows and columns of 11 as it appears that the first object is placed at the lower left corner which means that the eleventh will be 10m away and included in the populated area.  The grid of 1m squares on the ground make it easier to see how the objects are positioned.

[Mr_Lamppost]

By increasing the a spacing to 2m it can be seen that the object placement is based on the lower left corner of the population; this point is found at Area centre x minus Area length a over 2 and Area centre z minus Area length b over 2.

The second example shows 9m X 9m population where the first object is centred on the lower left square.  Note that each row now contains only 9 objects showing that the population is clipping correctly although the last instance 9m from the first is also being clipped.

[Mr_Lamppost]

Here's some examples of adding randomness to the object's placement.

#1 Object variation a,b  set to a=0.2 b=0.

#2 Object variation a,b  set to a=0.5 b=0.

#3 The Object spacing a value has been increased to 4 to show that the amount of variation in position of each object is relative to the spacing value rather than being an absolute measurement.

#4 With both spacing values returned to 1m both the Object variation a,b values are set to 1.  This is the default and gives the same result as in previous versions.  This has been tested by rendering old scenes and so far the objects have rendered in the same places they used to be.

[MGebhart]

Thank you. Very useful information.

Marc