On surface layers, you can limit the min and max altitudes; is there a way to do that with populations? I would like to have grasses growing just from the tops of the hills in my terrain, and I was hoping I didn't have to make a separate population for every hill :P
Yes, you can do this easily. Just use a Distribution Shader as an input for the Blend Shader input on your population, then set the altitude constraints correctly in the Distribution Shader.
- Oshyan
I was sure I tried that earlier :P Probably did something weird to it XD Thanks, I'll try it out :)
Ah, wait, I remember the problem I had with that before: how do I make the shader transparent so that the grass can be seen?
If you're using it as a blend shader input to a population, it should not affect color of the objects or terrain, it should only control distribution of the objects. Providing a screenshot of your node network and/or render would help diagnose your problem.
- Oshyan
Just realized my laptop battery is about to give out, so I will put screenshots up tomorrow if I'm still having trouble. I'm not sure if I'm using it as a blend shader; I went to the object, then the surface shader tab, and loaded the displacement shader.
I hope this is what you need, but I will gratefully provide screenshots of everything/anything else. Here are the shader nodes (I made it bright pink to easily show where it is):
(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x289/EternalMoonPrincess/Picture30.png)
and here are the objects, and where I put the shader:
(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x289/EternalMoonPrincess/Picture31.png)
Thank you so much for the help.
Disconnect the distribution shader from the rest, so it has no input from the rest, and outputs only into the populations 'density shader' input (the one on the left on the node).
That way, it affects the distribution of the population, but doesn't show up as a surface colour.
Hope that helps.
When I put the distribution shader into the "density shader", and took it out of the other area (and also out of the planet surface shader, though I don't know how it go there o.o) it became separate from the other shaders (wasn't on the list anymore, at least). The color is gone, but the grass still isn't showing up :( I have a doctor's appointment soon, and when I return I can put up more screenshots. I could also upload the entire file, although I'm not sure how to do that and still have the objects work. Anyway, if you have any ideas for the grass not appearing, let me know and I'll try them when I get back. Again, I really appreciate the help. For the past week I've been studying the user's manual and many different tutorials, but I haven't got the hang of all the settings yet :-\
Wait! I think it's because the grass is too small to see. The scale settings changed on me. I'll play around with the grass settings til I figure out what does what. I did that yesterday, but didn't completely understand exactly how the settings altered the object.
Would it be very bad if I tacked on another quick question? o.o I just changed the grass scale (objects -> /Pop Grass clump 01/Grass clump 01 -> Transform tab). They were at 50 when I couldn't see the grass. I changed them to 100. Too much. I changed it back to 50... and it was perfect. So now I am confused. I have been relying on the values I put into things, in that I write down what I like and then can go back to those values later. But 50 was different between times. How does this happen?
The scale values should always give the same result *for the same object*. The scale setting is a multiplier, unlike the most of the other settings that are absolute values in meters. Scale can vary a great deal due to differences in other application's unit support.
The distribution shader should be connected as Mohawk said.
- Oshyan
Odd, I was sure I had changed it back so that it was the same, but I guess I changed something else :P Thank you again for all your help. I'm feeling a but overwhelmed by the amount of options and settings in the program, but I've found some great tutorials, mostly from this site :)
It seems to have done it again; I had the grass as I wanted it, and it was at scale 70. I saved and quit. When I opened it a few hours later, I could not see the grass. I made sure the enabled boxes were checked. It's frustrating because I think this has happened several times; I blamed myself, but this time I'm absolutely sure nothing was changed. Is there something else I can use to increase the size? Would it be the same if I increased bladelength and clump diameter?
...I did repopulate it. *headdesk* So basically it was the same mistake which I had before (the first thread I made). When I rendered it still went through a process of loading instances, and I thought that was populating it :\
edit: no, nevermind, that didn't fix it. Where is that delete button o.o;; I'm worried about using scale now. ^^;;;
As I said, scale should always work the same *on the same objects*. Are you getting any errors when loading the scene? Are you sure there is not some other reason that the objects are not being seen anymore? Are they not visible *in a render* or in the 3D preview window only? Populating does not seem to fix it?
- Oshyan
It's the same population I was working with. I didn't see any error messages. They are visible in the 3D preview if I select "preview instances", and the box is always visible, but it doesn't show up in render, and no, populating doesn't fix it :\
Perhaps they are below the terrain? Do you have "Sit on terrain" checked, and is it referencing the planet surface? Check the object position numbers too and make sure there is no offset. Ultimately it may be necessary for you to share a .tgd or at least a screenshot of your node network.
- Oshyan
I do have "sit on terrain" checked. It was set on Computer Terrain by default, but I also tried imputting my heightfield shader, with no luck. Looking at the position numbers (under the distribution tab, the area center... is that what I should be looking at?) they looked okay, although I played around with the x value a bit to see if that did anything. As I am looking, I notice that the translate values are all 0... I'm not sure if they are supposed to be :\ I would gladly upload images or the entire file
Yes, they are all supposed to be at 0. And the Compute Terrain is what your population should be "sitting on", I erred in my previous response.
If you do provide the .tgd file you will also need to send the object file and terrain that are involved, otherwise we can't accurately reproduce the problem. If possible can you package all the scene elements up (preferably in a ZIP or RAR file) and send to support AT planetside.co.uk?
- Oshyan
tsuki, this sounds like it might the bug which I recently fixed with the Grass Clump object. Changing some parameters in the object resets its transformation (i.e. its translation, rotation and scale), ignoring the values you put it. I am not sure, but it could also give the wrong results after loading a file. The way to get around this bug is to make a change to any of the translate, rotate, or scale values and then all should be correct.
This bug has been fixed for the Beta.
Matt
That fixed it, thank you! :)