Is there a way to either:
a) Have different populations be 'aware' of each other's objects so that objects in different populations don't intersect with each other?
b) Add multiple objects to a single population?
Thanks!
Bryan
Neither is currently supported. Multi-object populations are planned for a future update.
- Oshyan
However, you can use masks to prevent overlap between different populations. There's some useful discussion of this in one of Kevin Kipper's recent additions to the Wiki:
https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Masking_Populations_with_Inverted_Fractals
It's not going to be aware of individual instances, but by controlling the masks you can completely prevent overlaps between different populations or simply reduce their likelihood, depending on how you setup your masks.
I use a high contrast B&W powerfractal In the density slot of a distribution shader and invert it for a 2nd population but that's really only good for 2 pops...we really need collision detection.
If you have multiple objects you are mixing, I'd take the RGB approach to isolate where they are, and have natural distribution rather than funny artistic waves and patching. A RGB output to the distribution shader with seed and noise settings would be awesome to make setup easier, and is a far more natural approach to something like vegetation distribution like under the hood of other software.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Terragen.Galleries/permalink/2368238406635502/
Note: When setting up any population mixing with others (inverted PFs or not) it's good to pay close attention to the object spacing. Try to keep it about as large as the model itself, or just under. Also, you may want to use breakup, as it causes strange effects to the noise, I'm assuming it's effect is unclamped or something.
Also in Kevin's example tutorial, it's strange we go from varied populations to non-varied populations, and back, without explanation... previews are suppose to provide the result the user should roughly get.
You could do it like this:
populations.jpg
Here's another possible solution: https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,27305.0.html
(Actually intended to solve the same problem.)