Is there any way to have a population distributed in 3D, instead of 2D (on surface) ?
Displacement shaders, functions, I'll be happy with practically everything. So far, my attempts to do it (surface of a small planet with "render surface" off, for example) don't yield the expected result.
What for?
Asteroid fields, flocks of birds, fishes in underwater scenes, etc, etc.
See this older thread... http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3438.0
There is a demo.tgd of 3D snowfall in my Public Library - Vol. 1 update... http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4922.msg51226#msg51226
Hope it's of some help to you. :)
Yes, I thought of that. It might work, but needs a lot of work for that particular scene.
But I see there's no other way from all the other discussions.