pop computation?

[Dune]

How does the populator work? I noticed (not for the first time, but now it was kind of cumbersome) that if you change the outer perimeter (the extent of the population), the same seed gives you a different instancing.
In this case I didn't need the 10x10k extent, so I lowered it to 7x7k, but lost my 'perfect' distribution. I guess it's not based on some PF base, world spaced?

[mr-miley]

Dune, Not having the slightest clue what I'm talking about but... would not the populator "populate" from a set point in relation to the perimeter? ie. 0,0 or maybe the centre. If it's from 0,0 or similar then if you change the size, or the position relative to the camera then the population distribution would change. I would have thought that, with the same seed, (and as long as the bit you wanted wasn't now outside the perimeter) that your perfect population would still be in there somewhere, just not where your camera is looking.

As I said, it's highly probable that I'm talking absolute rubbish... I usually do 

[Dune]

Well, thanks for thinking along anyway. I would have thought that the distribution would stay the same, only the instances at the perimeter (outside the max area) would disappear.

[mr-miley]

I would have thought that that would be the case if it populates from the centre of the area outwards, but not if it populates from 0,0 of the area as the position of 0,0 would change relative to the camera when you change the size of the area?

[Dune]

Still, if it's populating on a world space based manner, a small shift in pop center shouldn't change the instances' locations. I think my center is at 0,0 or 40,300 or so. We'll wait for the experts (PS) to give their verdict..........................

[Hetzen]

Pops on world space would be better. If you wanted to animate the populators position to cope with a long shot flying down a valley for example, you would want the trees to stay where they were.

[Dune]

Indeed, so I'm quite curious about its internal workings.

[jo]

Hi Ulco,

The way the populator lays out instances is fairly complicated and I'm not going to describe it. However I will say it wasn't designed to keep instances in the same place depending on the size of the area covered.

Regards,

Jo

[Dune]

Thanks Jo. Good to know.