Feature request - population macro manage / "easy population"

Started by N-drju, May 04, 2020, 12:24:19 PM

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Dune

I probably misunderstood what you guys are referring too, as I work in undulating terrains too and never have problems with anchors and whatnot.

WAS

Quote from: Dune on May 07, 2020, 04:06:37 AMI probably misunderstood what you guys are referring too, as I work in undulating terrains too and never have problems with anchors and whatnot.
It was just easier changing it out as a plug rather than a strong/drop-down, and in most my cases at least it requires a new compute, or shader set, other than compute terrain. Sometimes my patch size of my terrain is more or less in line with proceeding shaders but I often gotta change it.

N-drju

The amount of replies to this topic clearly shows that populator needs some kind of a revamp.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

sboerner

I'd be happy if you could just reference more than one source object, and set the relative weight of each.

No complaints here about the anchor field, as I usually reset that anyway. The only time it's an issue is when I duplicate a population and want it to be anchored to the same node, and have to reset it. But that's pretty minor.

Dune

Yes, copy/paste is pretty easy. I'm glad the lines are gone anyway. The only thing that bothers me sometimes is that a pop looks the same as an object. Sometimes, when I add a pop it ends up somewhere between a big number of objects. So maybe it can have a different color, or some other sign (big P in the rectangle).

N-drju

Quote from: Dune on May 08, 2020, 02:17:03 AMThe only thing that bothers me sometimes is that a pop looks the same as an object. Sometimes, when I add a pop it ends up somewhere between a big number of objects. So maybe it can have a different color, or some other sign (big P in the rectangle).

That's practically unavoidable at 10+ populations. The way I do it, is by attaching a colour to "key populations" and keep "filler tiles" white. As Richard put it, densities need to be planned ahead. Something, I guess, I still have to learn.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

I get the impression we have a misunderstanding. I was talking about the nodes themselves, not the pop rectangles in the preview.

N-drju

Quote from: Dune on May 08, 2020, 04:54:56 AMI get the impression we have a misunderstanding. I was talking about the nodes themselves, not the pop rectangles in the preview.

Ah, this thing. Ok. ;)
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Tangled-Universe

Quote from: Dune on May 07, 2020, 01:36:36 AMI don't think I want to loose that anchor possibility, as I often anchor on some other shader (like the last or an extra displacement for half-sunk instances). I often don't even use a compute terrain, so pops don't anchor to the planet at all, which means I have to reassign anyway.

I didn't say we need to get rid of it, I meant to say I want to be able to copy/paste populations from one project to the other and have them work/render right away without having the need to go through all of them again defining anchors.
I think that's also what was referred to being a PIA.

Nala1977

i would love a node that would group objects and then scatter a random number of the objects in that group in one go.

lets say you have a patch of grass, a dandelion, and a bush, instead of creating 3 different population nodes, you group them with a GroupPop node (example) and then scatter that group, in the GroupPop node you would set to randomly pick between the object inside it and scatter them.

N-drju

Quote from: Nala1977 on May 08, 2020, 08:23:13 AMi would love a node that would group objects and then scatter a random number of the objects in that group in one go.

That's exactly the "item of first necessity" that we would like to see in TG.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

Yes, I figured that too finally, Martin. Hence my note about misunderstanding.

WAS

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on May 08, 2020, 08:04:18 AM
Quote from: Dune on May 07, 2020, 01:36:36 AMI don't think I want to loose that anchor possibility, as I often anchor on some other shader (like the last or an extra displacement for half-sunk instances). I often don't even use a compute terrain, so pops don't anchor to the planet at all, which means I have to reassign anyway.

I didn't say we need to get rid of it, I meant to say I want to be able to copy/paste populations from one project to the other and have them work/render right away without having the need to go through all of them again defining anchors.
I think that's also what was referred to being a PIA.

Seems like there could be a simple check for that when pasting/inserting clips. Though honestly, you'd think it'd be part of the clip "Planet 01" and "Compute Terrain" and be pretty cross compatible with projects and work already, so I wonder what's up. In XPath logic it should work wherever.

N-drju

I just thought it could also be nice to have an outline populator. For instance, if you would like to create an irregularly shaped flower bed surrounded by a palisade. This cannot be done with the regular X, Y, Z placement. That would perhaps require a path-defining tool or a curve tool.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

WAS

Quote from: N-drju on May 13, 2020, 03:45:29 AMI just thought it could also be nice to have an outline populator. For instance, if you would like to create an irregularly shaped flower bed surrounded by a palisade. This cannot be done with the regular X, Y, Z placement. That would perhaps require a path-defining tool or a curve tool.
Like the paint shader? Use orthographic view and pause preview in HD to paint.