Populator needs to recalculate each time?

[Hannes]

Maybe this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it. If so, I'm sorry!
Almost each time you change something in the scene, even if it doesn't really affect the population, the populator starts repopulating again. This can take a lot of time, if you have lots of instances in your scene. So if you want to make a test render, it's really annoying to wait each time until the populator has finished. Is there something I can do or are there any plans to solve this problem?

[PorcupineFloyd]

As far as I'm concerned, populators are repopulating instances if something related to them has been changed, plus, when you add or remove a cloud layer. What I would like to see is an external file which contains data from populators on the scene and heighfields after generation so when I reopen the scene I won't have to recalculate everything again.

[Hannes]

Good idea!
For now it would be reasonable, if it would only happen when changes were made that affect the population, but I really don't understand why the populator starts repopulating, when I am changing for example the number of samples in the athmosphere's quality tab.

[JimB]

It seems to be a bit of a hit and miss affair to me. Sometimes I just change render resolution and I get a repopulation (not cool with over a million instances), and other times it renders straight away.

[Henry Blewer]

I have only seen this when working on clouds. If you are working on a different element other than the populations, turn of the objects. These also add to render times. Turn them on when you want to do a full test or final render.

[JimB]

I have only seen this when working on clouds. If you are working on a different element other than the populations, turn of the objects. These also add to render times. Turn them on when you want to do a full test or final render.

Doesn't solve the problem when you change the render size.

[Oshyan]

We have been progressively working on narrowing down the items that cause recalculation to only what is necessary. Wait until the 2.1 update and test again, then report any remaining unexpected repopulation occurrences.

- Oshyan

[Hannes]

OK, Oshyan. You can send the update to me, and I will immediately report any remaining unexpected repopulation occurrences!! 

[Henry Blewer]

I have only seen this when working on clouds. If you are working on a different element other than the populations, turn of the objects. These also add to render times. Turn them on when you want to do a full test or final render.

I meant to turn on the objects. Changing the render size does not change the population calculation. The cloud and population calculations seem to be related.

[JimB]

Changing the render size does not change the population calculation.

Yes it does, but not always, in my case. It does not help the development of the app if you make assertions based only your own experience, when someone else may be having different issues for whatever reason. I'm not lying, you know. I had it consistently with the Alpine Lake image I posted, and it still does it on the one since then.

[Seth]

Repopulate almost each time in here too, Oshyan.
I have to calculate the vegetation each time I do a test render...
Imagine the problem for animation

[Oshyan]

It doesn't happen in animations, I'm quite sure of that. I'm doing one now.

- Oshyan

[Seth]

oh nice ! ^^

[rcallicotte]

Ooooh.  Wasabi!!