UltraScatter - v1.5.0 released [Commercial]

Oso3D

Create > New Iray Section Plane

Right under Iray Decal Node.

 

It basically hides everything on one side of the plane, which is great for easily and quickly speeding render in big messy environments, particularly when instances are involved.

 

SnowSultan

Thank you, I actually had never used that succussfully until now. Wish it was actually visible like a pane, but it solves the problem of positioning cameras in rooms where the walls are not removable.

BeeMKay

It's has arrived in the shop: http://www.daz3d.com/ultrascatter-advanced-instancing-for-daz-studio

PhilW

Can you show what the interface looks like?

HowieFarkes

PhilW said:

Can you show what the interface looks like?

Something like this.

PhilW

Thanks Howie!

Fishtales

I downloaded it and tried it and can confirm it doesn't work in Studio 4.8. I will probably upgrade to 4.9 at some point in the future so I will use it at some point.

Oso3D

I just went OOO OOO OOO OOO

Grabba grab

Chuckdozer

timmins.william said:

Create > New Iray Section Plane

Right under Iray Decal Node.

 

It basically hides everything on one side of the plane, which is great for easily and quickly speeding render in big messy environments, particularly when instances are involved.

 

I've found it most useful for hiding those pesky non-hideable walls in many sets. You can also animate it to create some pretty cool effects (like cross-sectioning cars as seen in many commercial ads). So many uses and so little time to play... 

Chuckdozer

I did see the posts from TangoAlpha stating that UtraScatter was used in the creation of a new "Hemlock Folly", so I'm assuming it's okay to use UltraScatter in commercial projects as long as the artist makes or owns rights to the models they use?

JOdel

Related to that question; is this likely to be something that will be ever required of the end user in order to make use of somethig that's been built using it? Or is it only likely to be needed if one is building one's own scene? How about when combining or extending a scene which uses it?

Oso3D

I haven't looked at everything, but is there a way to set instances to always have a certain orientation compared to the object? That is, if you are making a bunch of, say, ants on a balloon, can you set it so the ants are always oriented toward the center?

Richard Haseltine

timmins.william said:

I haven't looked at everything, but is there a way to set instances to always have a certain orientation compared to the object? That is, if you are making a bunch of, say, ants on a balloon, can you set it so the ants are always oriented toward the center?

That would be the "Align to Surface Normal" option, which is listed as a feature. (Well, that isn't necessarily going to point them to the centre of an arbitrary object, but it would keep them flat on the surface of the object.)

Melissa Conway

I'd like to know this, too. I populated a plane with billboard trees, but can't figure out how to make them all face center. 

timmins.william said:

I haven't looked at everything, but is there a way to set instances to always have a certain orientation compared to the object? That is, if you are making a bunch of, say, ants on a balloon, can you set it so the ants are always oriented toward the center?

 

TangoAlpha

Use a rotation map (see the 2nd image on the store page). Red, green & blue control  rotation in x, y and z axes respectively.

Melissa Conway

Thanks for responding, but I don't understand this. My genius older brother sucked all the math genes out of the pool before I was born.  A practical example would be awesome! 

Edit to say: I did make a black map with a green dot in the center and tried that, but it didn't work...

TangoAlpha said:

Use a rotation map (see the 2nd image on the store page). Red, green & blue control  rotation in x, y and z axes respectively.

 

Oso3D

My first attempt is cooking. My one mistake was trying to cover too large an area -- 50000 instances of gtass patches over Ocean Wide. Ended up a little sparse... but I worked that into the scene.

TangoAlpha

Here's a quick worked example. You can save the maps and try them yourselves. I created a simple square map and used it on a square plane primitive (for different shaped surfaces you'll need appropriaterly scaled maps). The distribution map is basically just a big cross with a gap in the middle. The rotation map uses green, since I want to rotate in the Y direction (ie around the vertical). Minimum value is 0, max is 255, so divide into 4 and paint the appropraiate level in each box.

If you use a gradient fill on the distribution map (say it's white in the middle and fades to black at the edge), you'll get fewer guitars as you get closer to the edge of the plane.

I used one of Merlin's old guitar props for the scatter object (BTW, the guitar in the front corner is the master object)

 

Melissa Conway

I'm trying to wrap my mind around what's happening in your example versus what I expected based on the reference guide's description.  Guess I'm a visual learner. Thanks for the assist!

TangoAlpha said:

Here's a quick worked example. You can save the maps and try them yourselves. I created a simple square map and used it on a square plane primitive (for different shaped surfaces you'll need appropriaterly scaled maps). The distribution map is basically just a big cross with a gap in the middle. The rotation map uses green, since I want to rotate in the Y direction (ie around the vertical). Minimum value is 0, max is 255, so divide into 4 and paint the appropraiate level in each box.

If you use a gradient fill on the distribution map (say it's white in the middle and fades to black at the edge), you'll get fewer guitars as you get closer to the edge of the plane.

I used one of Merlin's old guitar props for the scatter object (BTW, the guitar in the front corner is the master object)

 

 

TangoAlpha

Melissa Conway said:

I'm trying to wrap my mind around what's happening in your example versus what I expected based on the reference guide's description.  Guess I'm a visual learner. Thanks for the assist!

TangoAlpha said:

Here's a quick worked example. You can save the maps and try them yourselves. I created a simple square map and used it on a square plane primitive (for different shaped surfaces you'll need appropriaterly scaled maps). The distribution map is basically just a big cross with a gap in the middle. The rotation map uses green, since I want to rotate in the Y direction (ie around the vertical). Minimum value is 0, max is 255, so divide into 4 and paint the appropraiate level in each box.

If you use a gradient fill on the distribution map (say it's white in the middle and fades to black at the edge), you'll get fewer guitars as you get closer to the edge of the plane.

I used one of Merlin's old guitar props for the scatter object (BTW, the guitar in the front corner is the master object)

 

 

Yes the green=127 mid-value is no rotation (might explain why my guitars are facing in instead of out! What, me read the manual?). But the principle is still, change the shade of green; change the rotation. :)

Oso3D

First render.

In retrospect, scattering 50,000 patches of grass over a huge area only to do a render of part of it was kind of dumb. First, took a while to make that many instances. Second, probably 90% of those instances are out of frame. And third, over that much space, even 50,000 patches of grass ended up patchy. But still, pretty nice results.

 

jardine

very nice...realistic too.

several spots in my back yard look just like that.  (apart from the beach hut, brontosaurus, and space pod, that is.)  :)

j

 

Melissa Conway

Took me several hours experimenting, but I figured out how to make a “ring” rotation map that will make all of the instances face inward (except that figure lying on her side in my example – not sure what her deal is). 

In case anyone would like the details: Using the color picker in your graphics software, set the hexadecimal value to #00ff00 (green). The pure green value won’t rotate the instances, but adding black to it will. You need to slide the circular mouse pointer down the right side of the color pallet to pick the darker greens (see attached image of color picker). I got weird results if I ventured into the grey area!

HowieFarkes

Melissa Conway said:

Took me several hours experimenting, but I figured out how to make a “ring” rotation map that will make all of the instances face inward (except that figure lying on her side in my example – not sure what her deal is). 

In case anyone would like the details: Using the color picker in your graphics software, set the hexadecimal value to #00ff00 (green). The pure green value won’t rotate the instances, but adding black to it will. You need to slide the circular mouse pointer down the right side of the color pallet to pick the darker greens (see attached image of color picker). I got weird results if I ventured into the grey area!

Nice work. Not sure what format you are saving the images as but .PNG is best as it does not introduce any noise artefacts that can add color to the other channels. (that may be why one instance is lying down)

PhilW

If you are using Photoshop I'm pretty sure that there is a radial gradient type which will do your gradiant in one step rather than having to do it in segments. Other photo editing programs will probably have something similar.

Wanderer

I had a really hard time finding the reference guide. Not sure what I did wrong.

HowieFarkes

Infinityseed said:

I had a really hard time finding the reference guide. Not sure what I did wrong.

There should be a script that links to it sitting right next to the UltraScatter script in your library.

Chuckdozer

Infinityseed said:

I had a really hard time finding the reference guide. Not sure what I did wrong.

I clicked the little "i" icon in Install Manager before installing in order to find out where the .pdf would be located... the file list said it was in one of the Read Me folders. I looked there after installing and found nothing. After opening the .zip file and looking there, I discovered the link that's sitting right next to the script itself. The Daz online documentation is wrong.

Chuckdozer

Chuckdozer said:

I did see the posts from TangoAlpha stating that UtraScatter was used in the creation of a new "Hemlock Folly", so I'm assuming it's okay to use UltraScatter in commercial projects as long as the artist makes or owns rights to the models they use?

???

Melissa Conway

Good to know, thanks! 

HowieFarkes said:

Melissa Conway said:

Nice work. Not sure what format you are saving the images as but .PNG is best as it does not introduce any noise artefacts that can add color to the other channels. (that may be why one instance is lying down)