UltraScatterPro Experiments and Experiences

RGcincy

No, I didn't give a volume scatter a try. I was really just testing a combination of dForce with ultrascatter to see what would happen. I was also thinking that swarms of butterflies might move like the waves in a cloth. I would think a volume scatter with a cellular noise pattern might give similar results. I'll have to give it a look.

RGcincy

Here's the results of a volume scatter in an elongated sphere and a rectangular cube. They were scaled to be about the size of the plane I used before. I used the same settings for distribution (cellular noise), scaling, and rotation in all 3. One observation: I set instances for the plane at 1000 and got 903. At a setting of 1000 instances I only got about 200 for the sphere and cube; at a setting of 2000 I got about 400 instances (this is what is shown). Not sure why the number is lower than requested but I've seen that before when using distribution map images. I think the sphere's distribution is pretty good, although relatively even compared to the dForced plane. The cube's distribution  was odd in that only a portion of the cube had butterflies distributed in it and they leveled off at one height (the cube was tilted as were the plane and sphere).

 

barbult

I think the reason that you get fewer than specified number of instances is mainly the noise setting. I think the way it works is that any computed instance point that is outside your noise pattern will be dropped from the final result. The fact that only a portion of the cube has butterflies is mysterious. Maybe you found a bug. I'll see if I can reproduce this problem.

Edit: @RGcincy The volume scatter with cellular noise inside a rotated cube seems to work as intended for me. See the post below. Did you have a max elevation specified? That could cut off the butterflies in the way your render turned out. How big was your cube? By default max elevation is specified in cm.

barbult

This is what happened for me with scattering small cubes inside a large cube. I think it is working as intended. I was a little surprised at how much the number or generated instances was reduced just by rotating the cube. Maybe it is calculating the initial scatter points based on an imaginary cube that is large enough to enclose the entire rotated cube and throwing away scatter points that fall outside the actual rotated cube. I don't know. As expected, specifying a cellular noise pattern further reduced the number of instances that were generated. Maybe your cellular noise pattern settings resulted in restricting the scattered butterflies to one section of the cube.

1. Large cube not rotated. Specified 5000 instances no noise pattern. Result 5000 instances created which look pretty uniformly distributed.
2. Large cube rotated 25 degrees on Y. Specified 5000 instances no noise pattern. Result 2584 instances created which look pretty uniformly distributed.
3. Large cube rotated 25 degrees on X. Specified 5000 instances no noise pattern. Result 2867 instances created which look pretty uniformly distributed.
4. Large cube rotated 25 degrees on X,Y, and Z. Specified 5000 instances no noise pattern. Result 1233 instances created which look pretty uniformly distributed.
5. Large cube rotated 25 degrees on X,Y, and Z. Specified 5000 instances cellular noise pattern. Result 1180 instances created which still look pretty uniformly distributed.
6. Large cube rotated 25 degrees on X,Y, and Z. Specified 5000 instances cellular noise pattern with exaggerated brightness, contrast, and zoom. Result 554 instances created . The cellular noise pattern is obvious in the distribution.
7. Large cube rotated 25 degrees on X,Y, and Z. Specified 1000000 instances cellular noise pattern with exaggerated brightness, contrast, and zoom. Result 11237 instances created . The cellular noise pattern is very obvious in the distribution.

I am attaching a scene file for step 6 and a render for step 7.

 

RGcincy

It was the max elevation which was at its default value of 1000. Part of the tilted cube was higher than that. If I lower the cube, it fills further. Thanks for the insight.

Your rotation experiments are very interesting. It does seem there's something in the way it calculates the volume that results in a large number of instances not being created.

 

barbult

In the latest version, you can change the units of measure from cm to something else to get larger limits. I think it is probably computing the potential scatter points based on the bounding box, which has a lot of area outside the rotated cube.

L'Adair

RGcincy said:

It was the max elevation which was at its default value of 1000. Part of the tilted cube was higher than that. If I lower the cube, it fills further. Thanks for the insight.

Your rotation experiments are very interesting. It does seem there's something in the way it calculates the volume that results in a large number of instances not being created.

I always thought it was a combination of the settings that determined if the target number was reached. I've been able to increase or decrease the actual number just by changing up the seeds. Adding in a distance between instances would also decrease the final count for me.

barbult

Here's an example UltraScatterPro penguin colony using the free penguin from MostDigitalCreations. The terrain is TerraDome 3.

• First I created a Geometry Editor selection set so I could tell UltraScatterPro to constrain the penguins to a small area of the TerraDome. 
• I scattered over 800 penguin instances in just a few minutes, from a single penguin prop im my scene file.
• I set the UltraScatterPro scaling to make quite a large variety of sizes. 
• I used UltraScatterPro min elevation to keep them out of the water. I used max slope to keep them off of the steep parts of the terrain.
• I used UltraScatterPro affinity to make the group denser closer to the front of the scene.
• I used UltraScatterPro rotation to have them face in different directions.
• I used UltraScatterPro Point At alignment to keep them upright even on sloped surfaces.
• I set the UltraScatterPro  minimum spacing distance to keep them from overlapping.

All these thing are variable within UltraScatterPro.

RGcincy

Awesome! that looks really good. I need to play around more with UltrascatterPro

iSeeThis

How to save parameter values as presets?

barbult

iSeeThis said:

How to save parameter values as presets?

When you create a new UltraScatterPro scatter. You can choose a previous scatter in your scene to base the settings on. I don't know a way to save presets for use in a different scene. I guess you could save a scene subset and merge it in, to have as a reference to base a new scatter on.

iSeeThis

barbult said:

iSeeThis said:

How to save parameter values as presets?

 

When you create a new UltraScatterPro scatter. You can choose a previous scatter in your scene to base the settings on. I don't know a way to save presets for use in a different scene. I guess you could save a scene subset and merge it in, to have as a reference to base a new scatter on.

That's exactly what I want! But how can I choose the previous scatter?

barbult

iSeeThis said:

barbult said:

iSeeThis said:

How to save parameter values as presets?

 

When you create a new UltraScatterPro scatter. You can choose a previous scatter in your scene to base the settings on. I don't know a way to save presets for use in a different scene. I guess you could save a scene subset and merge it in, to have as a reference to base a new scatter on.

That's exactly what I want! But how can I choose the previous scatter?

It is described on page 8 of the user guide. It is the Import drop down box on the Settings tab.

iSeeThis

I see that tab but I don't know how to make it work because it doesn't give me any history list regardless how many times I've made scatter.

 

barbult

@ iSeeThis Show some more details, like a screenshot of the Scene pane showing the existing scatters that should be displayed in the UltraScatterPro import drop down. You didn't delete those scatters from the scene, did you? The drop down list will only show other existing scatters currently in the scene.

iSeeThis

Okay, when you said "existing scatters" now I know that I have to click the Scatter first. Now it works. Thank you.

Diomede

I am coming to Daz Studio Ultra Scatter Pro from a Carrara replicator background.  Similar concepts but different interface and tools.  Howie Farkes says that UltraScatter Pro will offer even greater control than Carrara if I can master it.  Here is an attempt I did to use UltraScatter Pro to do a simple bald hill and a forest on the lower slopes.

 

Diomede

I did this ancient city in Carrara.  You have to click to get the bigger size to see the people in the streets.  Howie says that UltraScatter Pro in Studio would allow for making the people tend to walk in pairs or allow me to determine the affinity of one type of building to be next to another.  As is, I had to nest the replicators which makes the neighborhoods a little too uniform.  The constraints for nesting the replicators is a big reason the city is a rectangle.

I think it would be a fun project to import these buildings, plants, and low res people to Studio and improve the city with UltraScatter Pro.

thedoctor

Question: I would like to have Ultra Scatter Pro scatter a random crowd of figures who are all looking at a guy standing in the center of their midst. When I use the alignment tool under the rotataion tab it works great EXCEPT everybody is lying on the ground with their heads pointed toward the figure! An interesting effect, but not what I'm after. Could somebody clue me in how to do this while keeping my figures all standing upright?

 

EDIT: Just realized the CLAMP Y AXIS does this perfectly! Guess it helps to read the manual.

 

barbult

thedoctor said:

Question: I would like to have Ultra Scatter Pro scatter a random crowd of figures who are all looking at a guy standing in the center of their midst. When I use the alignment tool under the rotataion tab it works great EXCEPT everybody is lying on the ground with their heads pointed toward the figure! An interesting effect, but not what I'm after. Could somebody clue me in how to do this while keeping my figures all standing upright?

 

EDIT: Just realized the CLAMP Y AXIS does this perfectly! Guess it helps to read the manual.

 

I'm glad you figured it out. I did an example just like that earlier in this thread. I've used UltraScatterPro a lot, but I still have to refer back to the manual at times.

Marshian

Hi.

I'm trying to get this flattened cube to wrap around various shapes, here a torus, like random size sheets of metal. But not randomly rotated, they either follow the shape as they are here or they are parallel with the ground. I had to do two scatters here but some are not laying flat on the surface. Any thoughts? 

Like this: https://www.123rf.com/photo_147605181_old-door-fragment-grunge-metal-background-steel-plate-texture-metal-plates-assembled-with-rivets.html

I'm looking for a formula I can use over different shapes.

lilweep

wouldnt that involve morphing the shape to get it to "wrap around" rather than just being on a tangent with the surface?

I dont think ultrascatter claims to be able to morph shapes.

Would it be easier to just use a texture of riveted metal sheets?

Marshian

Hi lilweep. Thanks for responding. Oh sure- Just want it to lay flat, not bend. Think of flat armor plates. I could create a texture but I'm looking for more dimension, like super clunky chunky plates. Like Some giant built it quickly and doesn't care how heavy it is 

 

lilweep said:

wouldnt that involve morphing the shape to get it to "wrap around" rather than just being on a tangent with the surface?

I dont think ultrascatter claims to be able to morph shapes.

Would it be easier to just use a texture of riveted metal sheets?

Fishtales

Marshian said:

Hi lilweep. Thanks for responding. Oh sure- Just want it to lay flat, not bend. Think of flat armor plates. I could create a texture but I'm looking for more dimension, like super clunky chunky plates. Like Some giant built it quickly and doesn't care how heavy it is 

 

lilweep said:

wouldnt that involve morphing the shape to get it to "wrap around" rather than just being on a tangent with the surface?

I dont think ultrascatter claims to be able to morph shapes.

Would it be easier to just use a texture of riveted metal sheets?

Something like this?

Click on image for full size.

Marshian

FishTales! Oh Yes, that's it. How did you do that? I found a solution but had to do two scatters and it's about 5000 instances. A little too heavy 

Fishtales said:

 

Something like this?

 

Fishtales

I've attached the scene file for you to look at. Select the scatter in the scene tab and open Ultrascatter to see the settings. I took it down to 3500 instances, lower than that and spaces appear. The Torus is 3x2 metres and 360x12 and the Plane 30 cm.

Marshian

This is going GREAT FishTales! Thanks so much. I plan to create many products based on this formula.  Happy to say: I'm back to work now

Fishtales said:

I've attached the scene file for you to look at. Select the scatter in the scene tab and open Ultrascatter to see the settings. I took it down to 3500 instances, lower than that and spaces appear. The Torus is 3x2 metres and 360x12 and the Plane 30 cm.

Fishtales

Marshian said:

This is going GREAT FishTales! Thanks so much. I plan to create many products based on this formula.  Happy to say: I'm back to work now

Fishtales said:

I've attached the scene file for you to look at. Select the scatter in the scene tab and open Ultrascatter to see the settings. I took it down to 3500 instances, lower than that and spaces appear. The Torus is 3x2 metres and 360x12 and the Plane 30 cm.

You're welcome. 

barbult

Clamp Y Axis will keep all scattered instances vertical, which looks like cladding on vertical surfaces viewed from the front or side. When viewed from the top or bottom, the scattered instances will be standing on end, rather than cladding the surface. I don't know a good general solution for all surface orientations and all viewing angles.

Marshian

Thanks barbult. I was working on this today and can confirm what you've said. It is good to know it can't be done, good to get confirmation, as I can stop that dog from hunting . I'm very happy with the current results I have. Some of the products from Code 66 have already shown some promise --> if I want to edit the instances individually 

barbult said:

Clamp Y Axis will keep all scattered instances vertical, which looks like cladding on vertical surfaces viewed from the front or side. When viewed from the top or bottom, the scattered instances will be standing on end, rather than cladding the surface. I don't know a good general solution for all surface orientations and all viewing angles.