UltraScatterPro Experiments and Experiences

Oso3D

Ok, so some postfiltering, but yay ultrascatter!

AnEye4Art

Hello. I've tried to get some sea plants to scatter on a sunken ship but some of the objects float in mid-air. I would like the sea plants to follow the contours and angle of the target object: I used alignment >> surface normal and same results. I've looked at the manual and tried most settings but I have no idea what I am missing. Thanks.

barbult

AnEye4Art said:

Hello. I've tried to get some sea plants to scatter on a sunken ship but some of the objects float in mid-air. I would like the sea plants to follow the contours and angle of the target object: I used alignment >> surface normal and same results. I've looked at the manual and tried most settings but I have no idea what I am missing. Thanks.

What sea plants did you scatter (product link, please; maybe I own it and can test)?

• It may be that the origin of the plant is not at the logical bottom center of the visible part of the plant. If you start a blank scene and add just one of the sea plants, does it load into the world origin of the scene (where the axes cross at 0,0,0)? If not, that could be the problem.
• What options have you tried for the Rotation Point on the Rotation Tab? Choices are Origin (default), Top, Center, Bottom. Maybe Bottom would work. Or maybe Origin would work with "Ignore origin transform" box checked.
• If you choose Alignment to be Surface Normal, you might want to check the "Clamp Y axis" box so your plants grow upright.
• If a plant has a very wide base, like some of the MartinJFrost plant clusters, even if the center bottom point is on the surface, the rest of the plant might hang off the edge in mid air.

AnEye4Art

Thanks for your reply. The plant prop is from:  https://www.daz3d.com/v176-iray-coral-reef

The plant origin is close, but not on the mark, to where the axes cross at 0,0,0.

"What options have you tried for the Rotation Point on the Rotation Tab? Choices are Origin (default), Top, Center, Bottom. Maybe Bottom would work. Or maybe Origin would work with "Ignore origin transform" box checked."

Honestly, I don't use Daz enough to know what that all mean. I just rotate and move stuff around without diving deeper. I have never moved the origin of a prop before. I've tried rotating the prop to my liking, then reset all axis to 0,0,0 while keeping the rotation but never knew how.

barbult

AnEye4Art said:

"What options have you tried for the Rotation Point on the Rotation Tab? Choices are Origin (default), Top, Center, Bottom. Maybe Bottom would work. Or maybe Origin would work with "Ignore origin transform" box checked."

I meant rotation Tab within the UltraScatter script. 
I have that Coral Reef product. Let me give it a try. I probably don't have the ship, though.

 

AnEye4Art

Ok, thanks. I've never noticed subtle, but important things like origin. It makes a lot of sense now. Awesome that you have the reef product and can test to help me out.

EDIT: I did the rotation >>>> origin >>> then I checked "ignore origin transform" and it worked for the one sea plant prop. No more floating here. But I will try it with a group scatter and see. Thanks again for your help.

AnEye4Art

Same settings as above but this time I had a grouped scatter - and a couple of them floating. Also, how do I get the plants to grow outward from the sides of the ship and not vertical.

barbult

Progress!

I'm rendering now. I don't get any corals completely disconnected like in your original image. I look forward to seeing what your group scatter looks like.

Edit: I see your group scatter now. I have to leave the computer for a little while. I'll be back.

barbult

If you don't want them all pointing up, use Surface Normal and don't check Clamp Y Axis.

AnEye4Art

barbult said:

If you don't want them all pointing up, use Surface Normal and don't check Clamp Y Axis.

That helped. I am so grateful for your help. You're amazing!!

Side note: with one prop I get no floating, or as you call it "disconnected". But as a group of two I get some disconnected objects from the surface.

barbult

AnEye4Art said:

barbult said:

If you don't want them all pointing up, use Surface Normal and don't check Clamp Y Axis.

That helped. I am so grateful for your help. You're amazing!!

Side note: with one prop I get no floating, or as you call it "disconnected". But as a group of two I get some disconnected objects from the surface.

That's unexpected. Try rendering. The Texture Shaded preview can have some strange display anomalies. It might render OK.

Here is my Coral Reef UltraScatter render with Surface Normal. I don't think anything is floating, but you can see the issue with props with large flat bases not completely conforming to the curved surface of the reef rock, so parts of the base are hanging off the rock surface. Of course, your ship looks much much larger that this reef rock, so there my be some issue with huge surfaces that I'm not aware of.

Edit: In this scene, I also set a minimum distance between instances of 60 CM so the large props didn't overlap too much.

AnEye4Art

Awesome!! This information is more than enough to get me going. I think scattering one object at a time is best, rather than as a group.

barbult

I would also suggest that you set the Y rotation to +- 180 and leave the X and Z rotations at 0. That way you will get more variety in the look of the instances.

barbult

You can also increase the appearance of variety by setting random scaling upper and lower bounds.