ptrain03

Hi Krapton, it looks like you specified absolute length for your U. So your map is wrapping all the way around and reaching the end of the mesh before your next tile. You could either not use an absolute width, or just adjust the width downwards until it aligns.

Hi wsk, It looks like you just need to start out with a "distributor" distributor instead of a "Path" distributor. You have to start with a "distributor" because your first path doesn't have any other paths to be distributed upon.

Not sure what's going on with the tree, but if you need to get the file open you could just make a new Max file and merge in all the objects except that tree. Then you could merge the problem tree into a separate file and see if it will open by itself. You might have to simplify the tree, but at least this way you will not loose your work. I have run across this several times with larger meshes, but sometimes it hangs on smaller ones as well.

wow! that's great news !

are you able to get good performance in unreal with full polygon trees using nanite?

very nice!

For parts of the tree that are decoupled from the growth of the trunk, I usually use an invisble path (usually with a path position modifier) that the leaf or fruit growth is affected by.

It looks like your palm trees are not flickering. Did you do anything differently with them? also, are your wind modifiers designated as "after mesh" modifiers? also this is just a guess, but could you have forgotten to put a render node on one of the machines? If that was the case you would get a jumped frame every time that machine rendered a tree. also, are you using a program to scatter the trees or are you just doing that without a plugin?

Those models are beautiful! I love how clean your work is.

That math node looks like it could be really useful for speeding up workflows. Really powerful updates!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

in order to only get some of the flowers to open, you could add a helper (path position) path to the base of each bud. then you could change the count rate so that not every bud will contain a helper path. Then link your blooming action based on the length of these helper paths. You can get even more variation by adding chaos to the leach of the helper paths.

In order to get fruits or flowers to animate after the plant has stopped growing, you could link the petal/ fruit animation to the growth of an invisible helper path. This Path would continue to lengthen after the rest of the paths have stopped.

It could be that the leaves are flipping rather than disappearing. You might check to see if all of your paths contain a "vector orientation direction modifier". If one of the paths does not, It could cause sudden flipping. For this tree it looks like all layers should have a vector orientation direction modifier in the "y" direction at 100 Percent. This sets the up and down direction for the path, so it is pretty important. Not adding this to each path can give you unexpected results. Random and noise modifiers can also cause flipping and mesh breakage. If you have any of these in your tree try turning them off and seeing if that fixes it. Those modifiers should be at the bottom of the modifier stack so that you don't get unexpected results when modifier commands compound. For the mesh disappearing when < parent, you could try setting a minimum diameter. I think it overrides the "<parent" option, but I could be wrong. Real branches never have a 0 diameter, so I always set this at something like 1/16". This option is toward the top of the mesh panel. Hope it helps!

You might try doing it without levels. It makes the paths a little easier to control. I just use a path for each branch level.

This is just a guess, but if your proxy is loading a new model per frame then your vertices might not actually be moving. I am not sure how you have the proxies set up though. Does it work when you render the animated unproxied model ?

So I did did a quick test. I am using an older version of itoosoft but I didn't see an option to load a cached animation file. When you say cache are you just talking about the vertex animation file or do you mean something else ? When I brought in the animated tree nothing showed up but then I moved the timeline forward a few frames and everything appeared again.

also, what format are you using for your animation cache file?

do all of your uncached plants give you the same issue, or is it just your cached plants? Also, are you using meta mesh? If you are using meta mesh, is yourwind animation modifier an after mesh modifier? Itoosoft does this to me as well sometimes but I can usually get my plants back by bumping the time slider up a frame, or rendering a single frame. I have never figured out why this occurs.

You could try adding a point cache modifier in the stack instead of using the internal grow FX point cache. It has been a long time since I tried this but that is how I did it and it worked well. I think That there is an option to turn off build on startup, but I can't remember how it is done. I checked the manual and didn't see anything. I think it has been discussed on the forum. I will look around and see if I can find anything. If your plants are rebuilding per frame you might have a animated plant that is rebuilding its meta mesh each time it moves. Make sure your wind modifiers are applied as "after mesh" modifiers. Also, if your plants are rebuilding each frame you are going to have trouble with your point cache because the vertex count is changing. I hope this helps.

also take a look at Start Vector - angle axis.

I think this image shows the functionality pretty well. for Angular type, you will likely want to make use of the following sliders; f for circular you are probably pretty familiar with the sliders as it is the default mode. Angular is pretty good for things like fan palms or anything else that need to distribute without a height angle component. I hope this helps. Honestly, I am a little foggy on the subject myself.

1. add a vector orientation to the main distributor with a y orientation at 100 percent. 2. Add a path 2 with a path distributor. In the distributors panel make the turn axis 360, and under angle divergence add some chaos. to give it a little variation.I would also add a vector orientation modifier to this path with y at 100 percent. You could also just distribute with the default settings and use the erase modifier to get rid of paths you don't want. The first method gives you a little more control. Hope it Helps,

really cool to see the scan integration! Beautiful models!

Beautiful ! These really show off the variety the variety of plants you can make in grow FX. Absolutely stunning.