wallworm

Yes, I'll send you a file this week.

Awesome!

Sometimes the display of the Vertex Colors is incorrect. When this happens, you only get an accurate view of the colors when you render. Is there a known workaround to this?

Adding onto this thread, it would be nice if Instanced Geometry, Standard Leaves and Leaves Mesh had a some explicit normals options to project normals out from a few specific points: Out From Distributor Point (project from where this object spawns) Out From Parent Distributor Point (Project from the parent distributor spawn) Out from Oldest Distributor Point (Project out from deepest ancestor distributor point)

I would like an option in the Mesh Builder > Instanced Geometry to turn on Explicit Normals. When on, the normals will be derived from explicit normals of the source meshes instead of the face normals. This would help game pipelines where the incoming meshes already have normals set explicitly to render better in game.

It would be cool if a path could acquire the sampled color of the surface it spawns from. Ideally the Surface Distributor has an option for what channel to derive from Vertex Color, Vertex Illum, Vertex Alpha or map color of the diffuse map (if present). When turned on, the path using this distributor should allow the mesh builder > vertex color layer > acquire from parent layer to utilize this color.

I was wondering if you could add two new features to the Surface Distributor: Material ID: When set to non-zero, will limit to spawning on faces with matched material ID. Smoothing Group: Default to -1 but when above -1 limit to spawn faces with the specified smoothing group. Ideally, the two could be used together, so if MatID was set to 3 and Smoothing Group set to 4 then only faces with MatID 3 and SG 4 will produce paths.

Sorry I didn't say thanks earlier. I got caught up in work and then a vacation... and somehow missed the response. I'll give a look at your setup. Thanks

Not sure this is a bug in GFX or a problem with my thinking: I want to have the Distributor Offset affect the Path Length (so those offset less are tall and those offset more are shorter like in a clump of grass). But when I try this, all paths are getting an equal length regardless of their individual offset: Path_01 > Point Distributor [count:90, offset:4, offsetChaos:30] {offset:affects:Path_o1->Length} Should the affect with a curve multiple cause the length of the paths to change the further they are from the distribution point? That isn't what I'm seeing, but what I'd expect. Am I wrong about what to expect?

That would be awesome. We are using Max 2016.

Got a new video demonstrating some more ways to convert complex GrowFX scenes into low-poly game assets:

Sorry I didn't respond sooner Eduard. I was too busy trying to finish some work. I will send you a scene this weekend to demonstrate the issue.

Most of the work I've ever done with GFX I've always used the Cylinder mesh instead of metamesh but this week have spent a lot of time using metamesh . I'm constantly coming up with a problem similar to the OP. It seems that metamesh UVW only works well when there are no direction modifiers. As soon as you apply some direction modifiers, the metamesh UVWs go all wonky. While I'd expect there to be visible seams where metameshes stitch into children, I wouldn't expect the UVs to be so problematic along each path. To see what I mean, make one GFX with a twist modifier and a Cylinder mesh, then clone that GFX but change the cylinder mesh to a meta mesh. The cylinder UVS is usable right away, but the metamesh UVs are often skewed and stretched in very awkward ways. Any advice on getting metamesh UVs to be more friendly?

Fair enough. I'll experiment with affects (which I didn't even consider for this).

I'd like an option in the mesh builder UVW Mapping controls to randomize U/V offset You could add a checkbox next to offset called Randomize that activated a Offset Max spinner (one for U and one for V). When on, each element (like a branch or leaf) gets a random U/V offset within the rand given. So if Offset is 0 and Max Offset is 1.0, then each element will get a random offset between 0 and 1. This will make it easier to add variation to plants you are texturing procedurally and with tiling textures.

Just an idea. I think this layer should default to three color points where the outer two are white and inner is black.

Was just about to turn the computer off for the night. Thank you Eduard! I would love this addition!

I'd like another layer for Vertex Colors: VC Across: This is like VC along but it's across instead of along. This would be helpful for generating colors on leaves where the ridge color is different than the edge.

Thank you! This would be a life saver.

When using Instanced Geometry mesh builder, explicit normal are lost. Is there a way to preserve them? If not, I would like to add that as a high-priority feature request.

Is it possible to build a GrowFX viewer plugin for Max that allows people who don't own GrowFX to still natively view Max files with a GrowFX object? The reason is that I'm working with a team of other artists and am setting up a pipeline that utilizes XRefs a lot. Most of the artists will never need to edit the GrowFX, but all should be able to view... and it would interfere with the pipeline if the GFX geometry must always be collapsed. Essentially, it's a gimped version of GFX that doesn't have all the Distributer, Paths and Mesh edit functions.

Thank you Eduard!

Sorry for the confusion by calling it Z. I should have just called it "Angular Vector" or something like that. In my mind it felt like Z because when you use the Angular Distributor Type, the vector seems to be rotated 90 degrees (and the current Offset value pushes the parts out away from what I was trying to accomplish). It would be nice if you make this into an After Mesh Modifier if you could add a checkbox for "Orient to Face Normal" so that once the child mesh element is offset, it gets oriented to the normal of the closes face or an average of some faces.

The attached screen shot and the example file attached should explain what I'm after. In this case, imagine making a cactus that has varying radius, and you want all the spines to always "spawn" on the surface of the plant. (I tried to use the Image button in the Post editor, but it the OK/Cancel buttons aren't working, at least not in IE11.) So I've attached the image rather than embedded it. [EDIT] Note that in the graphic, it should indicate "Radius" instead of "Width" but I'm sure you understand that. exlevel_offset_example.zip

Sorry I did not see the message. I will make some screen shots and a file to explain.