Testing and developer a new script texture scatter The original script and idea is from andrei kletskov. http://andklv2.narod.ru/maxscripts/ak-maxscripts.html The script place trees instances by the level of texture color. V.05 test version -Vertex Color paint Download Beta test: Texture Scatter
News: - Can pick colors from viewport - use two type of trees ( the idea is select more) - trees scale the image is a satellite image of the unedited phoshop. If the image is treated the results will be better. But it is preferable to develop the harder side so the good results are always guaranteed. To DO: - find the edge to use best quality trees or 3d
this is looking very interesting mario! am i understanding it right, that this allows you to "paint" trees onto terrain!?
I can't help but wonder how long a track would need to be before this script would start saving time. I mean, you'd have to: get an overview image (whether that's a satellite image or a screenshot of the entire terrain in 3ds Max); tweak it so the script catches the tree areas, which can be a bit cumbersome depending on the overview image; run the script which would automatically place the trees, an effortless step . I can see this would be a great help to quickly fill large areas with trees, but wouldn't it be much more efficient time and performance-wise to use a mouse planter script with a random scale parameter to place the trees in key areas where they make sense? I mean, if this script would place a dozen rows of trees one behind another, wouldn't that be a waste of resources? When planting trees manually, it is the artist who decides where a tree needs to be; where it makes sense and where LESS trees can do MORE visually. Still, it's a nice script and I can see it serving a purpose. I wouldn't recommend relying ONLY on this script from an art point of view though.
It's like with any other Scatter script isn't it? Quick and easy placement of a larger number of objects, uniformly or randomly distributed. For most aspects of track creation I'm with you, more control is where we are at the moment. We loft rows of ground, gravel and sculpt curbs to the very detail. Trees in general are treated with less detail, and it would be very hard to place trees exactly and/or even approximately replicate the amount of "unique" tree types at a track unless you've been there and have taken photos of every single tree. I can see tracks where tree placement is of sufficiently low importance that using the scatter script would be perfectly viable for a reasonable result. Fuji for example has few trees in the direct vicinity of the track surface, and they are not necessary to be exactly replicated to achieve the same atmosphere. The further away forest on the mountains though would be, but precise control over their placement is not necessary anymore due to the distance from the track. Road America is another case though, especially the run from the Carousel all the way to Billy Mitchell Bend. Which is probably a lot less full of trees or has lighter canopies than most games made us believe. Or Lime Rock Park, about which I recall an article or video where they micro-managed the trees. IIRC LRP was one of iRacing's first tracks and while they did laser scan it, Dave Kaemmer, due to personal knowledge of the track, was unhappy about some proportions as he couldn't replicate his braking points and lines. Until he tracked the issue down to some tree before the uphill that was a bit off with its trunk placement and the canopy extending to the wrong side or something. So yeah, control can be good, but quick placement can be fine for less signficant areas.
I always use satellite images. And not entire terrain i make a tile images.. to get maximum resolution. this point is actually the most problematic .. the script will internally generate a thumbnail, so a pixel is equivalent to an area of a tree. for best results the image has to be treated in image editor. But this is already being done in many circuits. they use an altered image to the terrain shaders and false shadows. I hope it works well. But in practice there is always something that has to be done manually. I prefer to eliminate objects that create objects manually. The intention of this script try to help with things to be faster and easier. I can not imagine doing the Nordschleife and manually put the trees!. I have not done a real test when I do I will post the results.