RELEASED The "Scatter Tool" plugin for Poser

[Ken1171]

Thank you! ^____^/

For today's update, I have added some bullet-proofing for the parameters entry:

* People could setup the scatter plane properly in the parameters, and then go back and delete it from the scene, which would crash the tool. It now detects this situation and prevents a crash.
* People could pick a prop to scatter,, and then go back and delete it from the scene, which would crash the tool. It now detects this situation and prevents a crash.
* It is no longer possible to set the scatter amount to a value larger than it fits on a given surface. The number will now auto-adjust accordingly if it exceeds maximum value. This will still not prevent Poser from running out of memory if we use too many props, though that has never happened to me this far.
* There are 3 ways to close the tool - clicking the red "X" on the title bar, clicking the "Exit" button, or pressing the "ESC" key. The tool will now automatically clean up any leftover internal objects and groupings on exit in all 3 cases.

 

[Ghostman]

Are we there yet?

 

[Miss B]

 

[Ken1171]

Almost! Still writing the documentation, the manual, store materials, and after that, the dreadful promos! LOL

 

[Ken1171]

Testing the tool with more boxes (Poser box primitive), this time textured to look like wooden crates. Added grass and Dawn Type-12, and boom, we have a scene. ^_____^

 

[Ken1171]

Scattering is also an easy way to create lots of objects to throw physics at. I did this one using Paul Kinnane's PoserPhysics, but it would work well with the built-in Bullet engine as well. The crates are Poser box primitives, and the ground is Poser's default GROUND plane. Would take a long time to load and place all the crates by hand, but just a second with the Scatter Tool.

 

[DanaTA]

Would love to see a few of those crates break open from the fall, a contents scatter!

Dana

 

[Ken1171]

One more experiment with the Scatter Tool - building a 126 bricks wall with 1-click in Poser... and then destroying it with the Bullet engine! Building the wall would take AGES manually, but with this tool it's quick and fun.

 

[KageRyu]

The wall starts moving before the ball hits though

 

[Ken1171]

The wall starts moving before the ball hits though

That's because we have to set up each brick as "keyframed until hit", but using the Bullet engine in Poser, I would have to do that 126 times, so I got lazy and left it as dynamic. ;p

 

[Karina]

Looks like we need another Python script...

K

 

[Ghostman]

Looks like we need another Python script...

K

 

[caisson]

Bullet is very cool but needs a few extra features like the ability to change the settings on multiple items at once. An array tool would be handy too

 

[Ken1171]

Looks like we need another Python script...

You guys read my mind! I wonder if PoserPython allows that?

 

[Ken1171]

This is the brick wall built with the scatter tool. The way I have shifted the brick rows was to create a morph on the scatter plane to push every other vertex line to the right, so the dial controls the brick shift. I imagine we could create other patterns this way. It's not an array tool, but hey, how long would it take to do this by hand?

 

[Ken1171]

I have created some new primitives to use in Poser. For example, the default box is rather hi-res and slows down physics sims. The default sphere has crumpled poles, which is bad for using with the Scatter Tool. I made a new "lightweight" cube with only 6 faces, and a new geosphere where each vertex has the same distance from the others, which is good for use as a scattering plane.

To test it, I made this sim with 100+ cubes, and it now runs in real-time. I have always loved running these silly physics sims, but it was to much work to load and place so many cubes. It's so much easier now. ^^

 

[Ken1171]

I wanted to use more of these awesome cherry trees (from Lisa), but they are poly-heavy, and slow Poser and renders down if we use many. Here's an alternative: I have rendered 2 of them and put them back in the scene as billboards (mapped over Poser's square primitive). Now I have a whole forest with 100 trees, where each is a single poly, and renders super fast! This makes use of the Scatter Tool's "billboard" feature. I have morphed the default Poser ground to add some hills, and this is what came out. I think the ground has more polys than the whole forest! ^___^

 

[Ken1171]

One more with 100 billboard trees, this time without morphing the ground.

 

[Karina]

Jaw-dropping - can't find any better description.
I'm watching this thread with bated breath just to see which other tricks you come up with.
I think this tool is the next best thing since the invention of sliced bread...

I'll try to lay some money on the side so I'll eventually be able to buy this amazing tool.
Carry on!

K


P.S.:
I just imagined how long this scene would need to render in Poser if it was built the conventional way (e.g., each tree as a stand-alone prop)!

 

[Miss B]

Jaw-dropping - can't find any better description.

I couldn't agree more, especially that last render.

'm watching this thread with bated breath just to see which other tricks you come up with.
I think this tool is the next best thing since the invention of sliced bread...

I'll try to lay some money on the side so I'll eventually be able to buy this amazing tool.

You and me both!!