Hello. I am just starting to use Vue (Vue Inf 5.0), and really like. Been trying to learn the Eco-System lately, and have a question. Been trying to search for it and cant find it, or perhaps I am not searching the right keywords.

I added a terrain and setup the eco-system the way I like it(so I thought). I started to render, and everything is fine, except for 2 plants. The plants are huge, compared to the trees. I went back into the Eco-System, and resized the plants down by half, and did a Populate again.
But this time, it seems that it changed everything, the trees positions, the grass, rocks, etc.

I just want to resize and populate the 2 PLANTS ONLY, without changing the tree locations, rocks etc etc.

How I do that? I tried to mess around in the Eco-System, but no luck.

Any help on this I appreciate it.

Sorry for the noob question, but just started with Vue (and quite love it).

THANK YOU...

Message edited on: 02/02/2006 18:30

Hi there Cornelp - Welcome to Vue! >8o) No problem - happy to help! Open up the Material editor for the EcoSystem and go to the General Tab, and you will see a Scale option for every individual object in the EcoSystem. I'm attaching a screenshot to show you. The other Scale you might see is for the underlying material. Hope this helps! Kind regards

Trelawney, thankx for the quick reply and the welcome. I appreciate it. I dont know if I explained it right, but: I want to resize the plants only and populate the eco-system, but leave the trees and rocks the way they are. When I go into eco-system and resize the plants, I render again and the same render comes up as before I resized the plants. I then go back into the eco-system, and resize the plants, but this time I click the Populate Button. When I do that, the trees, rocks, etc etc moves around and changes shape. I want to resize the plants ONLY, and populate the eco-system WITHOUT re-locating the trees and rocks, etc etc. This is what I got. The first picture is the original. Thats the one I want, but with the plants resized DOWN. As U see the trees are quite well placed, but the plants too huge. THANKx

This is the one that comes up AFTER I resize the plants. As U see the plants are smaller like it should be, BUT THE TREES ARE DIFFERENT AND PLACED ELSEWHERE TOO. Thankx

It seems to me that each time you populate the ecosystem, the plants would be put new places. I assume you repopulated after you resized the plants?

Hi Cornelp Every time you re-populate - it will (pseudo) randomise the placement. Remember that by shrinking the scale of plant instances, it creates more space between them, and then rules of distribute of placement and desnity will therefore change for everything else too - make sense? It's worthwhile just playing around with EcoSystems first to understand the relationship of different parameters. For example, if you drop a (non-infinite) plane (next to Torus primitive) to the ground - create an EcoSystem (e.g. Garden preset) and do a test render. Then physically resize the plane, and you will see everything scale as it resizes. However, edit the material and hit clear and then re-poupulate, and the scale will reset to original, but cover the same area more densely. I'm assuming the trees are part of the Eco System (hence them moving when repopulating, due to the shift in instances), but if you wanted them to remain fixed, i'd recommend removing them from your EcoSystem and manually placing them, or else to make a Mixed Eco Material - with the trees in one half and plants in another... Hope this helps to explain a little better? Kind regards

If I understand correctly the populate button is a random generator so everytime you hit it things will be different. I could be wrong or maybe there's a workaround but I think you need to get the plants scaled to your liking and then move the camera around until you get the scene the way you want.

Hmm so it seems that no matter what, I cant have the same scene with the plants resized, Unless I created a mixed eco system, or placed the trees manually. Makes sense, but liked the way this one came out, wanted to finish it up with resizing the plants properly. Thankx all for your help and explantions. THANK YOU

cornelp, could you maybe please post a screenshot of your settings in the material editor for this ecosystem? Especially the tabs "General" and "Scaling & Orientation". Then i am sure we will understand better. You of course can scale each element that will create an ecosystem individually - as Trelawney pointed it out in his first reply.

You guys are not reading what he has asked. He has populated a scene he likes with where and how the trees are located and his camera position. He wants to resize the plants and not have the scene(trees and camera) change when he repopulates again after the resize. Does that make sense or not. :) It proably can't be done but I do understand what he is wanting. :)

Attached Link: Distribution

I think what he needs is a distribution map, so the items are placed where he wants them to be and do not change randomly. Excellent mini-tute right here! :) Irene

Good link Irish, I was wrong and with your link I see it can be done. Thanks from me as well for the link to how to do it. :)

Thankx Irish, I appreciate it. Iloco, thats exactly what I was asking, seems Irish was able to get a link for me. Again Thankx Irish, I will follow that tut and see what I come up with. Thanks all for your help...