Neat idea!

Thanks. This idea comes from an idea Wabe was working on some weeks ago.

I can’t seem to cover the majority of the object and although I have tried many settings and different anglar positions for the object, haven’t found a way to get more coverage.  So, I was wondering if anyone else has an idea of which settings might do the trick.  Other than using transparent duplicates and overlaying multiple objects.

I have Esprit so do not have all of the nice stuff that Inf does.

Making the root mass an eco system works well for what I want even though I cannot find a way to populate all of only one object. However, I did find that by checking the Density Attribute Placement to Force regular alignment of instances I was able to increase the population density by an additional 40% of instances.  

Can Vue Inf. paint an object all of the way around?

you can paint an eco all the way round - could be tricky to do the rotations though but normally they only appear on the top hemisphere of whatever it is you are populating (I'm pretty sure that's the way it happens - I'm at work so I can't actually check)

Pretty neat idea. The mind whirls with how this could be done with other things as well. If you could get this to work on a sphere, then your barren tree should be a snap. Can't wait to mess around with this idea when I get home.

Darn, it figures, and I gotta wait until 7.

It has been done on a sphere. I can't remember who did it, but they described how they did it.

Ecosystems populate vertically "from above", from positive z,
like falling rain.

If one does not want to (or can not) "eco-paint" the thing, turning it around,
I think that one has to work with duplicate objects,
turn them, populate, turn them back,
and make transparent their underlying texture.

I tried with mixed materials (several ecosystems in one texture) to avoid duplicate, triplicate objects, 
it works, somewhat - rotate the object, swap materials, and populate the next sub-material -
but I got difficulties to control that the way I wanted to...:-(
So I went back to duplicate objects.

FYI...Sacada did a tutorial on this.

http://art.sacada.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34

Cheers...

mni tx , sacada and surveyman -  

that tutorial explains the "traditional" duplication method, step by step, that's all right.
But that gives us overlapping instances, from one object's ecosystem to the next,
and obliges to duplicate the base object.

As long as it were a simple sphere, that would be ok,
but when we use real heavy meshes, such duplication can be "costly". :blushing:

Has anybody got ideas how to do that, without duplicating the original object ?   

Has someone got experiences with mixed materials, consisting of more than two eco-systems,
turning the base object,
turning the material's co-ordinates, and the object
    (coordinate systems of objects and textures allas are Not identic, not even similar !)
swapping those sub-texture ecosystems,
and re-populate those, one after another ?
:unsure:
I arrived to populate upside and downside differently, that way,
using one sole object,
using a material consisting of two ecosystems only -   :biggrin:

but I got lost with the textures' coordinate system : 
It "sticks" to the object's original orientation, when that object was created or imported,
and Y-X-Z turning angles of the materials got "right-hand turned Z->Y" cartesian orientation, whereas the object itself got "left-hand straight" orientation
(Last time I drowned into that, I used Vue5Inf. I didn't yet check down that in Vue6Inf,
but on first glance, that inside inconsistency of logic still is there) .   :ohmy:

For to avoid that Vue problem,
in my modelers, I note down the orientation of each "biased" part,
turn them parallel to a main axis,
import that into Vue,
give them an object-oriented texture,
then rotate them back to their original position.
Otherwise I need family packs of aspirine, gallons of coffee, 
and barrels of good old french wine...
oups...

The face we view in material preview, in most cases ain't the "good" one -
ours, when using coordinate functions, most often is on the right side of the cube, which is in the shadow :-(
So I got to make a cube or cylindre on my scene, to test and view the textures, using partial render,
or make a special scene with parts of my scene, just to tweak materials. That takes muuuch time... :-(

I told e-on about that coordinates inconsistency, two years ago already.
They answered, that their appoved mathematicians had made that thing,
so definitely, it were ok    :huh:

Well, long ago, I did some mathematics (spe3, stats3) at university, 
and told some descriptive and analytical geometrics, and basic dynamics, too,,
hereover, to masters students,   :closedeyes:

so please permit me to state, that Vue's co-ordinate systems ain't co-herent,  
:b_sad:
especially the textures' system and it's sense of rotation,
they do not conform to good ol' Descartes principles, who defined "cartesian" system.
(may he rest in peace),  s'cuse me. 

So, if a person here got experience with such mixed ecosystems,
and how to rotate those sub-textures with ecosystems, inside,
to hav'em re-populate about correctly,
(+/- 30°, 330°, 60°, 300°, 90°, 270°, 240°, 210°, 180° 150°, 120°, +/- or so (???),
and in which order x-y-z, pitch-yaw-roll)
I'd be happy if he/she would tell us, here,
or give us hints.    
:b_smile:

That would certainly help many people, here.

Thanks all,
Your's sincerely
Gerhard

I also find that working with a sphere is much more difficult than working with a multi-branched object. 

My original idea was to add parasitic plants to other plants, just as orchids attach themselves to trees. The other idea I wanted to explore was one where moss and other materials populate dead trees or trunks that were still standing rather than using displacement materials. 

Using multiple transparent objects and creating a difference ecosystem for each is not a problem, but as mentioned before it is very time consuming and once your objects are aligned it is difficult to make changes without knocking something askew. 

The image I have included is one example, a little over stated, but you get the idea. This idea is from a swamp environment or a rain forest where parasitic plants take root on trees. If you look close you can see many of the mushrooms are hanging out in the air, one of the problems you encounter with this technique.  

Careful GP you can driver yourself crazy with all of this math stuff!!! I know I have, especially hard on me since I flunked Algebra and Geometry.