I'm mainly directing this to Peggy M. but anyone - please feel free to chime in.

In our most recent Intro Vue class at LVS, we hit upon the problem of trying to populate areas based on individual material zones and found this did not work properly in Vue 7 Infinite.  Instead, plants would appear in additional areas as well.  Peggy, you indicated you'd report this as a bug but as I read the description of the fixes for Build 38524, this issue has not been addressed.  Am I maybe not understanding the description correctly or is this still a problem in the new Build?

I was so hoping this would be fixed quickly because I think it's such a neat feature to be able to limit EcoSystems to specific material zones.

Could you explain that in more detail? What kind of material zones? Zones as those defined by different mixed materials? Zones as in dependent on slope or altitude? What exactly?

The bug is still not resolved.  Will probably be fixed after the holidays. 

The problem is with ecosystems and layered materials.  If I make a three layer material and in the middle material, I added an ecosystem, the ecosystem goes all over, not just sticking to the middle material. 

Quote - Could you explain that in more detail? What kind of material zones? Zones as those defined by different mixed materials? Zones as in dependent on slope or altitude? What exactly?

Your understanding is correct.  We were using Chipp Walter's (and others') method of coloring one of two Mixed Materials zones on a mountainous terrain red and the other green with an obvious sharp seam between the two.  Then when we converted the red & green materials to "real" materials, we wanted an EcoSystem with trees to only appear on the green (lower) zone.  However, even though we applied the trees to only the green material, they appeared higher up (in the red zone).  At first, we thought it was a bug for just me, but then Peggy tried it and she came up with the same result.

Come to think of it, I made an example for Peggy during the class:

Quote - The bug is still not resolved.  Will probably be fixed after the holidays. 

The problem is with ecosystems and layered materials.  If I make a three layer material and in the middle material, I added an ecosystem, the ecosystem goes all over, not just sticking to the middle material. 

Thank you, Peggy.  Your explanation is much more to the point and well said in fewer words.

So - OK on the bug still being there.  But at least they are aware of it and apparently still working on it.

Well, looking at your example, Mari-Anne, I found that I did the layer distribution in a different way. I used pure layers but you used a mix between layers and mixed materials. Right?

Hmmm, didn't work the last time I tried it.  Will try again tonight. 

I also used world standard (normally better for terrains, IMO) and you used object parametric. So, one of these two differences is probably the culprit.

Quote - Well, looking at your example, Mari-Anne, I found that I did the layer distribution in a different way. I used pure layers but you used a mix between layers and mixed materials. Right?

Wow, you got me there as I (at this humble point in my Vue career) don't know the difference between "pure layers" and "layers and mixed materials." I'll try to study your image and see if I can figure it out. 

Also your tip on orientation is a great one - I do understand that one and will try it. 

Finally, I'll await the result of Peggy's attempt tonight and see what she comes up with.

Immense thanks to both of you!

PS - Thank goodness you had a larger image attached - I see what you mean now about pure layer.  Just a simple material (instead of my Mixed material) with several layers.  What a clever program!!

Quote - Hmmm, didn't work the last time I tried it.  Will try again tonight. 

Sounds good - I'll be watching for the result.  Thanks, Peggy!

Quote - "... the difference between "pure layers" and "layers and mixed materials ..."

If you notice in my material, I have all 4 materials in a "pile". One of the materials is the eco, of course, and it's sitting on top of the 2nd material, so its distribution is restricted to that material. The materials in this "pile" are distributed on the terrain based on altitude (see the slider "altitude range"). To create materials like this, you just click on "add layer", one after the other.

In your case, you have a hierarchy, you have a "tree" of materials. This indicates mix materials. The two in the bottom are being mixed. The one on the top could have been added as a layer (before you mix the two bottom ones, otherwise Vue wouldn't let you) or it could also be mixed with the result of the bottom mix (I can't tell from the image). In any case, it's substantially different from what Peggy explained she was doing and very different from what I did (which was based on Peggy's description).

Quote - ......
If you notice in my material, I have all 4 materials in a "pile". .......

OK - I've reconstructed my scene but I am not sure I did it correctly because I had a heck of a time adding "pure layers."  Each time I clicked the Add Layer button, a tree with two layers was added.  I am not sure exactly how I finally ended up with something resembling your structure.

Anyhu, a few straggler trees are still appearing on the higher (in your case) green elevation:

Attached Link: http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZrNHB4bEFoeWFGa1E9PQ

Quote - Here's the mat I made for this test. Just replace the rocks with trees and see if it works. If it does, you can study it to see what's the difference. If it doesn't... well, I don't know...

As you can see, your material works perfectly on my terrain - not a straggler in sight:

And you are right - I will study your material settings.  Thank you very much!  This is very kind of you.

You're welcome! :-)

OK, Artur - in checking your neat material, it didn't take any time at all to figure out what my problem was (and, of course, a typical newbie problem) - I had the Altitude range set incorrectly on the EcoSystem layer.

Again, another wonderful lesson well learned thanks to a kind (and patient) soul!

 Yes, I have to say, Artur is quite handy here in these forums! Great job you two :-)

Here is a picture of Vue 6.

Quote - Here is Vue 7.  Notice how the blue area has lots of rocks, but rocks are all over the terrain.  Same settings as Vue 6 used.

Thanks for sharing, Peggy.  In the words of Arte Johnson, "very interesting....."

I'll add these pics to my bug report.  Chipp, is it OK with you to send the material to e-on? 

 Sure Peggy, no problem.

I already have a bug report in at Vue regarding layers and mapping as well, but it's not with ecoSystems, but rather the failure of a layer to map correctly when using bitmaps.

-C

Thanks Chipp!  I updated the bug report.  Hopefully now they will be able to re-create it and then fix it. 

Yes Peggy, you are right! I reproduced this in my system. But this situation is not what you described in your first post here. You wrote that this bug happened with layered materials but TerraPak's materials are not made with layers but rather with mixed materials.

Sorry!  Too many things going through my brain - or maybe too many holiday cookies...