gendragon opened this issue on Jan 26, 2010 · 18 posts
FranOnTheEdge posted Sun, 14 February 2010 at 12:46 PM
Quote - Instancing has been around for quite some time especially with the more expensive 3D packages. It is meant to save on memory since an instance is a place holder for the object being instanced. It has been used to instance most anything in a scene. Vue uses it primarily for rocks and foliage but can be used with other things.
Yes and this worries me a lot as although I have heard Daz staff say full vegetation instancing will come with the full release, nothing has been said about meshes made in Bryce or primatives or meshes made outside of Bryce and imported in... and without these it would be a terrible limitation.
Fine for those who just want a landscaper, but millions of trees just don't have as much interest for me as a swarm of bees, or spaceships, or metaballs.... or anything else would.
As you say "It is meant to save on memory since an instance is a place holder for the object being instanced." and in Maya and C4D this applies to any object, not just a tree, bush or clump of grass. sigh...
So, I've posted a feature request to that end in the bug report.
(This isn't to say that I would never use instancing on a lot of trees and grass etc etc, but I for one would want to use it on a lot of other stuff as well.)
Foop-de-do, I'm repeating myself I fear. And I do agree that the image GenDragon posted at the beginning of this thread is an excellent use of instancing in a practiced hand - and I recommend posting it in the Beta7 Feedback thread.
Measure
your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)