Hi, I'm using vue 6 infinite and I would like to know if its possible to make an ecosystem using a skull obj as the material? And if so, how do I go about it. The effect I want to make is a terrain or hill covered in skulls and bones (much like a scene in the Terminator movies). I know there is a skullpile ecosystem that is available for sale but I want to make my own if possible and not shell out $13 for it. Thanks.

Save the imported OBJ skull model as a VOB Vue object.  Then when you need to eco a terrain of yours with lots of skulls, add the Skull VOB object as an item in your ecosystem.  You may need to set the scale of the object after adding it to the eco list so they are human size.

Play with the axis rotations for best effect.

Wow, thanks. Do I need the skull obj to be as low resolution as possible before saving it as a vob for an ecosystem? I ask because i'm thinking that if the obj model is fairly hi poly that it might bog down Vue when used as an ecosystem.

Quote: "Do I need the skull obj to be as low resolution as possible before saving it as a vob for an ecosystem? I ask because i'm thinking that if the obj model is fairly hi poly that it might bog down Vue when used as an ecosystem."
No, unless it's very high poly and I can't see a skull being that (but could be wrong of course). Trial-and-error is the way to go - as always IMHO.
Also, when trying something new, don't do it in a scene where crashing would disastrous. Do your experiments in an simple "empty" scene.

• Lars "bigbrader"

Quote - Do I need the skull obj to be as low resolution as possible before saving it as a vob for an ecosystem? I ask because i'm thinking that if the obj model is fairly hi poly that it might bog down Vue when used as an ecosystem.

I don't know about your version of Vue, but ecosysteming nowdays will make instances (or replicas) of your VOB item at render time.  Takes almost no resources to do this.  You might be able to select Dynamic Population (above your eco list you're populating with) so that the skulls are generated only in line-of-sight with the rendering camera.  Whenever you move your camera, Vue will re-populated the skulls in the scene as it sees fit at render time.

I have an object that is about 50,000 polygons and have populated a scene of mine with about 75,000 of them.  Vue didn't care.

Vue's instancing system is very sophisticated. I believe that it isn't actually duplicating the object but rather a reference to the object. That's why it only starts to complain if you get many hundreds of thousands of objects.

Making your own is always the best way to go, but if you do struggle there's always this that you can purchase at C3D..

http://www.cornucopia3d.com/.php?item_id=5520

Yeah, I know about that product. Its also available here at Rendo but again if I can do it without paying $13 and learn a lot at the same time... The skull obj I can get for free. There are lots out there. Thanks to all who helped. I really appreciate it.

Here's what I got so far. A skull ecosystem applied to a standard terrain. The skulls look too clean for my taste but I think its just a matter of applying the right material to it. And some skulls look they fused together. Might still need a bit of tweaking. Does anybody know of a "dirty" bone material that might be appropriate for the skulls?