Is there an easier way to make scattered rocks and pebbles, versus one-by-one? 

For example, in a dungeon, tomb or ruins, where you want some small debris scattered about the floor?

Bump, normal and displacement maps work well enough depending on how well the maps are constructed.

Yea, but not really what I am after.  That gives more of a rough or modified surface than things sitting on a surface, but thanks!  Even a surface under a surface sticking through I thought of, but it would be hard to not get spikes.

Then you need to consider ready made props distributed throughout a scene and save the scene back into your library for future use.  I have seen freebie stones and rocks @ sharecg.com which maybe exactly what you are looking for.  There may also be debris sets available.

If I needed this, I'd write a script. Poser has nothing built-in to make this easier.

I'd get Poser physics. I'd write a script to generate thousands of random pebble props. Then I'd use Poser physics to drop them. (That's assuming the floor is not level.)

That's actually what I was wondering if was available.  I started working on a "random rock" per se...a primitive sphere with a texture, and a displacement map of a large pattern granite plugged into displacement, and displaced pretty significantly.  I hoped I could randomize (via some node) the granite pattern such that every time I clicked the prop to add a new one from the library...it gave me a different shape.  Didn't get that far....yet.

Ockhams Loader script will things multiple times.

Lots of handy scripts on his site.

Quote - Yea, but not really what I am after.  That gives more of a rough or modified surface than things sitting on a surface, but thanks!  Even a surface under a surface sticking through I thought of, but it would be hard to not get spikes.

Not sure if you're a Blender user, but it can drop and scatter debris and other things where you want them with the grease pencil. Pretty cool stuff :).

Laurie

Quote - I hoped I could randomize (via some node) the granite pattern such that every time I clicked the prop to add a new one from the library...it gave me a different shape.  Didn't get that far....yet.

If you use world coordinates to modulate the randomness, you could drop the same identical pebble and no two would be alike.

You can do that with a Clouds node, for example. (Global coordinates)

In case it helps, Poser Physics is on sale at Content Paradise just now, if you don't already have it...

I got it, thanks.  Been looking for a reason to pull it out of the toolbox!

indeed poser physics is the best solution for this.
Also I personally recommend the free "batch import" script and "parent all" script both from Ockham IIRC

Here is my quick test  using the Random Cloner feature in My modeling program I quickly generated over 350 different sized clones of a single rock model*( a little too much perhaps)* and batch exported them to a folder.

Import them into poser using the free batch import python script.

Activate poser physics run a simple 45-90 Frame simulation and you have alot of random rocks strewn about.

Now the beauty of the "parent all' script is that you can choose any one of the rocks and rename it "root"or "parent" etc for easy recognition

Save it to your prop library
and choose "select subset" before saving and the Hierarchy editor will open
Alt+click the Parents check box and all of its "children" will become selected
Save entire rock/pebble set to props and they will all reload together from props for future scenes.   

Cheers

Cheers

Thanks for the how-to, will try later.

Cool, thanks for the how-to Wolf.

I just bit the bullet and bought Poser Physics since it's on sale. So looking forward to having a play with it now

"I just bit the bullet and bought Poser Physics since it's on sale"

Excellent choice sir!! Paul kinnane
(creator of poser physics) has done an amazing job and deserves to be supported IMHO.
also his tech support is top class

This plugin give poser a rare on demand combination of rigid Body&Ragdoll physics that Does NOT exist in $3000+
"pro" apps like Cinema4D or Autodesk Max.

Its funny whenever they start ragging on poser over at CG Society I "innocently" ask for a tutorial on how to do
THIS with C4D or Max??
.....and suddenly the thread falls silent.

Cheers

"...and suddenly the thread falls silent." Thats because us poserites ain't supposed to be creative :) When Kastaway and I faced a similar problem to this, he wrote a PERL script. Which created not just rocks of totally unique and random, sizes, shapes and layout. But also wires, pipes, planks and other rubble. Obviously that kinda coding isn't for everyone. But I found once you had a few sets, they could be used in 100's of ways. Such as.. dropping all the rocks to one cordinate in C5, knock a few rocks out and theres a ring of asteroids. Bomb blasts. Flatten them for blood splats. Even alien vomit, just colour a few rocks green for spaceman carrots :)

Hey BB,

I obviously simplified this too much, by just hoping that checking the box for Global Coordinates on the cloud node going into the displacment would do what you are saying.

The rock on the left, is with that box checked, the one on the right is with it unchecked.  It seemed to have just smoothed the "ball" primitive back to a ball?

I guess I really have no clue what you meant to do there?  Could you give me a little nudge?

Thanks!

Global coordinates changes the coordinates from model coordinates to global. Model coordinates are scaled with the prop, global are not. So if you scaled that prop down from a Poser sphere, switching from model to global not only switched WHICH coordinates but also the size of them. One PNU on a prop scaled at 10% is actually .1 PNU.

OK, in the preview, I do see what you mean...as I move the ball through space the pattern is changing, so unless the ball/rock occupies the same exact space, it will have a different pattern, thus shape.

Makes sense...but it still rounds out the ball.  Wonder if thats a bug.

EDIT: X-posted...reading yours now...

Yep, thanks that worked, changed the Cloud Node scale down to like 0.1 and got small version of same. 

Let me put this another way.

What happens to a clouds texture used as a bumpy surface when you scale down a prop and you don't alter the material?

With model coordinates, the NUMBER of bumps on that sphere stay the same, so they get closer together in order to keep the same number of them. Relatively speaking, they become taller and narrower. (spiky)

With global coordinates, the SIZE of bumps (2D area) on that sphere stay the same, so there are fewer of them. Relatively speaking, they become shorter and wider. (smooth)

Third concept - if you put ink on a bumpy sphere and rolled it around on paper, then did the same after scaling the sphere down, the pattern features would look the same if you used global coordinates, and they would look smaller if you used model coordinates.