Chaos Scatter playground

[GeorgeK]

Hi everyone, as you might have noticed, Chaos Scatter Beta Ver. 1 is now released and bundled with Corona DB 8 installer (starting from 06/12/2021).

From the latest Corona Renderer 8 Daily Builds Changelog:

• Corona Scatter has been deprecated in favor of more advanced and standalone Chaos Scatter. Chaos Scatter is automatically installed alongside Corona. You can find it in Chaos -> ChaosScatter after installing.
• If possible, Corona Scatter button has been removed from the toolbar because Chaos Scatter now has its own toolbar.
• Legacy Corona Scatter scenes get automatically converted on scene open, the randomization may change in this case, if you need to maintain the same scattering we advise to open and render the scene in Corona v7.

Download Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UbEYs_wGvGY_nkw4so69oeuam915awBD/view?usp=sharing

For details and feedback, preferably see here: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=35061.0, although we welcome any additional comments/suggestions here as well. Eager to what you will create with it!

Some internal early beta examples:

Dense scatter of plants/trees/general flora - Slope limitation


Modular scattered city blocks along with spline exclusion zones


Carpet fibers scattered - Surface color map


Stones, trees and clutter along with spline exclusion zones


Include/exclude zones


Path - Include/exclude feather

[aaouviz]

I'm sorry to start this thread off on a negative; I'm a bit disappointed that there isn't much more features included in this well-overdue update.

But generally, very exciting and promising steps made, thanks guys :D

I'd *really* love to see clusters functionality. Without this, I don't think it has a chance at competing with Forest.

The angle limitation is great, as well as the 'retain size/rotation' options (much needed!).

Another feature I'd love is the capacity to edit these settings per-object (like in FP - where there is both a global scale and a per-object scale).

Haven't tested out the Surface color map yet, but this seems promising and much needed too.

Anyway, thanks for this upgrade. Great work! Here's hoping it gets more attention

[mike288]

Thanks ... yeah, clusters are still needed, we know :-)

[maru]

I'm sorry to start this thread off on a negative; I'm a bit disappointed that there isn't much more features included in this well-overdue update.
(...)

Let us know if you have some specific tasks that you would like to accomplish with Chaos Scatter. We will do our best to help. :)
Also, if you have some feature requests or bug reports, do let us know too!

[arqrenderz]

A very nice feature is to have the ability to scatter along a spline vertex, We use it all the time to fill balconies with plants and furniture.
Draw a vertical spline, divide it for the number  of floors asign to a forest and you have all your balconies ready.

[Jpjapers]

I dont know how feasible/in-scope this is but some form of heavily regimented 'scatter' would be really useful. The ability to produce real tiles/brick walls/cladding in various standardised patterns purely through a scatter without needing to use railclone would be huge. I went looking for a script to do a basic running bond brick wall on a spline from an array of objects last week and railclone seemed to be the only option.

[GeorgeK]

A very nice feature is to have the ability to scatter along a spline vertex, We use it all the time to fill balconies with plants and furniture.
Draw a vertical spline, divide it for the number  of floors asign to a forest and you have all your balconies ready.

Thank you for this, I am reporting it as a feature request.

I dont know how feasible/in-scope this is but some form of heavily regimented 'scatter' would be really useful. The ability to produce real tiles/brick walls/cladding in various standardised patterns purely through a scatter without needing to use railclone would be huge. I went looking for a script to do a basic running bond brick wall on a spline from an array of objects last week and railclone seemed to be the only option.

I believe we've had an idea like this logged already, let me please check and get back with you.

(Internal ID=809281139)

[Jpjapers]

Thanks George, If thats the case im really looking forward to not having to buy railclone just for doing tiles!

[Bjoershol]

+1

I can get by using the free version of Railclone for basic stuff like tiles and cladding, but having to manually draw splines for each wall is a huge time sink. Most of the time geometry from CAD programs is a complete mess, so being able to scatter on unclean / broken geometry would be extremely nice.

[Basshunter]

Hi guys!

Any plan to add an Edge Mode for creating clean edges like in Forest Pack pro?
This is super necessary when scattering grass.

https://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/edge-mode

[mike288]

Hi guys!

Any plan to add an Edge Mode for creating clean edges like in Forest Pack pro?
This is super necessary when scattering grass.

https://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/edge-mode

Hi, it is on our list.

[josefane]

I can't use chaos scatter. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything several times and nothing solves it, whenever I click a message appears as if Chaos Scatter was not installed. How do I solve? I use 3ds max 2021

[maru]

I can't use chaos scatter. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything several times and nothing solves it, whenever I click a message appears as if Chaos Scatter was not installed. How do I solve? I use 3ds max 2021

Please try this:

- Install Corona 8 using the standard installation method (or just do not uninstall it - the point is to have Corona installed)
- Run the installer again and pick the "unpack files" option - see this guide for more information: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4526313794065

- Go to the folder where your files were unpacked and then navigate to Chaos Corona\Chaos Group\
- Copy the whole "Scatter" folder into C:\Program Files\Chaos Group (so the resulting path will be C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\Scatter)

- Go to the folder where your files were unpacked and then navigate to \Chaos Corona\Autodesk
- Go into the folder with the name of your 3ds Max version (e.g. if you are using 3ds Max 2022 go to the folder \Chaos Corona\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022)
- Copy the content of this folder ("plugins" and "UI_ln" folders)
- Go to your 3ds Max installation folder (e.g. in case of 3ds Max 2022 the default folder is C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022)
- Paste the folders "plugins" and "UI_ln" into your 3ds Max folder (so the "plugins" and "UI_ln" have to be pasted into C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022)

This is basically manual installation of the Scatter plugin.
Please let me know if it worked.

This is actually a workaround, and we should find out why it didn't work automatically in the first place.

[josefane]

Hey! Maru. I downloaded the unpack files and instructions below, but the following instruction was not possible because I did not find such folders or files:

- Go to the folder where your files were unzipped and navigate to Chaos Corona\Chaos Group\

- Copy the entire file to the "Scatter" folder in C:\Program Files\Chaos Group (so the resulting path will be C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\Scatter)

The other instructions I found and did everything right, but it's still not working. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything several times and Chaos Scatter is not coming with it, I've even downloaded the installer again from the website and nothing from Chaos Scatter came with it, not even in the "unpack files".

Wouldn't it be possible to install a separate Chaos Scatter plugin? I know this problem is not common, it must be some unique problem on my computer that Chaos Scatter is not coming installed with corona8, but is there a separate chaos scatter plugin that I can download and install separately?

I looked in some youtube videos that a plugin comes with each version of 3ds max to install chaos scatter separately in the chaos corona folder. But I didn't find any there.

[Basshunter]

Hey guys. I've been playing with the new scattering tool and I must say it feels significantly slower than the preview version.
I'm talking about some simple operations like scattering some grass on a plane. Max freezes after every small change on the parameters and the image takes way longer to update on the VFB than before.
Is anyone else experiencing similar issues?