Forest Pack 8.0.4

We're pleased to announce that Forest Pack 8 is out now!

There's plenty to try out, including a brand new helper plugin called Forest Sets that has the potential to revolutionise how you share assets between multiple Forest objects. There's also the ability to link to areas and surfaces used in another Forest Pack object, support for areas when using surfaces in UV mode, a new collection of autumn leaf presets, big improvements to Forest Effects, the ability to scatter hierarchies, and much more!

New Features​

• New helper plugin: ForestSet.
  • It works as a container for a set of objects, which can be assigned in Forest as Geometry, Surface or Spline.
  • For Geometry, a random item of the set is assigned as source geometry. For Surfaces and Splines, all items of the set are used as input.
  • It can also be used as input for Distribute by Reference/Path/Particle Flow.
  • Can get items from the list, or directly from layers. To add multiple layers, separate names by commas.
  • ForestSet accepts any scene object as input, but only compatible types are used in each case. For example, a Spline cannot be used as a surface.
  • Groups, ForestLOD and Forest objects are not supported as items.
  • It supports nesting (ForestSet within other ForestSet).
  • ForestSet can set Wireframe Colour to Icon, to distinguish it for different uses.
• Added Geometry->"Include Children" option.
  • When enabled, includes children objects of the source geometry, keeping their hierarchy.
  • Children hierarchy is handled internally as a group, but without a group object.
  • Because of technical limitations, child items cannot be imported from the Library.
  • Geometry->"Keep Group" can be used with hierarchies ("Include Children" option)."Keep Group" is set to enabled by default.
  • Animation of the children is supported when using Forest Packs animation features
• Linked Areas.
  • It lets you pick an area of another Forest object, inheriting their parameters.
  • For example, you could assign a Spline in a "master" Forest object, and use it as an area in other Forest objects, without reassigning the spline multiple times.
  • Parameters specific to each type of Area are inherited (as Spline/Object, Thickness, etc.), while common parameters (as Falloff) are local and can be modified.
  • Not all combinations may work. I.e. a linked "Object Area" can be used only as Exclude, not as an Include area.
  • To preserve UI space, the 'Add Multiple' button was removed, and replaced with the 'Add Linked Area' button. Now to add multiple areas, just click SHIFT + Add Area button.
• Linked Surfaces.
  • Added a "Get from Forest" option. It lets you use all the Surfaces from another Forest object.
• Added support of Areas for UV Surface mode. Some limitations apply:
  • All areas are projected in a direction (X/Y/Z), according to the Area->Projection Axis parameter.
  • Area->"Distribution Map" parameters are not supported in UV mode.
  • Edge Mode requires a Spline or Paint area. It cannot be used directly over the surface.
  • Changing the Projection Axis in a non-empty Paint area may generate unexpected results. Always select Projection Axis before starting to paint.

Improvements​

• Added Distribution by Path->Rand.Pos to randomize position along the path.
• To make it easier to identify the status of a Forest object, the 'F' icon is drawn in different colours depending on the error condition:
  • Error (no area, max.density, etc): Red.
  • No items, or hidden by Camera clipping: Yellow.
  • Other (new FP object, disabled): Orange.
  • This feature can be disabled setting useColoredIcon=0 in forestPack.ini (at C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\[max version]\ENU\en-US\plugcfg)
• Added warning when loading a scene created with a later Forest version.
• Added a new button to rebuild selected objects to Forest Lister.
• Added 'Brush Size' to Areas->Paint.
  • It's same value of 'Max Size' in Painter settings dialog.
• Improvements to Forest Effects.
  • Added a selector to filter effects by geometry model, similar to Areas.
  • Added a new type of parameter: Spline.
  • Added new functions for spline checking. All of them work in 2D, using XY local plane (Z projection):
    • insideSpline(spline, pos): returns 1 if the specified position is inside the Spline, 0 if not.
    • distanceSpline(spline, pos): returns nearest distance in 2D from position to the spline.
    • nearestPosSpline(spline, pos): returns nearest point from position to the spline.
    • nearestTangSpline(spline, pos): returns the tangent of a nearest point from position to the spline.
  • Added new fpItem attributes:
    • surfMatID: material ID on Surface.
    • splineMatID: material ID on Spline. Distribution by Path only.
• When rendering with V-Ray CPU User Properties of source nodes are inherited in instanced items.
• Added support for Vertex Color when rendering with Arnold.

Fixes​

• Fixed crash in ForestLod when Forest is not initialized yet (without any Forest object in the scene).
• Fixed rare crash in V-Ray with VRayMultiTexmap.
• Fixed issues in Library Browser with HiDPI screens.
• Fixed texture errors rendering V-Ray Alembic proxies.
• Fixed: Forest Effects Parameter Attributes are duplicated when the editor is opened multiple times.
• Fixed: Forest Effects name is overwritten when edited.
• Fixed: Forest Effects Texmap->Clear button doesn't work.
• Fixed: Forest Effects Environment variables cannot be used to define the Effects path.
• Fixed issues in Effects browser for paths with non-ascii characters.
• Fixed alignment of a single item when is part of a group.
• Fixed: Custom Edit with "Link to Surface" off, applies Random Z translation twice.
• Display->"Use Direct X" is removed and enabled by default.
• Fixed: Distribution->Reference mode doesn't work well with mirrored references.