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Display rollout

Overview​

This rollout allows the user to define different levels of visualization for viewport and render modes​

Interface​

The Display UI

Display​

Mesh/Adaptative/Proxy​

These options allows Max to display the items using the original geometry or a proxy (Planes, Pyramid, Box, Thin Box, Plant, Arrow).

The Adaptative option automatically switches the display mode when the number of faces exceeds the specified value.

Points Cloud​

This is an ultra-fast view mode which lets you to see a 3D preview of plants in the Viewport. Some of its features are:

  • Adjustable density of points, both to the local object and global for all Forest objects. The number of points by default per ForestPack object is set to a maximum 250,000 points irresepective of the number of items scattered
  • The GPU is only updated when a Forest object is modified. In this way, the point-cloud is cached most of the time in the GPU for speed.
  • Color by ID or color from material. Forest gets the material color from the Diffuse slot.
  • See Random Tint colors in real-time.
  • Fake shading effect, to enhance 3D look. Adjust it using the Shade slider.
  • We included several parameters in the configuration file (forestpack.ini) for fine tuning point clouds, as follows:
    • cloudPointsByObject (default: 250000): number of points of each Forest object. Setting it to 0, reverts to the old Point-cloud mode where the density of points was proportional to the distance of each Forest item to the camera which required a full redraw with each change on the viewport, triggering multiple updates to the GPU.
    • cloudHitTestMaxPoints (default: 1000): maximum number of points used for hit-testing (to select items on viewport). You can reduce it, to improve hit-testing performance.
    • cloudSubSelDensity (default: 300): percent of points for selected items on Custom Edit mode.
    • cloudSubUnselDensity (default: 100): percent of points for unselected items on Custom Edit mode.
  • For maximum performance, we recommend that you don't use points cloud with features that trigger a rebuild when the viewport changes. For example Camera->Enable on Viewport.

Display​

Selects the size of points-cloud dot. Choices are small and large. This is a global setting that affects all Max scenes.

Max Items​

Defines the maximum number of items drawn on screen. This is an approximated value, Forest adjusts the density of the distribution to not exceed this limit. Setting this value to 0 removes the limitation, but users should be careful if they use this option not to create huge amounts of geometry that could slow down or even crash Max.

Manual Update​

Set the update mode of the selected Forest object: automatic or manual (clicking the Update button).

Disable Object​

When enabled the object is disabled in the viewports and the render.

Freeze All​

This option allows you to Freeze ALL Forest objects in the scene, except before rendering. It is useful to reduce the load on 3ds Max when there are a lot of objects.

Render​

Mesh/Adaptive/Proxy​

These options allow Max to render the items using the original geometry or a proxy (Planes, Pyramid, Box, Thin Box, Plant).

Simplification Level​

With "Simplification Level" we can reduce the number of items created by the plugin. With the 0 value, all trees are built, and with 1,2, etc., the number of trees is reduced progressively.

Normally, we leave the simplification level to 0 for normal render. Higher values are used to quickly reduce the final density of trees over the scene without changing the distribution map parameters.

Render Mode​

This parameter defines the behaviour of Forest when it creates the elements for rendering. The possible values are "Automatic" and "Meshes".

In "Automatic" mode, the plugin uses all capabilities of the renderer to get the best results in complex scenes, creating automatically instances, meshes or proxies according to the type of objects defined in the Geometry rollout.

In "Meshes" mode, Forest creates a single mesh containing all trees. This mode may useful, as instance, if you want to create a Forest object that uses another Forest as tree sample.

Max Items / Max Faces​

Limits the maximum number of items or mesh's faces created by the plugin. The default value is 1000,000 objects and 5 million faces. When this limit is reached, the plugin builds an "F" icon instead of trees, and the Forest Stats window shows a warning message. Setting these values to 0 removes the limitation, but users should be careful if they use this option not to create huge amounts of geometry that could slow down or even crash Max.

Note. The "Max Faces" value is ignored in Corona, V-Ray, Arnold and other renderers that support instancing when in "Automatic" mode, since these renderers are not limited by the number of faces when working on this mode.

Hide Custom Objects before rendering​

If this option is on, the plugin hides from the render the objects assigned in the Geometry->Custom Object rollout. Use it to avoid rendering the high-poly meshes, proxies and other objects that are used only as source geometry for Forest.