Itoo Forest Pack - Created Meshes

[Sourpickles]

Hey I'm having some issues here that I have not run into before... seems strange. I was asked to model some grass types and I have so far 2 styles.

 

The way I use this with Forest Pack is I create a circled spline. Link it to the Forest Pack modifier. Open the Modifier panel the select my own mesh....click on my grass and BOOM, there it is in the circle and I can render it off just fine.

 

Here's where it stops working though! When I select a plan and follow the same steps (but selecting my new created Forest crass), there is no mesh. I can see it as a proxy object and as a point cloud but it's like it is not there when I view as mesh or render. Am I missing some thing? Why am I able to see it in the smaller section I first created but it wont show where I really need it?

 

I know it is there also. If I edit those that I created first the point clouds move along with it, so it's there....but it's not....? hmm... any ideas ye smart ones?

[AubreyM]

If the plane is a large one you could be running into a density problem. If your settings for max density are too low it will not render, usually it will give you an error message when this happens. Also, if you are using lite it is limited to flat surfaces only and will not render if it is not perfectly flat.

If you are using forest pack to create your grass mesh then that is the problem. Take your grass blades and clone enough so that you get a patch of grass. Attach all the individual blades together so they are one object and adjust the pivot. Select your plane and add the forest object, and use your newly created grass in the custom object slot. Should work then.

[Sourpickles]

aaah..... I didnt think about that. Yes the plan is large and not flat at all....gonna give it a try. Let ya know!

[Sourpickles]

nice that was the problem....guess things have changed with this program. I was able to do that about 2 yrs ago. I do have one other question if you will. I'm noticing that my grasses are elongated. I've looked over all my settings and it seems like that should be circular still. I dont have one setting set up that'd make it do this. So I'm wondering if it has some thing to do wit the camera? Maybe it's a type of effect? I dont think so but nothing else seems to be effecting it. Also I turned on um....crap sorry I closed Max, it's the setting that allows it to sale as it flows down a angled hill..... dont know the setting name. Does that maybe have this effect?

[AubreyM]

If you enabled transforms make sure that Lock aspect ratio is set to xyz. Also under the surface rollout have scale to fit sloped area checked under Direction. If your patch of grass is too large that could also be a problem. I tend to keep mine small for that reason and others.

[Sourpickles]

yup I got that all set correctly I bet I just made it too big. I made it a 1' diameter. Ill try and delete a bit and get it to 7 or under and give it another shot

 

And that was what I was forgetting. Scale to fit slope.....sounds better then what I said lol

[Sourpickles]

hmmm.... OK so this morning I took a look and I remember enough of this program that I did have that stuff set correctly but my grass patches are still being stretched out in the Y. I made the patches smaller but that didnt change any thing. Need to mess with this more because if I just had standard long grass blades it wouldnt be noticeable....but I made different types that are circular so you can rrrreeeeally see them being stretched