Question on slope grass

Raylectron (https://Raylectron.com) is a 3D rendering engine for Trimble Sketchup (https://sketchup.com)
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Support »

You no longer need to do what the video shows because the update takes care of it.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Hi Michael,
So when are we going to have the easy grass material and the instructions? Or is it out already and I am missing it somehow?
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Re: Question on slope grass

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We are still working on the easy grass so it can follow the slop of the terrain, it's very complex to do! But the current release do contain instancing, so what you can do for now, on a flat terrain, is create a small patch of grass using the Fur plugin, say, 6'x6' and make an instance it it, then duplicate the instance all over the place as if you would do it with the patch itself. You can do the same with trees etc, and it wont use up tons of memory and wont make your Sketchup slow as when you duplicate a component all over!
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Hi Michael,
That is great and this instancing would be quite useful. One question though.Is there a site that one can download free rear 3D tree files that can be opened in Sketchup and rendered nicely in Raylectron? I know there are bunch of trees in 3D warehouse but it doesn't render as nicely as I render some models in Vue 10 for instance. Their trees look relatively real when rendered. It wouldn't matter if they are high polys since for a close up you only need one or two trees in your scene.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Hi Nick,

You can try xFrog but they are OBJ files and you would need to import them in Sketchup the free ObjImporter plugin. Beside that one, I know of no other. But, if you search the 3D warehouse for "3D Tree" you will get a bunch of very nice one like this Willow tree.

The instancing is working now Nick, just update to the latest version.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Thanks Michael, that is a nice tree. I am waiting patiently for the real grass tool. I am about a week before desperately needing it.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Hi Michael,
Any updates on the real grass tool yet? I've been busy doing other things and didn't get a chance to ask you.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Support »

Hello Nick,

Not yet! we're still working on it. It's very complex to make grass without all the triangles!

Have you tried to make grass with the instances? It works very well for flat surfaces.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Hi Michael,
No I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Does it still have the same issue with grass blades going all over the place when we were using the grass components? I'll have to try it in a landscaping context.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Support »

No it does not Nick. You can create just about unlimited grass terrain using Instances. For example, if you create a 6'x'6 patch of grass using Fur, and that patch has 200,000 triangles, each instances of the patch will hold only 12 triangles.

So what you do is create a 6'x6' square and grass it. Then group the whole thing, the grass and the square, then select Create Instance from the tool menu or right click popup menu. You'll now have a box covering your patch. Move that box where you want. That box is now a group. Double click it to open it, then push/pull the sides (not the top and bottom) so that it is 6'x'6. the reason is because the grass blades are overlapping the 6'x'6 square so your instance is larger than 6'x6'. Now duplicate that instance to fill your terrain. It's a good idea to leave like 1/64" space between each sides as explained in the "What not do to in Sketchup". Then render that.

Also, look at the video tutorials on Instancing, you can use it for anything, not just grass. You can also Scale the instance, for example, to have the same tree but in different size.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Michael,
You lost me with your example of "...6'x6' square and grass it..." Then push/pull the sides and not top and bottom!? How can I push/pull the sides of a square shape when the square is only a face? Or am I not understanding this correctly? And then after you mentioned to push/pull the sides, how can it still be 6'x6' after push/pulling the sides?
I watched the video for the tree(s) and it looks logical but doesn't do anything for me with the grass issue. Can you make a video for this grass example that you posted until we get the grass tool once and for all? I would really appreciate that.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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ok Nick, let me make you a video, I'll be right back...
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Here it is Nick...
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Video_2012-12-23_164833.wmv
Raylectron Grass using Instancing
(30.25 MiB) Downloaded 9355 times
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Thanks much Michael. This is all nice and quite useful when you have a flat rectangular/square shape. But when it comes to irregular shapes with curves and so on and also not flat, then there would be a problem. Exactly when do you think this grass tool will be available? I might have to invest in another app since this is taking much longer than I thought :(
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Re: Question on slope grass

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I know Nick, it takes a while. But without the poly, it's very, very complicated to do. We are still at it. No other apps will give you this no-poly grass. In fact, some of them do grass, but it's the same a the Fur plugin, except it's in the app and when you click on Generate Grass, it does the same as the Fur plugin. I've tried them, and crashed my machine, they all used up all my 16GB of RAM because I tried to grass a 100'x100' hill.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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So if that is the case Michael, when do you think your developers will be done resolving this issue? Would it be another months? Six months? One yearr? The reason I am asking is that this issue is quite important for exterior renderings and if what you claim is true, then once your developers come up with a final tool to do a one step grass simulation, then this software would be one of the first ones supposedly to have such a tool. I seriously could use it now and the project i am working on has a large front grass area but not flat and it slopes up an down. I know Vue can do it but I think they use a totally different algorithm for their plants and greenery. I am patiently waiting.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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We have it somewhat working right now. It's not showing exactly the right stuff and crash a few times, but it's doing the slope. I'd say in a week or two I can have the beta ready for you as oppose to wait for the final.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Here is a preview of the grass on a slope...
Easy Grass in Raylectron
Easy Grass in Raylectron
Raylectron Grass.png (840.92 KiB) Viewed 38494 times
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Another one...
Raylectron grass.png
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Re: Question on slope grass

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looking sharp. can't wait!
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Dknight wrote:looking sharp. can't wait!
You've been watching :) I like the warehouse you posted, looks very nice!
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Here's another render of a dog with fur (or grass). No fur inside Sketchup, it's all done in Raylectron.
Dog.png
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Few questions for you:
1- Will you be puting up a video for doing the grass tool?
2- How did you get two different fur colors on the dog? It looks great.
3- Will we have a frosted glass material in the Raylectron material or how would you go about it?
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Nick1 wrote:Few questions for you:
1- Will you be puting up a video for doing the grass tool?
2- How did you get two different fur colors on the dog? It looks great.
3- Will we have a frosted glass material in the Raylectron material or how would you go about it?
1. Yes we will.

2. That's trade secret :) it picks it up from the material assigned to the base.

3. Yes, but you can already do this with the Diffuse setting.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Here is another grass render, but this time, with shades so it's not all uniform everywhere!
Raylectron grass render with shades
Raylectron grass render with shades
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