Foliage Replicator ?

#1 Areal, the problem here is that you need to TRY, like mentioned in your old thread.
I'm not trying to be an asshat, just being very honest with you.

Go into the creator, and create the Foliage Replicator like any other object you create. Then there's a number of fields there, which you need to fill out.

The fields can be a pain to figure out without breaking something, so here's a description from Melv May's (the author) readme file:

Quote:
The fxFoliageReplicator offers many options to allow you to create fairly realistic random placement.

The following options are available:-


This value is the Seed value for the random number generator. Changing this value results in a different distribution of pseudo-random numbers. You can change this value to almost anything if you are not happy with the placement of objects that has been choosen. Also, if you populate with multiple replicators then give each a different number. Note that a small value change here results in a completely different set of placements.


This allows you to select any texture file. Valid paths include the mod directory, so something like "fps/data/mycoolgrass1" would do fine. Sorry, no compound textures at the moment but that is coming. For the moment, simply use multiple replicator objects.


The quantity of replicated Foliage items you require. Make sure your graphics card can handle it or you'll end up with 1fps (or less!)


When the replicator is tasked with finding a home for each Foliage item, it will look at the configuration options described within the replicator and attempt to find a random position to place it. It will choose random locations and then see if they fit the configuration constraints, if not then it will try again. The replicator will attempt this for EACH object. If it does not succeed then it will give up for that object and continue with the next.


The placement area for billboards is centered around the replicator position based upon an elliptical ring-area whose inner bound is defined with . The replicator will choose a random polar angle outside this region.


The placement area for billboards is centered around the replicator position based upon an elliptical ring-area whose outer bound is defined with . The replicator will choose a random polar angle inside this region.


When placing Foliage onto the terrain, the Foliage can be optionally scaled randomly from Min to Max in Width/Height.


When placeing foliage onto the terrain, sometimes they do not quite meet the ground. Also, when they are allowed to be place on steep slopes they can sometimes stick out of the terrain looks damn silly. Use -Z values to lower Foliage and +Z to raise them.


Randomly flips the the billboard horizontally. This can add a little more variety to the billboard images. Obviously this is only effective on non-horizontally-symmetric textures.

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Turns-on the culling facility. If you are using the replicator to create only a few items or only in a very small area them the culling algorithm can actually slow things down slightly. This gives you the ability to turn it off although you should avoid this unless you are sure you know what you're doing!


The culling algorithm is difficult to explain but it is essential to understanding how to efficiently control large quantities of billboards. Without culling *all* billboards are tested to see if they are in view and if so they are rendered. If your billboards are spread out over a large distance then chances are that you won't be able to view many of them but they are still tested to see if they are in view. The culling algorithm avoids this and only tests the ones that are in view. How can it know this without testing them, chicken and the egg I hear you shout! Well, the replicator creates a structured database of billboards and their positions at the level startup phases. Basically the algorithm splits up your total defined area (see 'RadiusOuterX/Y') into quadrants the smallests of which is this field 'CullResolution'. Above these are progressively larger blocks which cover each lower quadrant. Imagine a cube of blocks where each block has four smaller blocks directly below it repreating for many levels until each small block is your resolution. Teh algorithm can check the larger block first and check to see if it's in view. If it's not it can effectively ignore all the smaller sub-areas below it therefore removing the need to check them. I told you this was difficult to explain!

Basically, the rule is that the replicator will split up the replicated area into blocks the size of 'CullResolution'. The larger your area, the more time and memory are needed to create this structure. Try to keep the 'CullResolution' large enough so that good-size blocks of foliage can be checked quickly but not too large that the blocks are as big as your viewing frustum. Also, your viewing frustum is not simply the 'VisibleDistance' as set in the "Sky" object but the smaller of that or the 'ViewDistance'+'FadeInRegion' as set in this object.

As an example:-

The 'VisibleDistance' is 500,
The 'RadiusOuterX/Y' are 512 (an area 1024 squared),
The 'ViewDistance' is 250 and the 'FadeInRegion' is '50'.

A good setting fr this scene would be 64 as the area is quite large (1024 squared) and results in 1024/64 highest resolution blocks.

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Controls the point at which the foliage will be completely faded-in.


Controls the point nearest to the camera at which the foliage will start fading-out. This can be use to stop foliage entering the cabin when a vehicle like the Racing demo.

/
Controls the distances which the fade-in/out will take place. A larger value will result in a slower/longer fade-in/out. The FadeIn/Out extend the ViewDistance/ViewCloset parameters.


Allows you to control the alpha level at which the rendering takes place. This can be very handy in feathering the edges of the foliage.


Allows you to control the alpha level at the base of the billboard. This allows you to reduce the harsh intersection that billboards have with the terrain.


Turns the animated swaying on/off - Duh!


Ensures that all the billboards sway in sync (within each replicator).

/
The distance of the swaying side to side and front to back respectively.

/
The limits of a random period for the swing (in seconds).


Turns the animated luminance on/off - Duh!


Ensures that all the billboards are lit in sync (within each replicator).

/
The limits of the luminance shift (0 - 1).


The time taken to sweep from Min->Max->Min luminance values.


When placing objects onto the terrain (or other objects - see 'AllowStacking') the replicator will ensure that it meets the slope requirements. You can control the maximum slope (from the 'Up' vector 'Z' in degrees). 90degrees gives almost no restriction but something like 15degrees only allows objects to be placed on fairly flat terrain.


This option allows you to temporary hide the replicated objects. This could be handy if the replicated objects are obscuring some detail you are editing. For instance, you may be hiding a secret key in the forest ... :)

#2 Ok, first, Thanks for not being an AssHat Ha, Ha...
Thanks for the info. That was nice of you.

I'm just trying to determine if I'm going to blow $100.00 bucks on the indie lic.
as it seems like I'll need to do that to get to level #2

I've looked at some of the games here on GG. Could I ask what is the best game
as far as cutting edge graphics. Also, I've been trying to find some other advanced
games besides tribes that has been created using the engine, I must be overlooking them because
with a site this big, seems like there would be some Huge titles besides a tank game and
some marbles :)?

Thanks again !

#3 Areal - Download Lore Invasion or checkout the Illumina screenshots.

#4 Wow, that should realy be posted on TDN.

#5 Cool, thanks

Hey, Ok I've loaded up the Foliage Replicator and set the FoliageFile to

"ftp/data/ArealTree.dts" (Thats my Tree)

I've tryed everything and all it does is bomb with a memory error :(

I think malloc is failing or it is trying to move bad data into address 0xFFFF:0000
and core dumping or somthing...

It never puts any trees there ? What do I'm doing wrong ?

It might be my file type, whats a valid file type and bpp depth or whatever ?

#6 You need to use the fxShapeReplicator for trees, or pretty much any DTS model. fxFoliageReplicator uses an image file, i.e. *.jpg, *.png - which is why Torque crashes when you try to use the DTS with the foliage replicator.

-Jase

#7 I've tried both, but all it's doing is putting a large white square there with no image ?

What tha.... is it a special kind of .png or etc. cause its not working, I've been trying for hours :(

No luck.. its 12:00am :O

Any ideas for breakfast !

#8 Sorry for such a late reply.. not sure if you got it working or not... But, typically, when you get a large white square it means its not finding your texture, or your texture does not exist. And as far as I know, you can use jpeg or png. Try loading up starter.fps and create a new fxFoliageReplicator. For the image enter the following exactly as shown: starter.fps/data/shapes/trees/foliage.png

That should work, but if it doesn't, theres something else subtle that is funkering up... but there really is no reason why it shouldn't work. As you can see, though, the foliage is a png and for transparency I think a png is required. So a png is more likely what image format you want to use. I've also heard that Photoshop has a png format that doesn't work well with Torque... and that you need to use SuperPNG.

-Jase

#9 I've not used TGE yet, so this is just an educated comment. Based on my experience, to do a folliage billbaord, you'd need a texture with an alpha channel, wouldn't you? JPG doesn't support an alpha, so I would assume PNG would be the better format? Like I said, I've never used TGE, trying to finalize my decision to buy Indie license. If billboards work differently please comment.

Thanks

#10 That sounds reasonable Grant. Both the foliage files included with starter.fps are .png files.

Although it wouldn't shock me to find that you can specify a color as a mask for JPEG files.

#11 To use a Jpeg.

point the replacator to "Myimage.jpg" In the folder, you have two images, "Myimage.jpg" and "Myimage.alpha.jpg".

Myimage.jpg being the "color" map, and the myimage.alpha.jpg being the "Alpha layer" using black areas as the "no draw" area.

Or, you can just use one .png with an alpha. Depending on image comp0lexity and alpha complexity.. you have options to fight file size.

=)