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Zone Generator

The Zone generator is responsible for generating either disks or meshes that can grow new geometry off of them. Disk zones do not contribute any geometry to the model directly but provide an area for new generators to create nodes. Mesh zones provide a surface to grow child nodes from and can contribute their geometry to the model if desired.

Generation

The Generation properties are described in detail under Generation Properties.

Forces

The properties in this group control the behavior of forces on this generator.

Allow Forces

When enabled, all forces that are checked will act on the generator

Random Seeds

Properties that have variance are given random values based on a seed value in this group. Vary the seeds in this group to randomize only the properties associated with the seed type.

Randomize All

Randomizes the value for all seeds used to compute this generator.

Placement

The properties in this group affect the position and shape of the zones.

Radius

This property sets the radius of disk zones.

Note: This property is ignored for zones that use meshes.
Max Distance

Each zone can be moved away from its parent node. This property represents the maximum distance a zone may move.

Min Distance

Each zone can be moved away from its parent node. This property represents the minimum distance a zone may move.

Angle

This property rotates the zone around its anchor point before the “Min” and “Max” distance offset is applied.

Exponent

This value is applied to the computed placement distance. Greater values will pack zones near the parent and vice versa.

Orientation

Alignment

Rotates all of the zones in this generator around their “up” vector so that they are oriented consistently.

Hang

This property rotates the zone so that its “up” vector matches the world's “up” vector.

Up rotation

Rotates each zone around the local X-axis.

Out rotation

Rotates each zone around the local Z-axis.

Right rotation

Rotates each zone around the local Y-axis.

Meshes

The properties in this group control the behavior of zones that use mesh assets to grow new geometry.

Enable

Toggles the zone generator from disk mode to mesh mode.

Include in model

When enabled, zone meshes will be included as part of the model.

Place at origin

When enabled, these zones will be positioned at (0, 0, 0) rather than using the placement properties of the zone itself.

Use actual size

When enabled, the “Size” property is ignored and meshes are sized according to the original dimensions of the mesh asset.

Size

This property sets the size of the mesh.

Level of detail

This LOD curve controls which LOD state to use for the assigned mesh. The left end of the curve corresponds to the highest LOD, and the right end of the curve corresponds to the lowest LOD. The LOD states are assigned on the Mesh Assets Bar.

Apply Wind

When enabled and applicable, global wind motion will be applied to this mesh. This is useful for zones that are part of a tree model, such as an imported trunk model.

Meshes

Multiple meshes can be defined and applied to generated zones at random. Use the button controls to add [+] or remove [-] meshes.

Geometry

Specifies a named mesh from the Mesh Asset Bar.

Material

Specifies a named material from the Material Asset Bar.

Weight

Sets the probability that any node will receive this material/mesh combination (this weight ÷ sum of all weights).

Growth

The properties in this group control how nodes generated as children of this zone will be computed.

Area Influence

When enabled, nodes growing off this generator will be placed using an even distribution over all of the triangles in the mesh. When disabled, smaller triangles may be more densely populated than larger triangles.

Adapt to Masks

When enabled, nodes growing off this generator will reposition themselves to best fill in the masked area. When disabled, offending nodes are simply culled and no other nodes will move. Enable this property to make your frequency settings more exact (at the expense of slower computation times).

Iteration Scale

When “adapt to masks” is enabled, this value sets the number of placement attempts per child. Higher values are more accurate while lower values compute faster.

Surface adhesion

Use this property to make children of the zone align with the surface of the mesh.

Influence of forces

This property controls how much forces are used to determine placement on the zone mesh. Forces work on zone meshes by giving mesh surfaces that would be “struck” by the force priority over those that won't.

Constant Sink

This property sets the amount to “sink” each child under the surface of the zone mesh. This feature is useful if the roots of your trees are showing on top of a terrain mesh.

Slope-Based Sink

This property sets the amount to further sink children (added to the “Constant sink” value) as the slope of the zone mesh surface increases.

Lightmap

Lightmap UVs are computed for several versions of the Modeler designed for use with game engines. Lightmap UVs are a UV set where no objects overlap and all of them fit in a single space where U and V fit in the range [0.0, 1.0].

Weight

This value influences how much space in the lightmap zones made by this generator can have. Every object's lightmap weight is compared to every other object and then the lightmap packing is determined. This means that your weight value may not be honored exactly or may get so large as to exhibit unexpected results. Use “Tools→Reset lightmap scalars” to go back to default values for the whole model.