UltraScenery [Commercial]

Daventaki

barbult said:

You could offer free/low cost add on ecologies requiring the props in your other sets, to stimulate sales of those required sets.

Oooo I would definately buy!

Daventaki

barbult said:

Here is my first attempt at using Mossy Hollow props with UltraScenery. It needs some refining. I think I have too may bromeliads for one thing. I just regenerated an existing scene with the hacked ecology.

You make me what to try to do this... Might have to peak at the JSon then probably run screaming LOL.  Its gorgeous by the way!
 

 

HowieFarkes said:

Taking inspiration from Barbult I cobbled an ecology together with some Harpwood Trail plants for a render.

Gorgeous!!

HowieFarkes

RexRed said:

Well, I have figured out my problem... It was Octane Render, I have been meaning to find a way to shut it off but that is easier thought about than done.

Octane was sitting in the background interrupting the background process and trying to catalogue every texture and instance of geometry.

Sorry for not figuring this out on my own. 

So, then I tried to uninstall Octane Render and the uninstall program decided it would not give up so easily...

It left a .dll in the Daz Studio folder and every time I would try and open DAZ it would get almost to the interface and shut down. Took me a while to find the .dll 

Had to search Program Files for "Octane"

Then I uninstalled it from Blender also and the uninstall said it was done but there is still an orphan of the program listed forever in my add remove programs "Octane for Blender". Lucky me.

I have a question.

I figured out that if I add a camera into the scene and select the camera in the final dialogue box that the UltraScenery scripts will only populate the viewport of the camera.

What is the purpose of the camera option in the UltraScenery props list? Is that used by the script and not necessary or useable? When I put it in the scene it is not selectable as a camera in the viewport drop down menu... Do I need that in my scene?

And as for the trees that are planted out of the viewport

I really wish I could delete the trees individually that are not in the viewport and put some kind of random object there like a simple plane to block the light or other object.

Or if there was written into the script an option to put very low-resolution trees there instead if desired.

Otherwise the problem I was experiencing is no longer and issue.

I will go back to my other post and explain why the program was not working and list my problem as (solved).

I like Ultra Scenery a lot and intend to use it a for many scenes. The possibilities are endless... Especially with the Bryce landscape generator. The presence of high-resolution trees that are not in my scene have me a bit vexed.

There must be a way to delete them, I will figure it out or, maybe someone can give me a suggestion in that respect... :)

Thanks for the help on this!

And thanks Barbult for the tip on the memory for instancing option. :)

I suppose I can just uncheck and omit the large trees from the script and place them in by hand, that is not too big of a task considering the hardest work is already done.

I have the Ultra Tree Creator and the addon and they would work nice with this!  (Much joy!)

Best!

 

Oh wow, good effort! I vaguely remember now people having Octane give them issues when UltraScatter was first released too. Another warning I'll pop into the manual for the next update. Thank you.

gitika1

barbult said:

You could offer free/low cost add on ecologies requiring the props in your other sets, to stimulate sales of those required sets.

This.  An option to look for and select plants from other owned HowieFarkes products!

L'Adair

Daventaki said:

barbult said:

You could offer free/low cost add on ecologies requiring the props in your other sets, to stimulate sales of those required sets.

Oooo I would definately buy!

+1.

(Of course, I'm a big fan of those sets, so I already have most of them…)

dawnblade

Inspired by barbult: I used the same daisies but wanted some blue and red, so I changed the json file. 

Edited to add a closer view of the flowers.

WendyLuvsCatz

RexRed said:

Well, I have figured out my problem... It was Octane Render, I have been meaning to find a way to shut it off but that is easier thought about than done.

Octane was sitting in the background interrupting the background process and trying to catalogue every texture and instance of geometry.

Sorry for not figuring this out on my own. 

So, then I tried to uninstall Octane Render and the uninstall program decided it would not give up so easily...

It left a .dll in the Daz Studio folder and every time I would try and open DAZ it would get almost to the interface and shut down. Took me a while to find the .dll 

it is much easier to just create a desktop shortcut to the Octane dll in the plugins folder and temporarily  rename the extension to .dll.bak

but now you probably wrecked it for reinstall 

dawnblade

Since setting "Instancing Optimization" to Memory is really important, would you consider just changing it to Memory when the Build button is clicked? That way we don't have to remember to do it. I know I've hit render way too quickly and regretted it.

barbult

dawnblade said:

Inspired by barbult: I used the same daisies but wanted some blue and red, so I changed the json file. 

Edited to add a closer view of the flowers.

I'm happy to be such an inspiration! You're off to a good start. Keep going!

Daventaki

I did it!!  I was so worried I was going to mess something up and have no idea if I even put them in the right place but it worked regardless!

HowieFarkes

For those who are playing around in the JSON - if you want to check that you haven't broken any JSON rules before running the UltraSceneCreator script you can have the JSON validated at this website: https://jsonlint.com/

It won't tell you if the JSON is correct for UltraScenery but for catching any missed "}" or "]" it's pretty useful.

Daventaki

HowieFarkes said:

For those who are playing around in the JSON - if you want to check that you haven't broken any JSON rules before running the UltraSceneCreator script you can have the JSON validated at this website: https://jsonlint.com/

It won't tell you if the JSON is correct for UltraScenery but for catching any missed "}" or "]" it's pretty useful.

Thanks @HowieFarkes!  I bookmarked it.

barbult

I looked at the ferns in Harpwood Trail, and they seem to be identical to the ferns in Mossy Hollow Botanica, so I guess they won't add any extra variety. There seems to be quite a bit of prop duplication with rocks, grass, ferns, daisies, etc. between the various sets, including UltraScenery. No need to reinvent the wheel, I guess, but it would be nice to get more unique props in each product.

Edit: My mistake. The ferns are different.

HowieFarkes

barbult said:

I looked at the ferns in Harpwood Trail, and they seem to be identical to the ferns in Mossy Hollow Botanica, so I guess they won't add any extra variety. There seems to be quite a bit of prop duplication with rocks, grass, ferns, daisies, etc. between the various sets, including UltraScenery. No need to reinvent the wheel, I guess, but it would be nice to get more unique props in each product.

No, the ferns in Mossy Hollow are definitely different models (similar species but different/new models). Some of the Mossy Hollow ferns did turn up in the Japanese garden.

Uthgard

barbult said:

I'm going for a Van Gogh type color scheme here. The HDRI is aptly named Sunflowers, from HDRI Haven. This image  combines UltraScenery, UltraTree, and UltraScatterPro. They all work well together.

That's a gorgeous image, Barbuit! Any tips on how to reproduce the gravel and stone circle around the tree or on how to get a patch of ground without grass? It would be very useful for campsites.

alexhcowley

L'Adair said:

Daventaki said:

barbult said:

You could offer free/low cost add on ecologies requiring the props in your other sets, to stimulate sales of those required sets.

Oooo I would definately buy!

+1.

(Of course, I'm a big fan of those sets, so I already have most of them…)

Sign me up as well!  

Cheers,

Alex.

Lothar Weber

I can confirm that since uninstalled Octane Render, i have no errors since. New Scene "Don't look"

alexhcowley

Here’s my third test scene, using the Ultrascenery product. This one uses one of the buildings out of Faveral's Modular Medieval Village set to provide a little more interest. 

As before, lighting is bog-standard sun sky with a camera in the SS sun node to point the sun.

This took just over ten minutes to generate and about an hour and a quarter to render. 

Cheers,

Alex.

PhilW

barbult said:

Here is my first attempt at using Mossy Hollow props with UltraScenery. It needs some refining. I think I have too may bromeliads for one thing. I just regenerated an existing scene with the hacked ecology.

Barbult - I love this one!

fastbike1

@RexRed "What is the purpose of the camera option in the UltraScenery props list? Is that used by the script"

I'm pretty sure Howie talked about this earlier in the thread. It is just for the script.

barbult

HowieFarkes said:

barbult said:

I looked at the ferns in Harpwood Trail, and they seem to be identical to the ferns in Mossy Hollow Botanica, so I guess they won't add any extra variety. There seems to be quite a bit of prop duplication with rocks, grass, ferns, daisies, etc. between the various sets, including UltraScenery. No need to reinvent the wheel, I guess, but it would be nice to get more unique props in each product.

No, the ferns in Mossy Hollow are definitely different models (similar species but different/new models). Some of the Mossy Hollow ferns did turn up in the Japanese garden.

Yes, I can see a difference now. Thanks for pointing out my mistake. It gives me more to work with.

barbult

Uthgard said:

barbult said:

I'm going for a Van Gogh type color scheme here. The HDRI is aptly named Sunflowers, from HDRI Haven. This image  combines UltraScenery, UltraTree, and UltraScatterPro. They all work well together.

That's a gorgeous image, Barbuit! Any tips on how to reproduce the gravel and stone circle around the tree or on how to get a patch of ground without grass? It would be very useful for campsites.

To create a patch of ground without the grass, you would need a distribution map, I think. UltraScatterPro offers that capability, but UltraScenery does not directly offer that, as far as I know. I did not eliminate the grass in my scene; if you look closely, you can see some grass sticking up between/through the rocks. I thought that made it even better, because in a scene like this, the rocks would not be perfectly "clean". I did raise the rocks a little bit to pull them out of the grass a little.

To create the circle of small rocks around the tree, I used the Geometry Editor lasso tool to select a group of polygons on the UltraScene object surface. I created a Selection Set from the selected polygons. Then I used UltraScatterPro to scatter the River Pebbles props from UltraScenery on the UltraScene object, limited to the Selection Set I created with the Geometry Editor. I did a similar process with the large rocks, creating another selection set and scattering the River Stone prop. Finally I created and even larger Selection Set area and scattered the Fallen Leaves props. You may not have even noticed them, but look again and they are there. I raised the fallen leaves to look like they were resting on the top of the grass.

barbult

Lothar Weber said:

I can confirm that since uninstalled Octane Render, i have no errors since. New Scene "Don't look"

That looks great with the foggy background and the extra touch of the butterflies. Nice! I like the subtle colors, too. The scene gives the feeling of having stumbled upon the deer unexpectedly in the woods.

barbult

alexhcowley said:

Here’s my third test scene, using the Ultrascenery product. This one uses one of the buildings out of Faveral's Modular Medieval Village set to provide a little more interest. 

As before, lighting is bog-standard sun sky with a camera in the SS sun node to point the sun.

This took just over ten minutes to generate and about an hour and a quarter to render. 

Cheers,

Alex.

The building definitely adds to the scene. Have you tried the render settings preset included in the UltraScenery product yet? I find that to be very good and easier than manually trying to position a sun node. I also like to try out various HDRI files instead, to provide some background. You don't need any additional background in your image. The forest fills the scene very nicely.

barbult

PhilW said:

barbult said:

Here is my first attempt at using Mossy Hollow props with UltraScenery. It needs some refining. I think I have too may bromeliads for one thing. I just regenerated an existing scene with the hacked ecology.

Barbult - I love this one!

Thanks, Phil. I live in Florida. This is kind of what it looks like around here most of the year (with more out of control weeds and palmettos and fewer beautiful bromeliads). We need a good palmetto prop! Now I see that is what is missing here! 

MelanieL

barbult said:

PhilW said:

barbult said:

Here is my first attempt at using Mossy Hollow props with UltraScenery. It needs some refining. I think I have too may bromeliads for one thing. I just regenerated an existing scene with the hacked ecology.

Barbult - I love this one!

Thanks, Phil. I live in Florida. This is kind of what it looks like around here most of the year (with more out of control weeds and palmettos and fewer beautiful bromeliads). We need a good palmetto prop! Now I see that is what is missing here!

I love it too! Nice ducks - are they Gilliland's or some other source?

barbult

MelanieL said:

barbult said:

PhilW said:

barbult said:

Here is my first attempt at using Mossy Hollow props with UltraScenery. It needs some refining. I think I have too may bromeliads for one thing. I just regenerated an existing scene with the hacked ecology.

Barbult - I love this one!

Thanks, Phil. I live in Florida. This is kind of what it looks like around here most of the year (with more out of control weeds and palmettos and fewer beautiful bromeliads). We need a good palmetto prop! Now I see that is what is missing here!

I love it too! Nice ducks - are they Gilliland's or some other source?

Noggin's, right here in the Daz store.

MelanieL

barbult said:

MelanieL said:

barbult said:

PhilW said:

barbult said:

Here is my first attempt at using Mossy Hollow props with UltraScenery. It needs some refining. I think I have too may bromeliads for one thing. I just regenerated an existing scene with the hacked ecology.

Barbult - I love this one!

Thanks, Phil. I live in Florida. This is kind of what it looks like around here most of the year (with more out of control weeds and palmettos and fewer beautiful bromeliads). We need a good palmetto prop! Now I see that is what is missing here!

I love it too! Nice ducks - are they Gilliland's or some other source?

Noggin's, right here in the Daz store.

Oh my, they scrub up well for old models! (I've wishlisted them for next time his store is on sale.)

MelanieL

A question for @HowieFarkes:

I noticed with some of my Bryce-generated terrain maps that the landscape generated seemed "lumpy" in slightly different places to where I was expecting. I discovered that the heightmap seems to get modified by the Noise settings, rather than being applied exactly.

Is this expected behaviour or an oversight?

I've attached an example using a manually created geometric heightmap map (I removed the grass, etc for clarity) to generated a landscape which acquires wavy edges in the process.  My solution is to set Brightness to -100 in the Noise tab (which then applies what seems to be a plain black square), although there is still a tiny bit of wave-iness along one side.

ETA: I set Max Altitude to 10 to make the difference more obvious.

Uthgard

barbult said:

Uthgard said:

barbult said:

I'm going for a Van Gogh type color scheme here. The HDRI is aptly named Sunflowers, from HDRI Haven. This image  combines UltraScenery, UltraTree, and UltraScatterPro. They all work well together.

That's a gorgeous image, Barbuit! Any tips on how to reproduce the gravel and stone circle around the tree or on how to get a patch of ground without grass? It would be very useful for campsites.

To create a patch of ground without the grass, you would need a distribution map, I think. UltraScatterPro offers that capability, but UltraScenery does not directly offer that, as far as I know. I did not eliminate the grass in my scene; if you look closely, you can see some grass sticking up between/through the rocks. I thought that made it even better, because in a scene like this, the rocks would not be perfectly "clean". I did raise the rocks a little bit to pull them out of the grass a little.

To create the circle of small rocks around the tree, I used the Geometry Editor lasso tool to select a group of polygons on the UltraScene object surface. I created a Selection Set from the selected polygons. Then I used UltraScatterPro to scatter the River Pebbles props from UltraScenery on the UltraScene object, limited to the Selection Set I created with the Geometry Editor. I did a similar process with the large rocks, creating another selection set and scattering the River Stone prop. Finally I created and even larger Selection Set area and scattered the Fallen Leaves props. You may not have even noticed them, but look again and they are there. I raised the fallen leaves to look like they were resting on the top of the grass.

Thank you very much for the detailed instructions. It's a shame that there's no easy workaround to have clearings in the grass, but it still is very worthwhile to know the rest of the process. And I thought the fallen leaves were a very nice touch, I'll have to try something similar (maybe with sakura blossoms in a volume scatter under a tree).