Ultrascenery: imaginary trees blocking my camera?

doorknob22

Hi all!

 

I set up this nice scene in Ultrascenery: three riders in a forest. In one image you can see the top view where nothing obstructs the camera. However, when I Iray preview or render, there's a tree suddently blocking the camera's line of sight. Any ideas how I can get rid of this rogue tree?

 

barbult

Yes. That is exactly the problem that UltraScenery Toolbox - Volume II was designed to deal with. That tree in your way is an "instance" (kind of a virtual copy) of a prop. All the trees, rocks, grass, in UltraScenry are instances of a single prop of each type. Instances are used, because they are much more memory efficient, UltraScenery instances do not show up in the viewport by default and they are created in large groups that show as a single item in your Scene pane (otherwise your scene would have tens of thousands if individual items). So, when you render, you can get surprised by where the trees appear. UltraScenery Toolbox II has a tool that lets you ungroup those instance groups and see exactly where the trees are. When you cycle through the instance groups and spot the group that has the tree you want to get rid of, you use the toolbox tool to ungroup that instance group and then you delete that tree instance and use the regrouip tool. It is a brilliant tool set that does exactly what it is needed to solve your problem.

There is a second solution. You can create a layer mask and add it before you build the UltraScenery scene. That layer mask will prevent any trees from being generated in that spot. You can create a layer mask yourself with an image editor, or you can opt to use the UltraScenery Toolbox - Volume One to help create and manage layer masks.

So, in summary, Toobox II will let you delete just the offending tree(s) that are in the way, or Toolbox One will let you keep a whole area clear.

Edit: note that both of those tool products rely on the required product C66 Graphics Plug-in.

WendyLuvsCatz

do section planes work on instances?

I have never tried but maybe they do?

alexhcowley

WendyLuvsCatz said:

do section planes work on instances?

I have never tried but maybe they do?

Section planes work on anything in the scene including instances. I use a camera with a section plane bolted on the back on most of my Ultrascenes.

Cheers,

Alex. 

barbult

A section plane will block everything behind it, though. If you have a singe tree in the middle of the image, blocking the visibility of your character, how would you use a section plane to remove that tree without removing everything else between the camera and the tree?

doorknob22

barbult said:

Yes. That is exactly the problem that UltraScenery Toolbox - Volume II was designed to deal with. That tree in your way is an "instance" (kind of a virtual copy) of a prop. All the trees, rocks, grass, in UltraScenry are instances of a single prop of each type. Instances are used, because they are much more memory efficient, UltraScenery instances do not show up in the viewport by default and they are created in large groups that show as a single item in your Scene pane (otherwise your scene would have tens of thousands if individual items). So, when you render, you can get surprised by where the trees appear. UltraScenery Toolbox II has a tool that lets you ungroup those instance groups and see exactly where the trees are. When you cycle through the instance groups and spot the group that has the tree you want to get rid of, you use the toolbox tool to ungroup that instance group and then you delete that tree instance and use the regrouip tool. It is a brilliant tool set that does exactly what it is needed to solve your problem.

There is a second solution. You can create a layer mask and add it before you build the UltraScenery scene. That layer mask will prevent any trees from being generated in that spot. You can create a layer mask yourself with an image editor, or you can opt to use the UltraScenery Toolbox - Volume One to help create and manage layer masks.

So, in summary, Toobox II will let you delete just the offending tree(s) that are in the way, or Toolbox One will let you keep a whole area clear.

Edit: note that both of those tool products rely on the required product C66 Graphics Plug-in.

 

Since I have no idea what a mask is (in the context of graphic, two years of COVID made me intimately familiar with another aspect of masks), I went for the first solution and it worked great. Thanks!

barbult

That's great to hear. Thanks for letting us know you were successful in resolving the issue.