NewForest Pack 6
Severalsignificant new tools expand and improve Forest Pack’s alreadyeasy-to-use parametric workflow, opening up completely new ways ofworking with the plugin. For everyday users, new UIcustomisation optionsallow you to adapt Forest Pack to suit the way you work.
Parametricdistribution has been overhauled to make some areas of the pluginmuch faster and easier to edit. The newpath option allowsyou to distribute objects interactively along a spline, and a newinteractive reference mode letsyou place and attachitems to thousands of objects. The ability to place objectson particles opensup a whole new way of working with Forest Pack and exposes it to ahuge range of new workflows.
Thisis the first Forest Pack release to include iToosoft’sUpdate Manager,a simplified way to download and manage presets, libraries andeffects that separates the plugin from the content. Using UpdateManager you only need to download what you need and it enables us torelease new content at any time. Using the system you can downloadour latest libraries including a free high-quality tree pack,featuring 11 species ready to drop into your renders.
Decouplingthe content from the core plugin also allows us to release newfeatures at any time using ForestEffects.These are small expressions that can be used to extend thefunctionality of the plugin to do things that aren’t already a partof the core package. In this update, the entire effects system hasbeen updated to introduce support for maps, curves,particleage,and speed,plus the ability to use multipleForest Effects atone time. You can easily create your own effects and share them withcolleagues or the wider community.
Finally,it wouldn’t be a Forest Pack release without improvements toperformance and compatibility. 3ds Max 2019 is supported on itsrelease, and for the first time bothForest Pack and RailClone are compatible with Arnold. Scatteringperformance isincreased up to 150% whencreating large distributions, and we’ve improvedstability when working with V-Ray IPR mode.
ForestPack was first released in 1999, and since that time it’s developedinto one of, if not the, most advanced scatterer available for 3DSMax. We appreciate however, that for some projects you don’t to useall of the features that the plugin has to offer, so in Forest Pack 6we have made it easier to customise the plugin - your way.
Thebiggest change is the ability to choose to displayonly the rollouts you want to see.To turn rollouts on or off, go to the new Settings optionin the General rollout.Here you’ll find a list of all the tools Forest Pack has to offer.
Justuncheck the ones you don’t regularly use and you end up with a muchmore streamlined interface for day-to-day use. Advanced users willalso appreciate the option to disable thewarning pop-ups thatForest Pack occasionally displays.
Onceyou’ve customised the rollouts, you can further modify the UIby collapsingunneeded groups.Go into any rollout and wherever you see the >> symbolyou can hide the contents of that section. Just click it again toreverse the process.
There’sno need to save UI preferences either, your choicesare retained between sessions soyou don’t need to make changes every time you open Max.
Sometimesit’s the little things that make a big difference in day-to-daywork. We’ve made a simple change to lists whichare now resizeable,making it much easier to deal with scatters that use a large numberof source objects. For items with long names, we’ve also addeda tooltip tothe list boxes. Just hover your mouse cursor over an item to see it’sfull name.
RailCloneusers got used to being able to create an empty object withoutselecting something in the viewport just by clicking and dragging.Forest Pack now has this Iconmode optionas well, creating a unified experience across our plugins and makingit much easier to set up scatters using the new distribution modes.
Finally,another small change but one that had been regularly requested byusers: It is now possible to selectall of a Forest object’s dependencies (includinggeometry, areas, surfaces, etc) in a single click by picking SelectAll Forest Dependencies fromthe Quadmenu.This is useful if you want to quickly save portions of your scene toa new file for use as an XRef or any other purpose.
The Distribution rollouthas been overhauled with several new and improved modes.
Image-baseddistribution remainsthe default, although even here we’ve added 13new distribution maps tocreate more varied scatters. Brand new though is a drop-down menufound at the top of the rollout that allows you to switch to one ofthree new modes: Path, Reference or ParticleFlow.
Anew Pathmode allowsyou to distribute objects along a spline with controls for adjustablespacing,the ability to offset objectseither side of the spline, or alternatively to place items onvertices.
Multiplepaths canbe used by adding them to the spline list, and you can choose torandomise the order of items or even create patterns based on theirorder in the geometry list.
Youcan use all of Forest Packs existing transform randomisation tools inthis mode, but when it comes to rotation, you also have the option toautomatically align objects so that they follow the direction of thepath!
Thesecond new mode allows you to place objects on referencemarkers.Use the 
buttonto add reference objects one at a time, or use 
toselect multiple reference objects using Max’s scene explorer.
Itemswill be scattered either oneper individual marker or oneon the centre of each face ifyou’re using meshes as a reference objects. You can also choosewhether or not you want to align the objects to match the rotationand scale of the references.
Oncelinked, items are interactivelyattached tothe markers so if you want to move an object, just move the marker.Not only is this helpful for fast iteration and art directing images,but for the first time it also makes it possible to animate thetransforms of individual objects in a scatter.
Newto Forest Pack 6 is the ability to usePFlow as a distribution source,allowing you to combine the unique flexibility of particles with therendering power of Forest Pack to achieve things that were notpreviously possible.
Touse a PFlow object as a source you just click on 
toadd it to the list. Multiple PFlow sources can be used in a singleForest Pack object.
Animatorswill be pleased to know that Forest Pack’s PFlow integrationsupports animatedparticles andit’s possible to use their scale and orientation informationto affect the size and rotation of scattered items. You can evenrandomise any animation applied to the source objects using ForestPack’s existing animation modes and use Forest Pack’s innovativeeffects feature to add new features that use the particles’ speedand age to control nearly any of an item’s properties.
ForestPack 6’s UpdateManager isa new solution to download, manage andinstall libraries, presets and effects.From now on you will no longer need to wait for a new plugin releaseto get new content!
Updatemanager opens during installation, or automatically when new contentis available. To launch it manually, open it from the Start menu,or use the Update buttonin Max.
Thefirst time you launch Update manager, you’ll be prompted foryour login.These are the samedetails you use to access your user panel onthe iToo Software website.
Onceyou’re in, Update Manager shows all the packages that are availableto download. You can also see the packages you have installed bygoing to the view menu and selecting Show Installed.
Toinstall packages, just makes sure their checkboxes are ticked… andclick Install!
Yournew packages will be automatically added to the Forest Pack library -ready to use. There are also offlineinstallation optionsfor those that need them.
Inaddition to the manager, Forest Pack 6 includes newcontent,Including a new preset library for quickly populating verticalgreen walls, Lawns whichcan be built up in layers to create a number of different looks, andour brand new treesstarter library thatincludes over 20high-quality models in 11 species.
ForestPack 6 sees some significant updates to Effects,the innovative feature first released in the previous version thatallows you to extendthe functionality of Forest Pack usingsimple expressions.
Ifthe idea of maths terrifies you, don’t worry, Forest Effects alsoallows us at iTooSoft to be much more responsive to how people areusing our tools and roll out new features at any time, withoutneeding to install new software or wait for a major release.
Ifyou do create your own effects, you can share them with friends andcolleagues by saving them as .efffiles whichare lightweight and easy to distribute.
InForest Pack 6, effects got an overhaul. One of our most requestedfeatures was to be able to stack up multipleeffects.Almost like a series of filters that affect the scatter. With therelease of Forest Pack 6, we’re pleased to be able to include thisfeature.
Toadd an effect in Forest Pack 6 you simply go to the Effects rolloutand click on 
toadd an Effectlayer.You can then load an effect from the Library by clickingthe 
button,create your own effect by clicking the 
buttonto open the Effects Editor, or open or save an effect file using theImport and Export buttons found inside the editor.
Toadd multiple effects, all you need to do is repeat this procedure.The order of effects is calculated from the top ofthe effects list downwards.
Tomake effects even more flexible there are two new Parameter types.Firstly you can now use curves tocontrol nearly any attribute in Forest Pack, for example to create aprocedural animation of an objects transforms. Secondly, we’veadded the ability to read maps.This allows you to control a much wider range of attributes usingimages than was previously possible. For example, when combined withcurves it’s possible to create a fully procedural transformanimation that is then offset using a grayscale map.
Thereare many new effect functions included complementing the newdistribution modes including the ability to control attributesusing particleage, particlespeed, pathpositionand pathtangent.
30new sample effects areincluded and best of all thanks to Update Manager we can add more atany time. It will even let you know when new content is available!.
© Copyright 2000-2022 COGITO SOFTWARE CO.,LTD. All rights reserved. 京ICP备09015132号-52