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fur plugin for sketchup

PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:27 pm
by pimpuppy
Hello TIG!
Sorry for bothering ... but i do believe that you can answer or evan give a hint regarding this problem i'm having lately.
Again sorry for starting a new post if it was already answered.

In some recent projects i needed to place some grass so i used the all powerful FUR plugin. My problem is that it is taking tooooo long to export ...
Is there any hint in how to speed up the export time for this situation?

Thanks!

Re: fur plugin for sketchup

PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 4:04 pm
by TIG
The 'Fur' plugin is really great... BUT it makes every strand of hair/grass etc as bits of separate geometry.
This adds exponentially to the export time as every facet and material needs processing.

It's as if you have added hundreds of complex car components to the model...

Also don't use a textured material on the 'fur' in the SKP; if you have to try applying on in the OCS...

Don't render 'fur' beyond the camera's likely maximum view - you are adding pointless and unused detail that will need to be exported all the same.
Don't export the unseen internals of a building when you are rendering the outside - use layers to switch these things off - wht do you want to export the bathroom fittings when we'll never see them in the render... etc

If you are using components in the fur then this will further complicate the export time... however, my tool Proximity [part of MatrixProximity] available from SCF, will let you swap less detailed components when they are further from the camera, you'd rename the 'grass' comp-definition as 'grass+' and the less detailed one for mid-ground 'grass~' and the far very simple one 'grass-' - run Proximity and tell it the distance ranges and the instances are auto-swapped... This is only useful if the camera is relatively static in the OCS. You can have several scenes and change the Proximity instancing in each as you export them with different camera locations ?

If you want some foreground 'grassy tufts' then why not use something made from a grass png image with transparency or even as cut-out as faces with the material applied, done with my ImageTrimmer tool ??

If all else fails make a bumpy surface and apply a textured material that looks like grass...there'll be far less geometry and complication.

Re: fur plugin for sketchup

PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:10 am
by pimpuppy
Thanks TIG for the answer.

I'm not having a scene with shots from a big distance ... so i'm not able to use less geometry in the background as you suggested.

one of my projects was the one attached. and i have tried with a lot of grass but i did not let it until the end of export.
then i reduced the number of the grass, but as you can see it is a little bald :lol:
i'm trying now to populate the surface with some triangles (one simple color) and to see what is happening ...

Re: fur plugin for sketchup

PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:33 am
by TIG
Perhaps a slightly modulated mesh with a 'grass texture' and use some bump-mapping etc ?

Re: fur plugin for sketchup

PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:10 am
by pimpuppy
the file without grass was exported in 7 min. and had~ 820.000 triangles in octane

then i have made 3 comps for the grass straws - used the crowd function => ~12000 grass straws. generated.
The export time in this case is 24min and the file in octane is having 1.300.000 triangles.

And now the patch of grass is not bald any more ... :D

Thanks for helping and for this great plugin ...

Best regards from Romania!