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Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:57 pm
by kavorka
I just noticed that the random scale value isnt being exprorted with the exporter, is that something that is possible?
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:50 am
by matej
kavorka wrote:I just noticed that the random scale value isnt being exprorted with the exporter, is that something that is possible?
Which parameter are you referring to? Everything in the
Velocity panel (which influences scale in case of hair PS) should work.
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:45 pm
by kavorka
I was trying to use the random size parameter under physics > newtonian > random size.
Does it read from the physics panel?
I don't see any random size parameter under velocity. How do you get random size?
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:52 pm
by matej
kavorka wrote:I was trying to use the random size parameter under physics > newtonian > random size.
That works only for emitter PS
For hair PS, set
initial orientation along normal, use the
normal value to grow them and then the
random parameter to randomize size. Be sure that
rotation is ticked.
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:05 pm
by ROUBAL
I always had problems (with all previous versions of Blender) with particles with the instances exporter : I had to convert them into real object (and was limited to around 3000 particles). I tried again with the most recent exporter and got the same problem in Blender 2.69.
I tried with Blender 2.70a... and it works !
I don't know what they have changed, but on my machine, it is the first time I can export a high number of particles in one operation. I exported 150000 grass tufts in one scatter file !
The ability of exporting several particles system in one export can be dangerous : I have overwritten some already existing csv files and I had not kept the parameters... fortunately, the node in Octane had not been updated !
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 10:22 pm
by kavorka
Thanks!!!!
I finally got it all good.
@ROUBAL:
I used to have the same problem as well, anything over 10k used to crash. I didnt try any crazy number like you, but I was able to export 20k grass particles.
If we can get it to export the total number not just the visual number we can make some awesome landscapes.
Thanks Matej!!!

Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:36 am
by matej
I'm glad it works guys.
I'm myself doing a project right now that requires lots of particles (30k+) and it's working nicely.
As I explained, all this mess comes from Blender treating emitter & hair PS very differently. In the case of emitter PS you get straight info about exact transforms per frame. All (or most) the settings that influence transforms should work, because its Blender who calculates them. But in case of hair PS, you get local data and you must then calculate all the missing stuff yourself (like parent transforms and strand length) and in some cases not all data is accessible to you through Python.
kavorka wrote:If we can get it to export the total number not just the visual number we can make some awesome landscapes.
This might not be currently possible. I've asked on the BA forum about this and nobody seems to know the solution. I'll try to contact some of the developers personally, but the Python API regarding particles seems to be unfinished and until someone codes this support in, I cant do much. (maybe there's a way to force 100% visibility right before it exports, and then set it back, Ill check)
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 12:19 pm
by ROUBAL
kavorka wrote:
If we can get it to export the total number not just the visual number we can make some awesome landscapes.
Do you mean the Children particles ?
I always set the particles number to 100% and it works, even with 150000 particles. It just requires a long time. It seems to freeze, but really works. (I have a weak quad with 8GB of RAM). I don't use the actual object for particles export. I use a special simple object : a small pyramide with only 5 vertices. If necessary, the visual mode can be set to box to allow viewing all particles without requiring much memory.
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:07 pm
by matej
A small teaser
I've integrated this script into the unofficial exporter, so you can render animations with instances now. There's still some bugs to polish out. Will post it tomorrow prob.
Re: Blender instances "patch" for the unofficial exporter
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:47 pm
by ROUBAL
Wow ! Crazy animation !
