Pflow Scatter

**Paulgswanson** · 01-22-2010, 03:21 PM

I know this isn't the best place for this, Im just not to Sure where to put it in general.

After reading a lot of posts here a lot of you have been having detailed conversations about what the best method to scatter is. Here's Mine:
Use PFlow in 3DS MAX. No external Plugins required. And the original is still able to altered and improved.

If you want to scatter a Proxy then the mesh must be complete. If you wanted to make changes at a later date you would then have to re-export it again. PFlow by passes all that. It treats the object more like an Xref. You can even use an Xref as a distribution object.

You can get Much better performance out of you application this way than scattering a ton of 6 sided proxies. You can simply use dots to display the objects locations.

The best advantage of this method over the others is the fact that you can use a single PFlow operator to distribute multiple object types of variable size and rotation automatically or via greyscale distribution map.

Make a new scene with a 1x1x1 box (this will be our object), and 20x20 Plane [Give this 6x6 segments] (This is our distribution object), and a PFlow object.
Select the PFlow Object and using the Parameters menu open particle View. That will bring up the visual script engine. You will see two boxes one that says PF Source 01 and nce that says Event 01. Event 01 is the only one that we will be messing with.
Take note of the order the Operands are displayed. Birth, Position, Speed, Rotation, Shape, and finally how to display it to the user. Open Birth Event and the Start and End to both -1 since we want it be a constant number displayed instantly. If you like you can also change the amount while we are here.
From the Depot on the bottom on Particle view drag Position object on top of Position Icon. It should overwrite it. Check Lock On Emitter. For emitter objects click add and select the plane we made. Go a little lower and for location set it to Surface. Also check Separation and set distance to 1. Now at the bottom click New for Uniqueness.
For rotation choose Random Horizontal, this will just rotate them randomly on the Z axis. This is good for natural objects like rocks and trees, it give them that chaotic rotation the hides the fact that they are instances.
For shape grab Shape Instance from the bottom and replace it. Once its set it object to Box01. Once that's done, scroll down a little bit and change the variation to 50%. And again At the bottom Press New.
For the display Operand this can be whatever you want and how many you want visible in the editor. This will not effect the render results. Anything that will affect % visible in the render is under PF Source 01 operand.

Anyway play around with these settings, and I'm sure the rest will come naturally to you. I hope this helps. See you later.