Modo has gotten a lot of press and use of its "replicators" recently. Replicators are basically an enhanced Scatter plugin, so I'd love to see a brand new Enhanced Scatter plugin for max, that builds on the features of the current Scatter compound object, but then adds many enhancements. The following is a list of features I'd like to see: - Modifier, Not Compound Object (Multiple Distribution Objects): The workflow would be you select your Distribution object (or objects), apply the Scatter Modifier, then choose a number of scatter objects from the scene. Keeping this a modifier would allow you to use multiple distribution objects at the same time, which is currently not possible with the scatter compound object. - Distribution Object Target: Mesh Surface, Mesh Volume, Along a Spline, Multiple Objects - Distribution Type: Random - Distribution Type: Grid Option For Scatter: with Options For Column And Row Spacing - Distribution Type: Poisson Distribution: Would love to see a poisson distribution mode, that scatters the objects in an organic but relatively even manner, great for avoid interpenetrating and for achieving certain natural phenomena. Take a peak at the images below: http://umbcgaim.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/distributing-stuff/#jp-carousel-275, http://umbcgaim.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/distributing-stuff/ - Distribution Type: All Verts - Distribution Type: All Edge Midpoints - Distribution Type: All Faces - Scatter Object Single - Scatter Object Multiple: It would allow the user to specify a number of different scatter objects. Rarely do you want only a single object type scattered over a surface, you want to scatter a number of slightly different shaped objects to get variety. - Scatter Object Density: Uniform Value - Scatter Object Density:Density Map: Allow it to scatter only on areas based on a bitmap (or any texture map like noise), which is great for say populating only the grassy areas of a hill with trees, assuming you define the grassy areas with a bitmap in your material. - Scatter Object Density:Chance (Weight): It would allow you to assign them weights so that certain objects would be chosen more frequent. This helps break up patterns that can occur when the same objects are assigned randomly. - Scatter Object Align: To Surface - Scatter Object Align: To World - Scatter Object Align: Global Position, Rotation, Size - Scatter Object Align: Random Position, Rotation, Rotation in 90 degree Increments: for architectural and hard surface objects., Size - Seed Some of these features exist in a Scatter Utility written by Peter Watje, however, that creates brand new objects, instead of remaining procedural, and since I very frequently want to go back to my scatter to adjust its parameters, keeping it a procedural object instead of a Utility is a must. You can also do something similar using the Pflow particle system, but it takes way longer to setup and edit the appropriate particle system than it would take to use a modifier, and it has various bugs that stop it from doing things like aligning to the surface properly.
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