Arnold procedurals?

[Anonymous]

I'd like to scatter small objects on a ground and tried to use saved Arnold .ASS file as "procedural".

Usually I use Shape Instance  within Particle Flow to scatter something on a surface . But it doesn't  take empty dummy of Armold "procedural"   Same thing with just old Scatter compound .  Only way I was able to scatter them is "Object paint" but it's not what I want  since it's going to be a huge amount of them on a landscape scene.

Am I missing something?    Arnold manual tells nothing about it beyond you can create instances of those procedurals manually.

ps. I am using max2017 and Arnold demo

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

Is this file something you can share?  I need to investigate this but it would be preferable to have a scene to look at.  I can create a private folder if you'd like, nobody outside of Autodesk would see the file.  Is this doable?  

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

It looks like not a file specific issue or some quirk  to study within a specific file.  I  just I don't know how to use Arnold for Max.

 Solidangle  Max tutorial tells  that "procedural" should be used to create instances  for proper memory use . But other than copying  them manually, or with object paint I can't find other way to distribute them on a surface.  They are just empty dummies in viewports.   I hoped there is some proper way I miss. 

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

I couldn't get it to go with MR proxies or Arnold Proxies, and as a matter of fact only Vray Proxies seem to be supported when it comes to Pflow. 

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thanks for making it clear.    Arnold seems working ok with picking just regular object by pFlow shape instance, not "procedural' proxi.  I wonder how much "wrong" it may be regarding memory usage  and speed.    Would it be still practical for Arnold massively populated landscape  scenes I saw in their ads?  

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

The problem seems to be that scatter and PFlow won't accept them as geometry (and technically they aren't poly or mesh objects), but as proxy objects for regular scenes without scatter or PFlow they should be fine and work like normal proxies with no problem.  (Although, I did have to check the "Load at Init" button on the procedural or it wouldn't render.)  

Best Regards,