Grass, leaves and stones in Daz (instancing multiple items)

BradCarsten

I should have asked this yesterday, but what's the easiest way to place grass or other items over an existing terrain in daz? I tried the node instancing, but that takes forever as you have to manually place every strand.
Yesterday I spent hours exporting everything to blender, then using their particle system to cover the ground and then importing it back to Daz, reorienting and aligning everything, fixing the surfaces, waiting for everything as my pc chugs along, rinse and repeat until I achieved the look I wanted. I now want to add leaves and some weeds and stuff, but I'm really not looking forward to going through that long process again.

BeeMKay

There are various options, like
- http://www.daz3d.com/grass-shader-for-daz-studio (alternately: http://www.daz3d.com/rock-grass-bundle)
- http://www.daz3d.com/pred-pack-grass-one
- http://www.daz3d.com/grassy-grounds-megapack

If you give your ground various material zones, you can mix various styles of grass.

Alternately, you can try growing grass using
- http://www.daz3d.com/garibaldi-express-hair-system-for-daz-studio
or
- http://www.daz3d.com/look-at-my-hair

BradCarsten

Thanks lee_lhs. Sorry, I wasn't all that clear, and have rephrased the question. What I'm really wondering is how to place multiple items- like strands of grass, or leaves, or a thousand stones across their scene.

That said some of those links are really interesting- especially the hair system. - I didn't even know that existed, but I can see how useful it can be, so thanks for that.

Totte

There is a free "eco system" script in sharecg (lost the link)
You can use send in the closes, or you can just use instances of groups of objects.

BeeMKay

Oh, that's easy.
You can either use this product:
- http://www.daz3d.com/send-in-the-clones-ds4-pro
- http://www.daz3d.com/send-in-the-clones-ds4

There's a free script:
- http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/710470/

Or do it manually, by selecting the item you want to multiply, go to "Create" and then select "create new node instance".

Also:
* http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/479852/

BradCarsten

Totte said:

There is a free "eco system" script in sharecg (lost the link)
You can use send in the closes, or you can just use instances of groups of objects.

lee_lhs said:

There's a free script:
- http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/710470/

I actually tried that yesterday, but couldn't get it to work properly. I would clone 1000 instances and only 10 would show up or something. I don't know if it was a bug or (and more likely) I was doing something stupid but I must play around with it again, because that would be perfect. You can even use density maps, which is awesome.

Oh, that's easy.
You can either use this product:
- http://www.daz3d.com/send-in-the-clones-ds4-pro
- http://www.daz3d.com/send-in-the-clones-ds4

That looks pretty interesting- and it's on sale at the moment..... Hmmmm

JimmyC_2009

The thing to watch with Send in the Clones is stated on the Product Page:

This script is creating new objects in your scene, and uses your available memory just the same as if you loaded the objects by hand. It can get very tempting to overload your computer because of this products ease of use.

There is no memory saving like using the Node Instance in DAZ Studio.

BradCarsten

JimmyC_2009 said:

The thing to watch with Send in the Clones is stated on the Product Page:

This script is creating new objects in your scene, and uses your available memory just the same as if you loaded the objects by hand. It can get very tempting to overload your computer because of this products ease of use.

There is no memory saving like using the Node Instance in DAZ Studio.

That's true. The replicator script would probably be better then, if I can get it to work. Yesterday I had to convert instances back to geometry, and daz crashed a number of times on me.

BeeMKay

Here's the Send in the Clones Manual,
http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/15235/15235_sendintheclonesds4pro.pdf

It's pretty useful for some stuff.

BradCarsten

oooh, thats hugely helpful. I always try to watch a tutorial before buying anything so that I know exactly what I am getting and what its features or limitations are.

BeeMKay

You can find readmes and such for most of the newer products here:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/start
Just check the Product ID against the list at the left side.