This page provides information about the Chaos Scatter integration in Chaos Envision.
Overview
Chaos Scatter is a powerful distribution tool that allows you to easily populate scenes with models of your choice. This is especially useful for outdoor scenes that need to be filled with greenery, rocks, grass, etc. The Chaos Scatter tool creates instances of specified models on the surfaces of other objects or splines.
Only Cosmos objects can be scattered.
Selection highlighting can be quickly toggled on and off with the H hotkey, or through the View menu > Scene Selection Highlighting.
||Create menu|| > Scatter
||Toolbar|| > Scatter
All Scatter objects are located in the Objects tab > Scatter filter tab. All Scatter objects' parameters are accessible in the Details tab.
Parameters
The following parameters are located in the Details right-hand side tab and are available upon selection of any Scatter object from the Objects left-hand side tab.
| A field showing the name of the selected Scatter object, allowing you also to rename it. |
| Disables the transformation options for the selected Scatter object - position, rotation, and scale. Click |
| Toggles the visibility of the Scatter object on and off. Invisible objects are indicated by |
| Selects the parent and all children of the current selection from within the scene hierarchy. |
| Selects only the parent of the current selection from within the scene hierarchy. |
| Selects the rest of the children in the scene hierarchy group the current selection belongs to. |
| Excludes the selection from the rest of its instances and makes it unique. The action is disabled if the selection has no instances. |
| Selects all instances the selected Scatter object has in the scene. |
| Saves the current settings as a Scatter preset. |
Layers Tab
Add new layer (
) – Click the button to add a new layer with objects for distributing onto surfaces/splines.
Remove (
) – Removes the selected layer.
Scatter over surface – Scattering mode where objects are scattered on surfaces. It doesn't matter if the surface is horizontal, vertical or if it is part of a complex 3D object.
Scatter over spline – Scattering mode where objects are scattered along splines. Open or closed splines can be used for this.
Density – (Available for Scatter over surface mode only) Defines the density of the scattered models in the number of instances per 100 square meters.
Max angle to up vector – (Available for Scatter over surface mode only) Defines the maximum angle of the surface on which the models are scattered. A value of 0 means that the models can only be scattered on horizontal surfaces. A value of 180 means that the models can be scattered on any possible surface angle.
Spacing – (Available for Scatter over spline mode only) Determines the spacing between instances in meters.
Jitter – (Available for Scatter over spline mode only) Randomly jitters instances along the spline. Each instance has Spacing applied on both its sides, except the instances at the end of the spline. The Jitter value is divided between those two Spacings.
Offset – (Available for Scatter over spline mode only) Determines what percentage of the Spacing the instances are offset in one direction of the spline. When set to 100%, all instances replace the one after them, as the offset is equal to the whole value of the Spacing.
Follow spline – (Available for Scatter over spline mode only) Determines how scattered instances are oriented along the spline. Assigning a value of 100%, makes instances follow the spline and are oriented along the local tangent direction.
Detect collisions – Prevents the scattered models from colliding with each other.
Models – The list of models used in the currently selected Scatter.
– Remove either the selected models, or all the models if none are selected.
You can double-click on a layer to change its name.
Randomization
Translation – Moves the instances From the given distance To the given distance on the corresponding axis.
Rotation – Rotates the instances From the given degrees up To the given degrees continuously.
Scale – Scales the instances From the given value To the given value continuously. When Uniform scale is enabled, the X axis values are applied on the whole target object.
Uniform scaling – When enabled, all instances in all axes are scaled according to the values of the X axis.
Targets Tab
| Allows selecting new objects (primitives or splines) on which the instances are scattered. |
| Removes the specified scatter-on object. |
Exclusion Areas Tab
| Allows picking objects (primitives or splines) which define the exclusion areas. The models are scattered everywhere on the target objects, except in the areas where the objects in the Exclusion Areas list are located. This option is useful, for instance, for removing instances of grass/trees from areas where a house needs to be located. |
| Removes the specified object from the exclusion areas list. |
See also: