Hi, i’m the creator of this trick/addon/gif (where did you saw this by the way ? twitter ?)
See more info below or on the official Scatter thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmUdyP7rSkc&list=PLmXeQcLPRwQD1GwSuOoVJU3RpxLSeLXwG&index=3
How to make a proxy (low poly object just for display) in blender 2.8?
Basically it’s a particle trick, in the “Use Count” option, i automatically switch the total render particle to 0 and proxy to 1, and vice versa via a script.
Those are called proxies in every other software and are in fact really basic and important viewport display features, that blender, unfortunately, doesn’t have 