Geo-Scatter - 5.4 Scatter Groups

Coding Released Scripts and Themes
,
2097

That’s it. Scatter5 Beta for latest 2.93 is now open for everyone.

You can get it here.

open beta
open beta1920×517 178 KB

Current version: Open Beta 03
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1F1qNF39Bf9q8TgyC4hfPf84702BZ3HP6

https://scatter5.webflow.io/

A lot of functionalities from Scatter4 got improved and there are tons of new features such as distribution by ID map, new procedural wind system, particles push effects, new copy/paste & synchronization system, Remove particles by AO/lighting & more… The to-do list is still long but i’ll get there soon :grinning:

About installation:

  • Install Scatter5 as a traditional .zip You don’t need to uninstall Scatter4 both addon can co-exists witouth problems, note that you will need latest blender 2.93. Also don’t expect retro compatibility of particle systems created with anterior versions of Scatter5 until official Scatter5 release.
  • Install the preset .scatpack inside Scatter manager.
  • Note that this is a work-in-progress build, you may encounter some placeholder buttons in the GUI or even in worst case bugs (let me know if you find some).

What’s New?

  • Improvements:
    • Scatter now run on the brand new geometry-node nodal scattering system of blender 2.93+ you will observe that for each created system a new scatter_obj is created accompanied with a per particle unique CCBY node group parametrically configured when tweaking settings.
    • much better scale & rotation control.
    • batch-changing values is now much more handy, you can select multiple systems and hold ALT to batch change selected properties from active particle-system value.
    • Important Issue with vertex-groups affecting the density is now fixed, so the mask system of Scatter is now way more powerful.
    • speaking of the mask workflow, it’s now using per particles “density-slots” assignation.
    • Important Issue with inaccurate particle position within the viewport fixed.
    • Issue with particle count limited to 2Billion particles fixed
    • Custom scatter-library path support.
    • no more rotation tracking axis nonsense from the old hair-scattering workflow.
    • as the scattering is done on an external object, selecting the emitter will no longer highlight outlines of particles, this will save us previous performances.
    • Collection Scattering is now enabled with new instancing seed option.
    • There’s great Focus the on the custom presets and biomes management with .preset .biome and .scatpack file format to easily create/export/share/sell your work/biomes.
  • All new features from Beta Version 00:
    • new local/global scattering option
    • new rotation snap feature
    • new limit-distance option thanks to the new poison disk algorithm, you can now avoid self-collision by distance.
    • new rotation alignment feature where you can easily align your particle normal and tangent axis to create for example billboards that follow your camera around.
    • new vectorial scale randomization option
    • the texture patterns are now per texture-data, meaning that a single texture can be used for multiple particle systems, in addition to that you can choose different ID from a single texture, so it’s now extremely easy to create accurate clustering map that do not overlap. It’s also now possible to Invert the density/scale influence.
    • you can also easily apply/create procedural texture from presets in the pattern header menu.
    • easily assign and paint vertex groups for most features.
    • paint density by vertex color ID extremely easily.
    • new Universal Copy/paste buffer per settings (located per settings header).
    • new reset to default operator (located per settings header).
    • every particle system created with scatter are unique by default, so there’s no “linking” workflow, but there’s something much more powerful! synchronization channels! you can create synchronization channels that will synchronize designed settings category with designed particle systems (it can work cross-emitters).
    • copy/paste particle-system(s), & optionally synchronize their settings.
    • new settings lock/unlock option.
    • new “Particle Terrain Features” settings, filter your particles by terrain slope/elevation/normal direction (without using any vertex groups).
    • new real-time camera culling & clipping options working (without using any vertex groups).
    • new display instances as placeholder option (can also support custom placeholders).
    • new settings update controls, choose if you’d like to send updates to your particles in real-time, on mouse release or every X ms.
    • new “Particle Push” settings with a lot of control. It’s handy if you’d like to displace your particles above the ground but i quite push this feature to it’s extreme limit as you can easily create explosion effect, “fireflies” effect, snow&leaves falling or lanterns flying up in the air and even clouds hovering above your terrain (animation not yet supported).
    • new “Wind” system that creates realistic wind by rotating your particles. It’s one of my personal favorites, I’m sure that many will love this feature as IMO it’s extremely satisfying to use and creates quite nice results! There’s also quite a lot of control. you can even paint wind force.
    • With Clemens Beute flowmap painter addon you can paint particles tangent alignment and also control wind direction https://gumroad.com/clemensbeute#heZDT (flowmap painting option must be set on UV space)
    • In Scatter you use an object pointer to choose the terrain you want to work with, well there’s a new option that uses the “pin” functionality of blender. It’s nice if you are often switching emitter. note that for scattering the emitter need to be pinned.
    • Customize the GUI! use icons, or arrows. there’s also an alternative box look & the possibility to grey out inactive tabs.
    • Mask workflow improvements! new AO & lighting baking using the latest vertex-color baking option. it’s automatically converted to vertex groups. There’s also a much better falloff editor with even the possibility to animate the falloff and refresh the designed masks for each frame (It can be extremely handy for motion design).
  • Beta Version 01 Update:
    • new Clump distribution method!
    • Slight GUI rework
    • Added mask per patterns/terrain features
    • Operator to simplify a nodetree, handy to remove all inactive nodes
  • Beta Version 02 Update:
    • new instancing method, by scale / color id / by rate
    • added back the set active object as target
    • new strength properties for most align Z method
  • Beta Version 03 Update:
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