Distribution
Skatter offers several distribution types, each useful in different situations: Grid, Random, Uniform, Vertices and Face centers.
Grid
The Grid distribution is perfect for scattering instances at regular intervals. It also allows you to inject a bit of randomness with the Jitter and Holes parameters.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
Spacing | Distance between successive instances |
Shift | Global offset of the grid |
Jitter | Percentage of the |
Rotation | Angle of the grid in degrees |
Holes | Percentage of instances to discard randomly |
For some parameters, two X and Y values are available. For surface hosts, both are used. For curve hosts, only the X value is used.
Random
The Random distribution scatters instances randomly all over the hosts.
Unlike the Uniform distribution, this distribution type does not scatter instances in a homogeneous manner and some clumping may appear, which may or not be desirable depending on your goal. A benefit of random distributions, however, is that they are significantly faster to compute.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
Density | Target density over the hosts |
While the Density parameter is displayed as obj/unit² in the user interface, this only applies to surface hosts. For curve hosts, the value is actually interpreted as obj/unit.
Uniform
The Uniform distribution scatters instances homogeneously all over the hosts. Compared to Random distributions, instances are more evenly spaced, which produces more natural-looking results in some situations (like a grass field).
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
Density | Target density over the hosts |
Vertices
The Vertices distribution places one instance at each vertex of the hosts.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
Holes | Percentage of instances to discard randomly |
Face centers
The Face centers distribution places one instance at the center of each face of the surface hosts. For curve hosts, it scatters instances at the center of each edge.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
Holes | Percentage of instances to discard randomly |
Projection modes
Grid, Random, and Uniform distributions have a Mode parameter that controls how scattered instances are projected onto surfaces.
In World space mode, instances are projected in the direction of the global Projection axis parameter. In many cases, the default axis (-Z) is good enough since we often want to scatter instances over flat horizontal surfaces. In cases when surfaces are not horizontal, like for green walls, then the axis can be changed accordingly.
In Object space mode, the behavior is similar. However, the Projection axis parameter refers to each host's local axis. This means that the scattering will be consistent whatever the host's orientation. This is also convenient if a composition possesses several hosts with different orientations.
In Face space mode, instances are not projected from a single direction anymore. Instead, each face of the host is populated individually. This makes it possible to generate scattering all over non-flat hosts.
In Skatter 1, a similar behavior could be achieved with the Wrap (UV) mode. However, it was only compatible with random distributions.
Zones
Zones let you group similar objects together, like patches of flowers in a field or lawn.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
Size | The approximate size of each zone |
Blur | Smoothness at the boundaries between zones |
Noise | Randomly mixes objects to introduce more variety |
By default, each zone will contain a single type of object. However, if you organize your objects into object groups, then you can produce zones that contain different objects.
It's also possible to create empty zones without any object by creating an empty object group and setting its probability as desired.
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