World Building MegaScatter - Easy Procedural object placement

MegaScatter is a system that allows you to easily scatter any number of objects in to your scene into areas either defined by splines or by textures. You have complete control over how many objects of each type are added to the scene as well as how they are placed. You can define random rotation, scaling, offset values as well as color variation. Objects can be told to place them selves on any underlying terrain or collider objects and align themselves to that object. You can define limits such as the slope angle an object can appear on as well as a range of heights so you can easily have grass appear a low levels turning to rocks at higher levels. The scatter system can also be told which objects in the scene to not scatter on and how far away from those objects an item can be places. And objects can be told not to overlap themselves or other objects in the scatter layer.

Objects can be scattered either in the editor or can be scattered at run-time to the options you have defined. Scattered objects can either be scattered as copies of the objects themselves ot the system can be told to combine all the meshes to massively reduce the Draw Call count. Another great advantage of having the objects scattered at run-time is greatly reduced file sizes and loading times. The demo scene in the video is only 10Mb when the objects are scattered at run-time, the same scene produced normally would be 43MB not to mention the hours it would take to position the objects by hand.

And another great advantage of the scatter system is the scene can very easily be re scattered to suit different platforms or CPU usage without having to rebuild the scene or having etc in the editor.


MegaScatter is available now on Asset Store and more info on the system is on our website at www.megafiers.com

Video of MegaScatter Scene
The demo scene just contains a simple terrain and a model of a house, everything else in the scene (apart from flying things) is added procedurally at runtime with MegaScatter using 1 simple flower object, 2 simple grass objects and 2 rock objects. All the color variations, scaling, rotation etc is handled by the system and at any time you could just say I want more or less objects and the scene will be repopulated for you. Even the data that drives the swaying plant shader is generated by the system with control over how the plants react.

 

Awesome. Is that a Unity terrain or a mesh terrain? If the latter, will it be compatible with Unity terrain, to take advantage of the grass culling/tree billboarding in large scenes?

 

That is a Unity terrain in that scene but it could be a mesh terrain or just a series of mesh objects. We will be adding support for scattering terrain objects in a later release but initial release will be without that feature. There is a big todo list

 

Nice... so assuming you had a single texture on the steeper slopes of you unity terrain, you could potentially scatter some rock meshes to that texture and tweak the random stuff to go for a kind of skyrim vibe, no?

 

You can indeed, there are options to limit the scattering of the object to within height limits and or slope angle limits, or you could just outline the area you want with some splines as well as the other limits. I am working on the docs and website for the system at the moment and will be adding those to the website with guide videos over the coming days so that will give you a better idea of the options available. Always open to ideas, as with all our assets they have been converted from our own tools developed over the years but as we found with MegaFiers and MegaShapes how we use them is very different from how others would like to use the tools and it is always fascinating to hear the ideas we hadn't thought of.

 

I was asked via email about the draw call decrease the system can provide so did a test to compare the scene built with MegaScatter compared to as if it were bult with multiple objects. The scene contains 3145 objects and the draw call count with objects is nearly 10,000, the mesh combining system got the object count down to 46 which meant a draw call count of about 250 (the flower mesh has 7 materials for some reason), if it were a single material then the draw count for that scenes scattered objects would be around 100 which is quite a reduction from 10,000.

 

Chris, this is awesome! I can see this greatly streamlining my workflow for populating terrain, not to mention optimizing drawcalls with the mesh combining. I can't wait for this to appear on the asset store.

Now, if you can just add data serialization to Wrap vertex mapping, I'll have everything I need. (Sorry for the minor thread hijack. )

 

That has been started

 

Ooh, very nice!

Okay so back to MegaScatter (in this thread, at least ):

Can you perform mesh combining with prefabs that have LOD meshes and thus support LOD rendering?

Can you mesh combine in procedural "clumps"? By that, I mean somehow having MegaScatter subdivide scattered objects into groups of objects in proximity to each other and then mesh combining those groups, rather than combining everything into one combined mesh. I'm thinking that approach would better support occlusion culling, but I'd be interested in your perspective.

 

What are the chances of seeing an example of the rock-meshes-on-cliff-slopes I mentioned earlier? Settlers 7 is another good example, too.

Also, can the scatter results be manually tweaked? And can they be seeded or baked, so they are the same across game instances in a multiplayer game?

 

@chiapet1021 - Scattering objects with LODs can be done with the scatter object mode, there would be no combining of meshes at the moment, I will add that to the wish list. You can clump in areas, you can set a max vertex count for each combined mesh which will allow you to make more or less combined objects, or you can define multiple splines to define the regions. It is interesting just how many cool ideas come out from other minds

@PrimeDerektive - You should certainly be able to scatter to cliff tops with combination of slow and height limits, do you have any example picture of the effect you are looking for and I will see if I can create a replica with what I have.

 

hrmm, maybe something like this?



Also what about those other questions?

 

Very cool! And thanks. Follow-up question: If you use "max vertex count" to determine mesh combining, does MegaScatter combine meshes closest to each other? Is it random? Is it based on other parameters like object type? All of the above?

 

It should be no problem scattering the rocks and trees like in the image just comes down to defining the areas to scatter in either by texture or splines. The scattering random function is seed driven so it will be the same each time or on different platforms.

Currently the mesh combiner will make objects for each different object type being scattered and that is then also split between the number of splines or color masks. So if you have a scatter of 4 different object types scattered to 3 spline areas then that would create 12 combined mesh objects, and those combined objects could be split further if they use more vertices than the limit that is set. I will be adding an extra option to group closest objects, which will likely go hand in hand with handling LOD meshes as well. But as it stands the way you build the splines can give you pretty fine control over the end grouping of meshes. Plus you can always use the Object mode scatter which will not reduce draw calls but will keep all the LOD data etc.

If there is a desired way that something should be done in your view do let me know.

 

Sounds like you about covered it. Just spitballing here, but I think if you could combine multiple object types for mesh combining, that ability combined with your closest grouping method would be even more powerful for draw call optimization. That way, I could mesh combine both the trees and flowers close to each other within the same spline, for example.

 

Some other questions/ideas (sorry ):

Are there any limitations to scripting for a prefab that you scatter?

Are the scattered objects stored in any sort of data structure that can be used at runtime to access individual objects and interact with them post-scattering?

I'm wondering if MegaScatter could be used for something like procedural placement of gathering/resource nodes in a strategy or online game.

 

One thing on combining different meshes in to the same object, does that actually reduce draw calls as they would still have different materials and shaders so there would be no differene from 4 objects with different materials compared to one object with 4 materials. Pretty sure when I did the mesh combining in MegaShapes there was no difference in the draw calls when combining meshes of different materials, maybe something has changed from 3.5?

I will be adding the next update the option to have a list saved of the scattered objects, so that could be used to query positions etc, it will also be used to do run time scattering even faster as positions will be saved and not have to recalculated, it will also allow manual manipulation of the scatter result for fine tuning.

We will also be adding a Query Object system where you can take the ScatterQuery class and add it to an object and add your own code that will be called for finding a position, placing, etc etc so the system can be easily tailored for custom scattering solutions.

Just working on the docs, website and tutorial videos for the system so hopefully soon you will be able to read the docs prior to release.

Thanks for the ideas , keep them coming

 

Oh, good call on the materials keeping the draw calls the same. I suppose you'd have to atlas and bake the textures into the combined mesh in order for draw calls to be reduced. I'm not that concerned about that needing to be in there. Others might, but then you're getting into Mesh Baker territory, and this doesn't need to be another version of that by any means.

I like the ability to have and access a list of the scattered objects. I'm really seeing potential in an asset like this for all sorts of procedural scattering. I was thinking, for example, you could scatter a bunch of killable mob NPCs at runtime, so that their spawn points aren't always the exact same location, but they would be restricted to the splines you define. In that situation, it would be awesome to be able to "scatter" a mob again after it's been killed. Not sure exactly how that might work with MegaScatter; maybe I'll figure that out after reading through your docs.

As long as there aren't limitations on what type of object or prefab you can scatter, I can see this being hugely powerful from a procedural gameplay perspective.

 

Love the thought of a mob spawn scatter. The ability to set up scatter spawns of deer/wolves/etc in a forest, bears around mountain edges, goblins/orcs/bandits around their camps would be an awesome tool! Had already been lurking and reading the thread with some excitement about the prospect this tool is showing. If the mob spawn scatter is also part of it, I'm definitely sold!

As someone who is fairly new to the Unity world and who is currently building a fresh toolkit of assets, what makes Mega-Scatter stand out from other tools already out there? Terrain Composer, Axis Game Factory, and others seem to have the functionality with procedural type methods to place objects. What is really different about it with how you are planning Mega-Scatter?

 

Spawning objects on/near splines or inside splines would be very simple with the system I can add some helper scripts for getting random positions for given set of splines, it will then just be a simple call such as GetPosIn, GetPosAlong etc and I guess those could be extended to take constraints such as slope, height etc but simple stuff to add for first update.

I have not actually looked at the other systems as I do the systems we need for our projects and then decide to turn some of them into Assets that others may want to use, but having had a quick look at say AGF some things that may well be different is ours will work on any objects not just Unity terrains, also the system can be told to do the scatter at runtime so greatly reducing file sizes and load times, and the values can be controlled via scripting for adjusting the scene at runtime as well, ie reducing the density for slower platforms, enabling disabling layers dependent on the game, ie leaves layer coming on for Autumn scene, flowers for spring, all with no memory overhead of having to store pre made scenes and data. The system is not meant to be a full blown terrain sculpter and level designer but to do what its name suggests scatters objects into defined regions with user defined constraints. I will investigate the systems more

 

Oh I hadn't thought of seasonal change! And if controlled by scripting, we could probably have scripts that do seasonal checks in order for a gradual color change/losing leaves in fall and a gradual blossoming/filling out the trees in spring.. sounds awesome!

 

@Shawn67: I think MegaScatter should be viewed as an asset that can complement Terrain Composer, AGF, etc. It does not replace them. Those tools you listed are first and foremost about creating and customizing terrain. MegaScatter sounds like it will be an asset that can help with populating terrain with objects, but it's not going to help with actually building and painting heightmaps. Some of MegaScatter's functionality may have overlap with object population in TC or AGF, but it can scatter so much more than just terrain-related meshes. And as SpookyCat already mentioned, you can use MegaScatter at runtime. That makes it extremely powerful and versatile.

@SpookyCat: Thanks for taking these ideas into consideration!

 

Yup.. Realize it has nothing to do with creating terrain.. Those products also can be used to populate grass, trees, and the other items that were shown in the samples.. Was mainly looking for what Mega-Scatter can do that the others can't. The ability to use it at runtime via a script is a key difference.. Love the idea of being able to control which trees populate a landscape dependent on the season by using the script.. And the prospect that it might be able to scatter mob spawns would be cool

 

MegaScatter has been submitted to the Asset Store pending review. I have put the docs up online at our website so if you are interested you can take a look through. Also put the webplayer demo up, click the image below to go to the demo page, it does allow you to re scatter the scene, will be doing a new demo to show more of the features and some of the uses of the system soon.

 

I'll be buying this to pretty much replace the terrible default Unity terrain detail meshes and grass. Is your demo scene included in the package? It would help save time in figuring out how to set up the grass and all that.

 

Looks like a really nice tool. I was just wondering before I took the plunge if there was any potential issues with creating a scattering of objects in the editor and then light mapping them? I'm guessing not but I wanted to check as when the word procedural is used it kind of means non static...

 

@Discord - Part of the demo scene is included, ie the terrain object and plants and rocks, it will not include the House, Well and tree models as they are created by others. The first release will also not include the scattering of objects as terrain detail objects as that will come in the next update, but just will scatter as objects or combined objects. We are working on the terrain side and other systems for culling from the camera etc, so check before you make a purchase decision that the feature you require has been added.

@cl-apps - There should be no problem light mapping the generated objects, I will double check that but lightmapping works for our other procedural system MegaShapes. Will check and report back today.

 

Just added the code from MegaShapes to allow the generation of lightmapping UV data for the mesh based scatters. If using the object scatter modes then the lightmapping uvs for those objects should be already present on each object as it is placed in the scene.

 

Sounds great just to clarify. If the object had Lightmap UV data already selected in the model dialog then that will still be present after using the MegaScatter tool?

One more thing, if I have a mesh that is basically hilly terrain. I apply a single texture with colour information to it. I apply the scatter and populate the coloured areas. Can I then remove the basic colour texture with something more detailed after without messing up what has been scattered about?

 

If you use the Object scatter mode then yes, as that modes just scatters whatever object you have chosen for the layer along with all its components, children etc. If you use the mesh scatter mode than that will create a new object and combine each layers meshes together for reduced draw calls etc so they will loose any component data etc, and it is the mesh mode where I have added the option to build the Lightmapping UV data.

As for the texture on a hill yes that is exactly one of the approaches for the texture based scatters, I will be doing a video guide for each mode of scattering but yes if you applied a texture to your hill object with the areas of scattering laid out then you can use that as the scatter guide for the system and then replace it with the correct material after the scatter. The other way is to define the width and length values for the scatter texture that covers the area you want and assign a color mask texture to use for that area, that will have the same effect and save having to change materials which maybe nicer if using at runtime for example.

 

Bought the package. Is there some trick to getting it to look as nice as the demo on your site? Even running the scene that's included with the package gives drastically different results.

The demo on your site:


And this is what it looks like running in Unity:


Is the different just the post processing?

 

Thank you for the purchase. For some reason Unity does not save the color space mode for scenes when submitted to the asset store, if you change that from gamma to linear then the lighting will be better. Other than that the difference is down to a custom tone mapping image effect and DOF image effect. If you run the we player and turn off both those you will see it is the same. Asset store authors were told recently that we should not include pro features in assets when submitted to the store, but if you have pro then just add the DOF image effect and a tone mapping one to get the same look. Oddly I keep getting told that those effects make the scenes look horrible and I should stop using them, I think the opposite.

 

Forgot to say there will be an update today hopefully that fixes a bug in the alignment code for placing objects on the ground in some situations as well as adding support for generating lightmapping uv data and vertex tangents, and a better system for surface offsets, also hope to get the video guides done.

 

This MegaScatter tutorial video shows the basics of creating a Scatter Mesh object, covering the creation of spline to define the area and scattering a single layer of Rocks into that spline. It covers scaling of the base mesh, adding variation to rotation and scaling and adding surface objects as well as ignore objects for the rocks to appear on. Finally it shows the slope constraint and height constraint options and snap values. Further videos coming soon covering the more advanced features and the other scatter types.

 

Like this but have a question.
In your demo the ball is roling through al other objects and it make sense with the gras for a better performance.
But can i switch on colliders for i.e. the stones or any objectgroup i scatter that i like?
I know i for sure will lost performance but i.e. for a wall it would be good if my player will not run through.

 

The demo does indeed have collision turned off but the Scatter system does allow you to build colliders for the scatter meshes, you can either use the mesh that is being scattered or you can select a proxy mesh to be used, so for example in the demo scene you could ask for the mesh collider to be be built using the flower mesh but seeing as that is quite complex you could pick a simple box object to use instead, that makes for a much more effiecnt collider. Obviously if you are using the Object scatter modes then any colliders etc that are applied to that object will remain so if it has a box collider then any time that object is scattered in the scene it will still have that collider info.

I will see if I can get a little video done showing the mesh collider options and the proxy options working.

 

Thank you for the aswer, i now a megascatter owner
Hope to see the video or demo scene because in your documentation i do not found the right place but maybe because it was to late and i get a little tired

 

Will be doing the video in the next day or two along with one showing the texture based scatter options. Will also be updating the docs to cover the new features added since the first release.

 

Is there a way to have a count (per scatter) that is less than the number of layers?

I'm definitely not complaining, but here's a couple of feature requests if you need ideas for improvement:
A way to duplicate layers or mass-edit a selection of layers.
An option to show the object/mesh when editing the layer to better determine the overlap radius.

Cheers

 

Thanks of the purchase. I like the idea of copying and duplicating a layer that would be a nice addition and I will get that added. When you choose the No Overlap option a yellow disc gizmo is displayed that shows the radius of the collision check, it is not the most obvious gizmo so I will see if I can get that improved as well. As for your first point though I don't quite understand, you have complete control over the counts and can override them per layer if you want to, so not sure what you mean when you say have a count that is less than the number of layers.

 

Nice software, as first I was a bit hesitant to click on this post cause well I miss read the title and thought it was about something else x.x but hearing about it from a friend I came back and glad I did to check this post out. Keep up the great work and looks like it will be very useful tool.

 

My apologies - I should have gone into more detail. If I create a prefab that spawns 5 objects from a set of 20 layers, it just doesn't create them. It doesn't create anything until the scatter count is greater than or equal to the layer count. In trying to get it to work, the count is the only thing that I changed to make it work. It's not a major issue; it's just a slight inconvenience. I've easily worked around it with another script that deletes random layers to make the layer count the same as the scatter count.

This small problem aside, thanks for creating such useful tools! All of the Mega tools are top-notch.

Cheers

 

Oh right I understand, I can see how that might happen in the float to int conversion, I will use a ceil on that to round up. You can always use the Force Count value on a layer to make sure you get a certain amount, I will adjust that to be a Min count. It is nice when tools are used by others as it does always throw up issues I don't see with my testing which all serve to make the system better and more useable for all.

 

Hi. I'm looking to use MegaScatter in a mobile game, so I'm very mindful of frame rate. Your demo looks amazing in YouTube pre-rendered form, but runs like a total dog on my 1.5 year old iMac. As in: about 2 frames a second, and only reaching reasonable frame rate when I turn everything off including the scattered meshes, which defeats the point. I've tried it in Firefox and Safari and have the same issue. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong but I can't think what that is. I was wondering if you had a cut down demo that showed a load of scattered grass elements (ideally a large field of grasses and flowers) without all the visual effects, that would definitely run smoothly on at least my iMac and hopefully an iPad?

 

Older Macs don't seem to enjoy the post effects and shadow rendering, it is a very complex scene with the stats window showing some 81 million vertices and all being deformed by a custom shader for the wind sway effect but still get 50fps on my PC and non cutting edge 3d card. There is a control in the options to change the scatter amount so you can disable all the effects then reduce the detail in the scatter. I currently don't have access to the hardware to build an IOS demo only Android. I will see if I can do a more cut down mobile type demo.

 

It would seem the soft shadows with very high res maps and 4 cascades is not helping the frame rate along with high quality water and reflections, turned all that off and getting 200fps

 

I turned all effects off and then had to turn scattering down to basically nothing. It is a really impressive demo video, although partly to do with the DOF and lighting effects. Would be great to see also a demo with just a simple scene with no effects and a liberal amount of object scattering to show the performance in a real-world scenario. I didn't think before that my 1.5 year old iMac classed as an "Older Mac". Time to upgrade I guess.

 

I'm trying to use Mega Scatter Object with a LODGroup prefab tree, however I receive an error:

MissingComponentException: There is no 'Renderer' attached to the 'Tree5A' game object, but a script is trying to access it.

If I use the LOD0 and LOD1 prefabs this works OK but then I lose the LOD functionality.... how do I use MegaScatter Object with LODGroups?

 

If you could submit a support ticket with the line numbers for the error and maybe a step by step guide so I can recreate the issue I will look into that.

 

New version in the Asset Store, this fixes a bug in the Object scatter mode where the first object did not have a renderer attached which would stop say LOD groups with an empty first object not scattering, also fixed an issue in the Remove Object system which would not remove some objects if they had inter object dependency ie a child object holding a reference to a parent object.

Changes in v1.11

• Fixed bug when object being scattered did not have a renderer, so things like LOD groups work correctly now.
  
• Fixed bug where the remove objects wouldn't work with some object hierarchies