form•Z | Grass

Maxwell Grass

Maxwell Grass allows you to quickly and easily and create many types of realistic grasses in your project. Grass is a parametric geometry modifier, which means that it simply 'grows' on your existing form•Z terrain model (or any other objects).

The general workflow for setting up grass through the plugin is outlined below. See sections that follow for details on each step.

Workflow

• 1. Define. Grass Definitions are created in the project's Grass Library.
• 2. Apply. One or more Grass Definitions are applied to any number of objects, via Object Attributes.
• 3. Render. Grass is generated at render time.

Define: Grass Library

The form•Z plugin introductes the concept of Grass Definitions, which are defined and stored in a Grass Library. To invoke the Grass Library, select Extensions> Maxwell Render> Grass, or click on  in the Maxwell Attributes pane (see Grass Object Attributes, below).

• New Definition: Create new Grass Definition in the project.
• Delete Definition: Deletes selected definition in the list.
• File Menu:
  
  • Open: Open a Grass Definition file from disk. Definition is added to the Library.
  • Open and Replace: Open a Grass Definition file from disk. Currently selected Definition is replaced with the one opened.
  • Save: Save a Grass Definition file to disk.

Clicking on any Grass Definition in the list will load its parameters and present them on the right:

• Grass Definition: Name of the Definition. Definitions, like materials, can be renamed at any time without severing the link to the objects to which they are applied.
• Material:
  
  • Parent Object: The grass will inherit the material of the object to which it is applied.
  • Referenced MXM:Select an MXM on disk. If you intend on reusing the grass definition in multiple, unrelated projects, this is best option. (If you load the definition into another project, it will not require a specific form•Z material to already exist.)
  • formZ Material: The grass will use the specified form•Z project material. Good for making quick changes to the material.

Descriptions of the remaining parameters may be found here: Maxwell Grass.

The Grass Library is stored with your project.

Apply: Grass Object Attributes

To apply a Grass Definition to an object, select the object, Click on the Pick Tool Attributes tab, and select Maxwell Attributes...

The Grass-specific controls appear in the 'Geometry Modifiers' section.

• Add Definition: Adds an existing  Grass Definition to the object. Select from the resulting list.
• Remove Definition: Removes Grass Definition from the object. (Does not delete the definition from the project.)
• Edit: Edit in the Grass Library.
  
  
• Enabled: May be used to temporarily disable this Definition on the current object.
  
  

More than one definition may be applied to the same object.

Render

There are a few things to keep in mind when using grass, from a resources point of view:

• Grass uses very little storage space. This is good in that a .fmz project with lots of grass will be pretty much the same size as one without (other things being equal).

• Using grass will not affect performance of form•Z during modeling in any way(compared with, say, millions of components).

• Grass can consume a great deal of memory when it is rendered. Fire rendering with a lot of grass on OSX (32-bit) or Windows 32-bit can lead to out-of-memory issues.

• However, rendering in Maxwell Render (standalone renderer) will use all the memory available on your system, so large quantities of grass can be rendered.