Instances to Mesh

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Instances to MeshAuthor: Grahame Fuller
Here's a set of compounds for converting an instance particle cloud to a polygon mesh. You can transfer UVs, etc. It's designed to work when you use a group for the instance shapes. Note that if you are using a small number of shapes (small enough that you can reference each one directly), then Guillaume Laforge's compounds are probably faster. You can get them here.

Usage Notes: To use, put Convert Instances to Mesh in an ICE tree on an empty mesh. It works only with the »self« object. You also need to store the shape index on the point cloud and reference it in the compound's ppg. To transfer attributes, attach one of the Transfer compounds to the Execute port — there's one for each component type.

If you transfer the MaterialIDs, then you can use the Copy Materials checkbox. This works only if all objects in the group have identical Materials arrays. The transfer is based on finding locations on the group geometry, so it's best to move the instance masters apart if they overlap. It uses the 2013 version of »Build Array from Set« which supports topology-type attributes. To use it with Softimage v2012, you'll need to replace it with »Build Array from Per Point Data«.


local backup: Convert Instances to Mesh.2.0.xsicompound Convert Instances to Mesh.2.0.xsicompound Transfer Edge Attribute.xsicompound Transfer Polygon Attribute.xsicompound Transfer PolyNode Attribute.xsicompound Transfer Vertex Attribute.xsicompound

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rray
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Re: Instances to Mesh

Post by rray » 06 Apr 2016, 14:29

It's the UVW attribute under texture projection that needs to be transfered (to a custom attribute, just type "uvw", should be enough .. a different tex. projection is not possible for some reason)
You can then associate it with the materials later (see autodesk.com link above) . (Am a bit short on time can post some more info tonight)
softimage resources section updated Jan 5th 2024

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Re: Instances to Mesh

Post by SPJ » 06 Apr 2016, 16:02

Perfect rray, thats the texture projection coming through great! Like you said, edges are an issue, but I'm currently referencing basic cuboids. I've given them a slight bevel on the edges and I'm going to give the polys in between a shading to match the average colour of the texture on the 6 main sides. I'm still to look over the materialIDs all coming through as 0 but I'm about to start looking at that now.

Basically I'm making a way of quickly generating split faced tiling such as this Image

I'm off to solve the materialID issue, I'll let you know how I get on. Appreciate the help btw!

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Re: Instances to Mesh

Post by SPJ » 06 Apr 2016, 16:56

It seems that all my polygons are getting a MaterialID of 0 regardless of what I do. The faces cluster consists of the large poly faces on each side of the cuboid. I showed the MaterialID value and everything is all 0! Not sure if they are being set back to 0 by something (no idea what) or if they are never getting to 1 at any point. Very odd.

As I understand it from the documentation 0 means it will use the assigned material in the render tree. 1 and above selects from the material array.
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Brick 4 Ice Tree
Brick 4 Ice Tree

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rray
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Re: Instances to Mesh

Post by rray » 06 Apr 2016, 22:23

That's probably a bug. What works here is when you move the compounds that access clusters into a different region of the stack, like the animation region.

I had an idea how to solve the uv transfer problem (just add a bit of the adjacent edge vectors) I'll post something in a few minutes.
softimage resources section updated Jan 5th 2024

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Re: Instances to Mesh

Post by rray » 06 Apr 2016, 23:24

here's an update to the Convert Instances to Mesh.2.0 compound
It should fix the uv border issue, the node lookup point is shifted a 0.00001 fraction of the adjecent edges lengths, that way the right polyon node is picked.
Optionally the old behavior can be restored (uncheck "apply node fix" in the compound)
Attachments
Convert Instances to Mesh(rcfix).2.1.xsicompound
(137.73 KiB) Downloaded 286 times
Village.zip
sample scene, the factory building has several cluster materials applied
(253.89 KiB) Downloaded 265 times
softimage resources section updated Jan 5th 2024

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Re: Instances to Mesh

Post by SPJ » 07 Apr 2016, 12:05

FYI I've just had the file opened in SI 2015 and the materialID problem is gone. It looks like a problem/bug with SI 2014. I'm going to rebuild my scene tonight, hopefully using both 2015 and the new compound I'll achieve the goal of procedurally generating split face tiles!

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