The Power of EcoSystem™ with Native Instancing!
Carbon Scatter is the most simple and straightforward solution for creating complex and detailed populations using the native instancing technologies of 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema4D, Softimage or LightWave*.
The Carbon Scatter plug-ins integrate e-on's patented EcoSystem™ algorithms directly inside leading CG applications, allowing you to populate your scenes with millions of native objects, and render them with your favorite renderer.
* Currently, only the 3ds Max version is commercially available. A free Open Beta for Cinema4D and Maya will be released shortly.
Stay tuned for other versions coming soon.
The following table shows a quick summary for each version:
Carbon ScatterSingle |
Carbon ScatterMulti |
Carbon ScatterMulti-CE |
|
Number of supportedapplications |
1 | All | All |
Included SolidgrowthCSplants |
8 | 8 | 100+ |
Compatible SolidGrowthCS™file formats |
.csveg | .csveg | .csveg & .csvz |
Network Rendering |
Unlimited Rendernodes |
Unlimited Rendernodes |
Unlimited Rendernodes |
Top Carbon Scatter Benefits
Population Technology
- Patented EcoSystem™ technology!
- Non overlapping instances
- Variations of instances with SolidGrowthCS plants
- Animated instances
Powerful Layering System
- Stack multiple EcoSystem population layers
- Add multiple objects to each layer
- Control affinity between layers
Advanced Instancing
- Control density, size, orientation, etc. of instances
- Advanced fractal algorithms for natural populations
- Full control of population parameters using graph
- Image based populations
Interactive Instance Painting
(Only available in 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and Softimage)- Paint onto objects or in the global EcoSystem
- Paint at any angle, including under objects
Rendering
- Native rendering using V-Ray or MentalRay
- Render millions of instances
- Mutlithreaded, renders using all your CPUs
User Interface
- Accurate preview using boxes, bilboards or full geometry
- Easy to use interface
- Direct access to instance materials
- Cull instances outside of camera frustrum
Carbon Scatter Flavors
Carbon Scatter comes in 3 flavors: Single, Multi and Multi-CE (Content Edition).
- Carbon Scatter Single can be used with one of the compatible applications installed on your system (choice of the host application is done upon order). It will work with all compatible renderers for the selected host application (e.g. mentalray and V-Ray for 3ds Max).
- Carbon Scatter Multi can be used with all compatible applications and renderers installed on your system.
- Carbon Scatter Multi-CE includes over 100 SolidGrowthCS plants and can be used with all compatible applications and renderers installed on your system.
Carbon Scatter - EcoSystem™ Technology
Revolutionary EcoSystem™ Technology
Real world natural environments are extremely complex. Just think of the millions of plants, trees and rocks that make up the landscape around you.
Thanks to Carbon Scatter, simply add any kind of object to the EcoSystem population list to easily populate your scenes with millions of plants, trees, stones and achieve a totally new level of natural complexity.
Of course, an EcoSystem can contain more than one type of object: add an unlimited number of elements to the population list, and control the relative presence and size of each element in the EcoSystem.
Automated Smart Scattering
The EcoSystem technology does not merely scatter the objects randomly across the surface, but actually decides where to place them according to the relief of the underlying geometry.
So, just like in nature, more trees will grow on flat areas than on steep slopes, and no objects will be placed where they are likely to “fall down”. You can control the influence of this effect easily.
Powerful Layered EcoS
yste
m Materials
A single EcoSystem material can have any number of layers, each layer with its own population list and full set of controls.
You can easily influence EcoSystem populations according to altitude, slope or orientation. You can even take advantage of Carbon Scatter's powerful function graph to control almost every aspect of the population.
For example, use a fractal noise generator to control the distribution of EcoSystem objects, or use a bitmap to limit distribution to specific areas. On top of this, the population density can also depend on time.
Affinity and Repulsion
EcoSystem layers can influence one another: by using the affinity and repulsion parameters, it’s possible to define a relationship between two layers.
For instance, using affinity, trees in the first layer can affect the distribution of grass in the second layer, so that the grass grows only around the trees.
Paint Plants and Objects with the EcoPainter*
The EcoSystem painting tool (EcoPainter) lets you interactively paint EcoSystems over any surface (or group of surfaces).
Painted instances can be attached to the underlying surface (they will move with it), or they can be independent.
Painting can be performed with a mouse or with a tablet, which gives you the ability to control additional parameters through pressure.
* This feature is only available in 3ds Max and Cinema4D (due to restrictions in other product SDKs)
Free Paint
You can paint over any number of selected objects, even the entire scene. While you paint in any direction, the instances are automatically mapped and aligned to the surface.
You can paint a mix of all the items in your population list, or paint any single item separately. Brush strokes can be undone at any time, or you can clear the whole EcoSystem for a fresh start.
Advanced EcoSystem Control
You can drag multiple plants from the plant browser into the EcoSystem population list, making the preparation of complex EcoSystems a lot quicker.
When painting EcoSystems, you can paint with the underlying EcoSystem material rules applied, so that, for instance, the influence of slope and altitude or the sizing rules are taken into account when painting instances.
Carbon Scatter - SolidGrowthCS Plants
SolidGrowthCS
The SolidGrowthCS format allows you to generate up to 4 variations of each plant species. By default, each plant species ships pre-computed once (i.e. each plant is available as one single geometry), but you can easily add more diversity to each species by choosing a higher number of variations . The number of variations to generate is user controlable.
SolidGrowthCS is a special version of SolidGrowth, e-on's unique vegetation technology. SolidGrowthCS plants are prepared from their SolidGrowth counterparts and precomputed for seamless operation using native instancing capabilities.
SolidGrowthCS plants are available in 2 levels of detail (user controllable).
Add diversity to your EcoSystems!
The SolidGrowthCS format allows you to generate up to 4 variations of each plant species. By default, each plant species ships pre-computed once (i.e. each plant is available as one single geometry), but you can easily add more diversity to each species by choosing a higher number of variations . The number of variations to generate is user controlable.
If you decide to increase the number of variations of a given species, additional variations (shape, height etc...) will be generated and saved in all corresponding proxy file formats (native, mental ray or V-Ray proxies).
Once processed, the variations are automatically embedded into the SolidGrowthCS species, so this operation needs to be done only once.
When added to an EcoSystem, each instance of the SolidGrowthCS plant will be automatically and randomly populated using one of the embedded variations.
Carbon Scatter Plant Formats
Carbon Scatter plant species are available in two formats: .CSVEG and .CSVZ.
- .CSVZ is exclusive to Carbon Scatter Multi-CE. CSVZ files cannot be read* by Carbon Scatter Single nor Multi.
- .CSVEG is Carbon Scatter's standard plant species file format. All 3 versions of Carbon Scatter are compatible with this format.
Carbon Scatter Multi-CE ships with a collection of 100+ SolidGrowthCS plant species. Carbon Scatter Single and Multi ship with a basic collection 8 SolidGrowthCS plant species.
A vast library of additional SolidGrowthCS plants (in CSVEG format) will be available in the near future from Cornucopia3D.
Please note that Carbon Scatter is NOT compatible with regular .VEG SolidGrowth plants (the Vue format).
* The Multi-CE collection of 100+ plant species will be available for purchase at Cornucopia3D by users of Carbon Scatter Single or Multi, either separately or as a bundle. However, if you are interested in this collection, we recommend that you purchase a license of Multi-CE directly, as this will be more cost effective than purchasing the collection separately.
iPPFigure tag
- Figure Lock - Adds or removes Restriction tags to Figure's mesh object and iPPBase bones.
- Zero Figure, Pose, Morphs.
- Reset Figure, Pose, Morphs.
- Remove dials, morphs, unset morphs, animation.
- "Use Bulges" switch: enable/disable bulges in bend deformations for entire figure.
- Bulge "Multiplier" to vary bulge effect per XYZ axis.
- Symmetry:
Left-to-Right, Right-to-Left, Swap
– Arms, Legs, Other (excludes Arms/Legs), All
– Apply to Pose.
– Apply to Morphs.
– Applicable to animation keys or static pose. - Body Part Poser Parameter Window-like support
(see iPPBase bone object below for more details). - Body Part (via PolygonSelection tag) Visibility support:
– Invisible body parts are not seen in either the Editor or Render or both.
– Body Parts are collected in the tag's Attribute Manager as
– checkboxes for easy toggling of display.
– Swap button to quickly exchange Editor and Render visibility settings.
– "Show All", "Hide All", "Toggle", "Transfer" buttons to improve
– workflow for both Editor and Render visibility.
– Visible states set from loaded Poser scenes or content. - Figures conformed in files loaded already conformed.
- Conform figures interactively by dropping conformer figure object into conformee figure's iPPFigure tag Conform To linkbox and Conform.
- Drag-n-Drop Conforming/Unconforming.
- Display properties: Full, Box, Skeleton.
- Direct Tool support.
- Collision Proxy creation.
- Bendy Proxy support- reduced polygon mesh for Hair/Clothilde collisions that bends with figure in pose or animation.
- Material Zone Visibility.
- Create Master dial to control non-zero dials.
- Create Morphs as well as write them into new Poser CR2 from reference CR2 or as Inj/Rem Pose files.
- Load Morph Target onto Figure from Poser morph target Wavefront .obj file.
iPPObject tag
- Identifies Poser Props, Cameras, and Lights.
- Display properties: Full, Box, Skeleton
- Direct Tool support.
iPPBase bone object
- Figure rigging using iPPBase bone hierarchy below geometry – Each iPPBase bone represents a Poser Figure body part.
- Props, Cameras, and Lights receive one iPPBase bone object.
- Zero Body Part, Reset (to pose memorized in Poser - initValue), Zero Morphs.
- "Use Bulges" switch: enable/disable bulges in bend deformations for Body Part.
- Bulge "Multiplier" to vary bulge effect per axis.
- "Hide Zero-Value Morph|Master Dials" switch hides morph or master dials with a value of 0 to reduce dial clutter.
- Dials grouped into Transform, Morph, or Other foldable groups.
- Remove dials, morphs, unset morphs, animation.
- Scales can be converted between propagating or non-propagating.
- Multiple and parented figures are handled properly.
- Improved! Dynamic Axial-based weights.
- Pose application
- Animation application
- Animateable through Attributes Manager using standard Cinema 4D keyframing resources.
- Poser Parameter Window-like support using Attribute Manager sliders:
– iPPDial tags on each iPPBase represent Poser body part dials (channels).
– Support for Dial Characteristics with Edit button on each slider. Value, Min, Max, Step settings. Reset (initValue) button.
– Identification of Master and/or Slave dials. - Bulges: Now very close to Poser bulges - Bulge Multiplier may be needed to increase/decrease effect on some bulges.
iPP Dial Tag system
- Poser Dial/Channel support: Scale, PropagatingScale, Translate, Rotate, ValueParms (master dials), and Morphs. Taper not supported.
- Dials simulate Poser value operations interpreted into Cinema 4D values in order
to retain accurate interpretation of Master/Slave dial interactions. - Master-Slave Control: FBM (Full Body Morph), PBM (Partial Body Morph), JCM (Joint Controlled Morph), ERC, and other Master-Slave dial configurations, including archaic 'linkParms'.
- Morphs integrated into the iPP Dial tag.
- Morph application
- Morph INJection and REMoval
- Animation application (morph)
- PMD external binary morph support from Poser 6+.
C4DFigure tag
- Allows you to conform regular old Cinema 4D polygon objects to loaded interPoser Pro Figures!
- Conform using Poser body part naming-conventions (e.g.: BODY, hip, lHand, ...) on polygon object's PointSelection, PolygonSelection, or VertexMap tags (Point/Polygon Selections converted to VertexMaps).
- If the object has PolygonSelection tags, you can also conform using the Poser Figure's Joint Parameters.
- Option to retain created VertexMap tags if unconformed from Poser Figure.
- To be added: something like PhiBuilder so that non-conforming 'bodyparts' on the Cinema 4D polygon object can be boned into the hierarchy.
iPP Tool
- Allows selection of Poser Camera, Light, Prop, and Figure iPP Base objects. No Multi-Select at this time.
- Highlight Color configurable in Attribute Manager(9.0+)/Active Tool Manager(8.2/8.5) for iPP Tool.
- Option to enable/disable body part highlighting.
- Option to skip conforming Figures for easier posing of main Figure.
- Option to enable/disable Rotate/Twist control transparency.
- StatusBar shows currently highlighted selection and tool operation. Bubble Help or HUD can be used as well.
- Left Mouse Button + SHIFT (over Poser object) to traverse and highlight selection list.
- Left Mouse Button + SHIFT (not over Poser object) to toggle "Show Hightlights".
- Left Mouse Button + CTRL to traverse through operations.
- Left Mouse Button to select and start operation.
Operations:
– Select: Select bodypart (iPP Base object).
– Translate: Translate either about screen plane or along bodypart axis (same as dialing).
– Scale: Scale either overall scale (Scale dial) or separate bodypart scales (ScaleX, ScaleY, ScaleZ, etc.).
– Rotate: Rotate both Joint axes or any constrained axis/axis-pair.
– Twist: Rotate Twist axis only.
– Universal: Translate, Scale, Rotate all with one visual control!
Axes can be constrained in the same way as the Cinema 4D tools by highlighting the axial control and dragging. For Translate and Scale, there are also Planar constraints that work the same as the Cinema 4D tools. *X-Y-Z keys no longer used for constraining axes - Without constraints, these standard interactive transforms are used:
– Translation occurs about the screen plane.
– Scale affects overall scale, not the X,Y,Z components.
– Rotate rotates both Joint axes. - Visual display of current operation mode.
- Tool settings automatically stored and retrieved from file 'ipptool.prf'.
iPP CamFrame
- Point Camera (or other object) at Figure body part with this tag.
- Select figure and body part from those in scene using drop-down lists.
- *OR* use the AutoPoint feature which points to the body part selected by the iPP Figure tag.
iPP IKChain and IKGoal (Unofficial)
- Rudimentary IK system support via iPP IKChain Expression tag added to iPP Figure objects.
- Easily set the End and Anchor body parts.
- Quickly add Goal and Tip end-effector either by drag-n-drop or automatic-creation buttons.
- Record IK animation with Record buttons.
- Enable and set IK link body part limits and weights.
Additional Information
- Affectors are now fully handled to allow such features as body handles to work properly.
- Portability of C4D documents containing interPoser Pro content between Windows and MacOS.
- Backward compatibility of C4D documents containing interPoser Pro content will be maintained.
- Spanish language support (no Spanish documentation yet).
- Copy-Paste.
- Recent Content and Scenes.
- BVH Import.
- Favorites. Supports both Poser content and scenes.
- Joint Parameter editing.
- Texture reference updating.
- interPoser Ltd support in Pro using Pro Wavefront OBJ import.
- Dynamic Hair import as Spline or Hair object.
- iPP Data Folder path so you can set location of .prf files, recents, favorites, IPPLog.txt, and temporary files.
- Multi-License, License Server support.
- Master-Slave Creation, Deletion, Editing
Minimum System Requirements
Vue is a 32 & 64 bits application, designed for the Windows® 32/64 bits XP, Vista and Windows 7 and Intel Mac OS X platforms.
Please note that the minimum requirements indentified below may result in slow response times and long renders. Please read further on for recommended system configurations.
Recommended System Spaces
- Windows 64 bit (XP, Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS X v10.6
- Multi-core CPU (Core I7, Intel QuadCore, or Mac Pro),
- 4GB+ of RAM,
- 4GB+ of free Hard Disk space (on the drive hosting the OS),
- An OpenGL accelerated video board
Macintosh
- Mac OS X v10.5+,
- 2GHz MacIntel processor or faster,
- 1GB of free RAM (2GB recommended),
- 200 MB of free Hard Disk space,
- 1024x768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended).
Windows
- Windows XP/XP64/Vista 32/64, Win 7 32/64
- 2GHz Pentium IV or better processor,
- 1GB of free RAM (2GB recommended),
- 200 MB of free Hard Disk space,
- 1024x768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended).
An OpenGL accelerated video board is not required, but is a big plus.
Supported Applications
Macintosh:
CINEMA 4D
- 32/64 bit versions: Cinema 4D R11.5 and R12
Maya
- 32/64 bit versions: Maya 2009 to 2012
Supported Applications
Windows:
3DSMax
- 32/64 bit versions: 3DSMax 2009 to 2012*
CINEMA 4D
- 32/64 bit versions: Cinema 4D R11.5 and R12
Maya
- 32/64 bit versions: Maya 2009 to 2012
Supported Renderers
Rendering of the Carbon Scatter scene elements is entirely done by the host application's renderer.
Compatibility
- A license of Carbon Scatter Single can be used with one of the compatible applications and renderers installed on your system.
- A license of Carbon Scatter Multi or Carbon Scatter Multi-CE can be used with all of the compatible applications and renderers installed on your system.(1)
Supported Renderers
- Carbon Scatter for 3ds Max works with MentalRay and V-Ray renderers.
- Carbon Scatter for Maya works with MentalRay, and V-Ray renderers.
- Carbon Scatter for Cinema4D works with the native renderer, and should work with all other renderers that are compatible with Cinema4D instances*. Such renderers include VrayC4D or m4d (mental ray for Cinema4D) for instance.
* At this point, we cannot guarantee that all such renderers will work. A Trial version of Carbon Scatter will be released very shortly.
We recommend that you wait until this trial version is released to verify compatibility, prior to placing your order.
MentalRay and V-Ray Compatibility
Carbon Scatter is fully compatible with MentalRay's specific technologies, such as Sun&Sky, Photometric Lights, etc.
Carbon Scatter is fully compatible with V-Ray's specific Sun and Sky technologies.
Support of other Host Applications
Currently, Carbon Scatter is only available for 3ds Max, Maya and Cinema 4D.
If you purchase a license of Carbon Scatter
Multi
orMulti-CE
, you will automatically receive access to the other applications as soon as they are supported.A version for LightWave and Softimage is under consideration, however feasability is hard to assess at this point and a version for these applications should not be expected for a while.
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