UltraScenery - new territory [Commercial]
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The dates are all correct in the folder. I don't use DazConnect. I do have multiple content libraries, but US and all it uses are strictly in their own library.
Time for me to head to the office for the day, but I'll check versions for everything (and do some reinstalls just to make sure...) this evening when I get back.
Pardon if it has already been mentioned, but there was a time when most peoples' problems were with essentially running out of RAM for having the wrong setting under Render Settings -> [Editor] -> Optimization -> Instancing Optimization -> Memory / Speed / Auto
It could be crashing out if you are on Speed, or even Auto. <shrug> Just mentioning it because it used to be a pretty common solution to A LOT of trouble shooting efforts when US first came out.
That's all I got. Good Luck!
Well... Optimisation was on Auto, setting it to Memory made no difference. But the landscape does generate and after I crash US, all the layers are in fact there, including the last one of that particular environment that it hangs on. The scene renders, and after I have rendered I can also open US again - I have to render first, or it throws an error.
For now, I think I can live with this and without the new features. And who knows, this might be one of those weird problems that also clear up for no discernable reason.
Yeah my problem is the same as Nath's, in that for some reason now it just conks out near the end. And if I close it and look at the log file, this is the last few lines of the log file. For a long time this product work really well, but something of late not sure what has changed.
2022-12-06 19:52:03.703 [INFO] :: Begin asset load (merge): /environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/plants/USC Daisies 03.duf
2022-12-06 19:52:03.716 [INFO] :: Determining missing assets...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.724 [INFO] :: Setting textures...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.725 [INFO] :: Scanning for addons...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.730 [INFO] :: Creating node geometry...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.731 [INFO] :: Creating UV sets...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.731 [INFO] :: Creating materials...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.760 [INFO] :: Resolving legacy figures...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.760 [INFO] :: Sorting property groups...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.760 [INFO] :: Setting up follow targets...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.761 [INFO] :: Finished asset load (merge): 0m 0.57s - /environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/plants/USC Daisies 03.duf
2022-12-06 19:52:03.766 [INFO] :: Unlocking viewport redraw...
2022-12-06 19:52:03.766 [INFO] :: Viewport redraw unlocked.
2022-12-06 19:53:21.403 [WARNING] :: Script Error: Line 511
2022-12-06 19:53:21.403 [WARNING] :: TypeError: Result of expression 'ui.wFilterFeaturesCbx' [undefined] is not an object.
2022-12-06 19:53:21.404 [WARNING] :: Stack Trace:
<anonymous>()@D:/Daz Content Files/UltraScenery Series/Environments/Landscapes/UltraScenery/UltraSceneCreator.dse:511
2022-12-06 19:53:21.409 [INFO] :: Error in script execution: D:/Daz Content Files/UltraScenery Series/Environments/Landscapes/UltraScenery/UltraSceneCreator.dse
I am late to this and am not a programmer by no means. But something I have found looking in DIM's Install Manager - Downloads - and sort by file type. As I was searching out the folder path I just found another 'partial download' just now which I will have to uninstall and reinstall. Is it possible you both have a partial installation? Or a corrupted one?
Can you delete and download a completely fresh copy of US with DIM?
And for the record I haven't had issues on my MacBookPro M1, Win 10 laptop or Win 10 desktop with all the latests versions of Daz Studio, OS updates, and drivers for the Win 10 computers.
I install manually, so partial downloads aren't an issue (won't unzip). Corrupted downloads could be, though.
So: installed US to a clean directory - problem persists. Then took the same installation file, installed Studio, US and Accelerator clean on my 5-year old Win10 laptop that has only onboard graphics. US works fine - if painfully slow. The update shows up with the dropdown menu. So it's not the file.
I've already tested rollbacks for a number of graphics drivers, so it's unlikely to be that.
Ghosty has the problem in Win10, so it's not Win11 either.
All I know for certain is that earlier in the week, US worked and after I installed the update, it didn't quite. However, with the workaround of stopping US when it hangs it's still useable. So who know, the problem may disappear as mysteriously as it appeared.
@Nath I think you mentioned that you had UltraScenery products installed into their own content directory. I wonder if that has something to do with the problem. Did you also have the same content directory list on the old test computer that worked correctly?
That had only one content directory, I didn't bother installing anything else.
But that's tested easily enough: I've removed all content directories except for the US one and given it another go (after closing DS and starting it up again). And yes, now the pulldown is there, and US generates a landscape without issue.
Now, because I like living on the bleeding edge, I've added my Main Runtime back in, restarted DS, and US still works without a problem.
Again, adding my third runtime (which is for experiments and stuff), US still works.
Umm, okay, wow....
Barbult, I don't know what I fixed by messing with the runtimes, but your suggestion was definitely a push in the right direction.
The order of the content directories in the Content Directory Manager is significant. To resolve relative references, Daz Studio looks through the directories in the order they appear in the Content Directory Manager, I believe. Is your order different now?
Yes, the US Runtime is now first.
I'm wondering if I accidentally installed US in the main runtime earlier this year when I reinstalled everything - such a copy would not have been updated. Which wasn't a problem until recently.
And yes, there's an UltraScenery data directory in my main runtime. Now removed.
Mystery solved! I suspect @Ghosty12 has the same issue.
I love it when things make sense LOL
@Nath, the only way we were able to figure out this issue is because you doggedly continued to pursue it and provide detailed information about your configuration and the things you tested. Great job! I'm glad I was able to offer useful suggestions based on that info.
Thank you! Great bit of teamwork all in all :-)
I am still having issues, but something screwy is going on if I uninstall everything, and just reinstall the main plugin when I run it, it says that it is the accelerated version when it shouldn't so doing a database reset and repair and what not to see if it fixes what is going on.
But all this bit about runtime order and so on has me scratching my head, as have no idea what it being talked about.
Anyway after a database repair and even removing my Daz Studio settings, Ultrascenery stops at creating the daisies instances as the image below shows. I am not sure what is happening and I may have to do a complete OS reinstall, to clean up what ever is wrong, since I am not sure what else I can do.
@Ghosty12, have you moved anything around in your 'My DAZ 3D Content'? If I am understanding Barbult correctly, the order products show up is critical.
I download with DIM and allow everything to stay wherever it is filed there. Part of that is I honestly don't trust myself to not screw up things, like I did when I first started in 2016 and had no clue what I was doing. That was on my iMac which I finally gave up using for Daz Studio.
Thank you for the help.
As after getting all crotchety and complaining like a pork chop. 
I again read carefully and finally understood what was being said, for Ultrascenery is now working,m and seeing the new filter option now. 
Who would of thought that the placement in the Content Directory Management list, does indeed make difference now. For as far as I remember I don't think that I ever had to do it before. lol Thank you all. 
I feel like a bit of a twit right now, after my tirade. lol
Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to create a custom track/path? Or is there a plugin that does that?
Try the thread started by @barbult - there are lots of interesting things explained there, including on page 4 where she creates a railway track.
Sorry, I have some very basic quesitons.
What does noise actually do?
I'm looking at the manual but it doesn't really explain it. Does it only effect the terrain altitude variance? If so, if I set the max altitude to 0, it should have no effect, correct?
Or does it effect the vegetation?
Is there any way to influence the density of vegetation. For example, I want to do a park like environment–trees but less dense than in a forest.
Best way I have learned about US is to play with the numbers/sliders... Noise affects the ground height... etc... since it is on the scene tab working with the ground layer. Just remember black moves the terrain down and white moves it up.
Vegetation is on the Ecology tab.. and build tab says what each vegie is.
Play with the SEED number on the build tab... if you want less dense forest turn the number down... also you can turn off certain layers... like the trees.. etc... with the eyeball. Later on when you feel more adventurous... you can play with Masks... I'd done this a little and it's quite fun to place trees where you want them instead of the whole terrain.
Main thing is to HAVE FUN!
FYI.. I'm not an expert... some of what I said can be taken with a grain of salt... I know it works for me. :) I wanted to post so you didn't think you were being ignored... Time zones are the pitz in these forums.... lol
Can't wait to see what you come up with :)
As far as I know, the seed has nothing to do with the density of the vegetation. It simply changes the random number seed, which changes the random distribution of the plants (they will be in different places). If you want fewer trees, use a layer mask in the build tab. Just use a plain mid gray image in tree layers to cut the density of trees about in half. Or draw your own image mask in Photoshop to control where UltraScenery is allowed to put plants (white) and where UltraScenery is not allowed to put plants (black). You are still subject to the UltraScenery random placement within the white mask area, though. You can't make little tiny white dots in your mask and expect one tree in each dot.
Thanks Barb... I've not tried a gray mask... I've been playing with my own mask by copying the terrain with screen capture (wish we could copy the texture) but it's working ok. I did see a difference when I fiddled with the seed but maybe you are right it was just moving them around to a different location.
OK.. the gray mask works... :)
I also turned off the bigger trees so there are just saplings in the render... Nothing says you HAVE to use all the trees... Plus they rendered quicker... Hope this helps you lou_harper :)
One can always use Ultra Scenery Toolbox - Volume One if you want an easier way to work with masks. And why not get Ultra Scenery Toolbox - Volume II as well, it makes it easier dealing with the vegetation.
Strictly speaking they are not random numbers, they are pseudo-random - geernated by taking a number and performing operations on it that produce a wide scatter of values. The seed is the starting number, using the same seed should always produce exactly the same result (unless the system is using somethign like the last few digits of the time to modify the seed value or during the generation process).
I have both of those but I have not used them... yet... I was just trying to see what I could do with the basic set (in case peeps don't have the toolboxes ;) )
I managed to make my park but in the process I discovered something odd, and so there is a small suggestion to creators:
It would have been a good idea to name the oaks in the British set something slightly different, like British Oak. Because it's causing an issue if you mix the two kinds of oaks using Toolbox 1. The toolbox will prompt you to rename the second set, but the two kinds of oaks keep spawning in the same spot. I'm still rendering this, but you see what I mean. Maybe change the name in update?
I am able to reproduce the problem you identified. In my case, I used Oaks 1 and Britain 1. I used UST Ecology Engineer in Toolbox II to combine them. Some, but not all, of the trees were in exactly the same place, overlapping as you showed. I imagine the ecology creators were not thinking of UST Ecology Engineer when they built those ecologies with "Oaks" in different ecologies. However, you would get the same "rename" warning in UST Ecology Engineer if you tried to combine trees from different ecologies in the same package, too - for example some green and some orange trees from the Oaks package. The fact that the trees land in the same place probably means that some of the ecologies were created by reusing parts of previous ecologies. That is what I do when I create an ecology for myself. Nobody wants to reinvent the wheel from scratch.
So I don't think this is really a "bug". UltraScenery ecologies are working fine as they are designed to work in UltraSceneCreator. The toolbox is extending the UltraScenery capability and doing the best it can by identifying the duplicate layer name and and renaming it for you. When combining layers from different ecologies there is always the possibility of getting things too dense or having overlapping plants, because they were not designed to work together.
If you want to get into it, you could use a text editor to edit the ecology you created with the toolbox, and change the tree distribution spacing of one of the two Oaks layers, so the trees don't all land on top of each other. You'll probably still get some tree canopy overlap and maybe a few in the same location. To spread the trees further apart (hence fewer trees), make the spacing value larger. Most importantly, make each Oaks layer have a different spacing value than the other. There are more exotic changes you could make, but start simple and see if that works for you. The ecology is plain text JSON code that you can edit with any text editor.
Alternatively, use an image editor to create a layer mask with black and black areas. Load the the mask image in the Build tab of UltraSceneCreator on the tree layers. Click on the mask and invert it for one of the two tree layers. That will keep the bases of the trees separate. Any place that is gray in the mask will allow a mixture of the two tree types (and overlap). Any place where white meets black in the mask will still allow the trees to possibly end up close together along that border. With masks, you often get fewer trees overall.
Another option is to use the UST Instance Group Locator in Toolbox II to move the overlapping trees after they have been placed by UltraSceneCreator.
When you create the ecology in Ecology Engineer, you can add affinity and set one Oaks layer to repel from the other Oaks layer by a specified amount. No masks are needed and no ecology JSON editing is needed. This might be the easiest solution to identical tree placement.
So many ways to skin a cat.
But, please remember, my cat is not for skinning. Both he & I would get quite grumpy.
On a more serious note, I do need to experiment myself with mixing ecologies, the possibilities are mind boggling. Also want to try putting in specific landscape features too. The railway track cutting and embankments seem a fantastic idea. Time. Why is it in such short supply? Regards, Richard.