Expectations when NOT using a Render Only workflow

Skatter Bug reports
1

Hi There

Before I start, I just wanted to say the concept of this is awesome, it’s an answer to problem I’ve had for ages with my ArchViz workflow and renders - i.e. keep the workflow to the minimum number of apps, do as much as possible within a single app and hand it off to another when reached the logical limitation of the current one. So for me, this plugin looks amazing ;0)

Unfortunately for me from a Skatter perspective, I’ve invested in Maxwell Render for my output, so I understand that it is for the Maxwell Team to implement the necessary bits and pieces so I’m in an unchecked Render Only box scenario - this is fine, I just have to deal with actual geometry.

I wanted to set my expectations of performance before considering bugs etc

So far I haven’t managed to get a single successful output from Scatter/Sketchup without it hanging/ freezing Sketchup either indefinitely or for a loooooong time.

Even with a simple setup of 22 objects I cant export to MXS or use the Fire render within Sketchup, it just gives me an eternal Rainbow Pinwheel of Doom. Force Quit. Restart.

Should I be able to use Skatter albeit with a performance degradation and get something out or should I wait until the Next Limit team implement the integration?

My setup is
Retina MacBook Pro
Dual Core i7 2.8Ghz
16Gb DDR3
Intel Iris
500Gb SSD

Sketchup Pro 2016
Maxwell Render 3.2.0
OSX El Capitan 10.11

I really really would like this to work!

Many Thanks
Rob Dennis

2

Hi Rob,

This sounds odd indeed.

Does it happen only with the Skatter Library presets (full geometry, which are high-poly), or even when scattering a few simple cubes?

3

Hi Thomas
Yeah relatively high poly, I did try it with cubes and all fine. If I use a library set - no dice. Even with say 20 single density grass lib objects I couldn’t even write out an MXS to studio or use Fire within sketchup plugin. I tried it last night with an xFrog tree 84 instances and got it into studio after very long time.

But if I open the .skp again I cannot access any parametric skater setup info, my saved skater name is there but not showing any hosts or areas I had defined.
Tried checking render only and preview but just get pinwheel indefinitely.
Basically a lot of pinwheeling!

Thanks for responding
Cheers
Rob dennis

4
Yeah relatively high poly, I did try it with cubes and all fine.
So it seems Maxwell has a hard time dealing with high-poly geometry. In the next update, the library items should come with Maxwell proxies, so that'll make it easier on that matter. Also, did you convert those Xfrog trees to proxies?
But if I open the .skp again I cannot access any parametric skater setup info, my saved skater name is there but not showing any hosts or areas I had defined.
That doesn't sound right. Can you send me the file to [email protected] ? Thanks
5

Isnt this cause your using non render method. Did you check with right click on the group>edit with skatter. I also was curious how the other method could be edited, then i found that method