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 EcoSystem Materials
EcoSystems behave just like regular 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.
Painting Tools
Using the Ecosystem painter brush tools (EcoPainter), instances can be applied individually or painted on in airbrush fashion.
The scaling brush interactively modifies the size of an instance while the eraser tool allows instances to be removed.
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.
Minimum System Requirements
Carbon Scatter is a 32 & 64 bits application, designed for the Windows® 32/64 bits XP, Vista and Windows 7and 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.
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.
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).
Recommended System Requirements
- 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
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
(*) If using 3ds Max 2009, SP1 is highly recommended.
Macintosh - MacIntel architecture only
- 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.
