Surface Scatter

Surface Scatter

Version: 2.8

Description

Scatter vegetation, debris, garbage and much more.

Tags

plants, scatter, vegetation, trees, rocks, debris, garbage, scatter, surface

Properties

Base Properties

Name	Description	Type
Surface	Meshes (or splines/curves) to scatter objects on	Actor
Scatter	Meshes to scatter on the input surface(s)	Actor
Density	Density of your scatter. The higher the value, the more scattered meshes you'll have	Float
Min Scale	Minimum scale of your scattered meshes	Float
Max Scale	Maximum scale of your scattered meshes	Float
Pivot Mode	Use the object pivot, or compensate for it, to snap the objects on different planes	Dropdown
Scale Mode	When scattering multiple meshes, you can choose how the scale should be handled	Dropdown
Density Mode	Density Mode	Dropdown
Falloff	Creates a falloff/gradient when scaling the objects. This relies on the min scale and max scale.	Float
Noise Scale	If the value is bigger than 0.0 switches random scaling to simplex noise based scaling.	Float
Surface Align	Adjust the degree of alignment towards the underlying surface. When scattering trees, you might for example not want any surface alignment	Float
Sink	Pushes your instanced objects downwards, which is very practical for trees	Float
Randomize Sink	Sink value will be randomized per object in the range of (0, Sink), instead of uniformly setting in the same for all.	Boolean
Seed	Randomizes the result of the scatter	Integer

Feature Masking

Name	Description	Type
Angle Mask	Masks objects by the angle of the underlying surface area under them	Float
Min Height Mask	Minimum height at which objects should be clamped	Float
Max Height Mask	Maximum height at which objects should be clamped	Float
Remove Mask	Randomly removes objects, ignoring any previous masking	Float
Clump Mask	Creates smaller clump masks from the scattered objects	Float
Clump Radius	Radius of the clumps	Float
Raycast	Only keep scattered objects that are outside of these input objects, and intersect with them	Actor
Use Surface Normals	During Raycast Meshes, uses the surface normals, otherwise uses the World Up direction	Boolean

Noise Mask

Name	Description	Type
Breakup	Controls the intensity of the noise/breakup.	Float
Breakup Scale	Frequency of the noise mask. This basically controls the scale of the noise	Float
Smoothness Noise	This value controls how sharp/soft the noise mask is	Float
Warp Noise	Deforms the noise mask, which can result in some really interesting swirly mask shapes	Float
Noise Scale Multiplier		Float
Noise Scale X		Float
Noise Scale Y		Float
Noise Scale Z		Float

Proximity Mask

Name	Description	Type
Objects	You can pass meshes, curves and even instancers to use them as masks	Actor
Distance	Distance of the objects' proximity mask	Float
Sampling	A higher value results in more precise proximity masking, but at a heavier cost (especially if your proximity objects are scatter instances)	Integer

Object Masking

Name	Description	Type
Objects	Samples objects near the meshes. Unlike proximity masking, this one uses raytracing to proper mesh proximity masking, and is more costly, and only works on meshes.	Actor
Distance	Controls distance of the padding we add to the inside mask	Float
Keep Inside	When set to true, ensures that we only keep what's inside of our meshes. This can be useful for using meshes as instancer blockers	Boolean
Optimize for Curves	If set to true, masking with curves will result in much faster scattering, but at the cost of texture and vertex color masking	Boolean
Projection Triangles	When using curves as a mask, this controls the number of triangles to use for the projection geometry we generate from the curve	Integer

Border Masking

Name	Description	Type
Border Offset	Masks the scattered objects along the surface's borders.	Float
Border Min	Minimum distance offset from the border mask value	Float
Border Max	Maximum distance offset from the border mask value	Float
Border Noise	Applies a noise on the border mask	Float
Border Sampling	A higher value results in more precise border masking, but at a heavier cost	Integer

Edge Breakup

Name	Description	Type
Border Distance	Controls the edge breakup distance	Float
Border Spread	Controls how spread of the edge breakups	Float
Border Scale	Controls the tiling pattern scale of the edge breakup	Float

Directional Masking

Name	Description	Type
Lights	Provide light/actors object to use for masking. The forward will be used as direction to mask the scatter.	Actor
Light Angle Mask	Based on the angle, consider more or less the parts of the objects that are facing the lights	Float
Floor Removal	Gradually removes scatters that are facing upwards	Float
Use Shadows	Uses the shadows projected from the lights as areas to scatter, like moss under trees	Boolean
Shadows Randomize	Randomizes the shadow mask	Float

Rotation Properties

Name	Description	Type
Override Rotation	If set to True, the rotation will be overridden by the values below	Boolean
X Override	Overrides the rotation along the X axis	Float
Y Override	Overrides the rotation along the Y axis	Float
Z Override	Overrides the rotation along the Z axis	Float
Randomize Angles	This ensures that all instances have a random angle/spin to them, which ensures great rotation variation	Boolean
Uniform Angle	Adjust the angle/spin of your instances. By default, they all have a random spin	Float
X Jitter	Randomizes the rotation along the X axis	Float
Y Jitter	Randomizes the rotation along the Y axis	Float
Z Jitter	Randomizes the rotation along the Z axis	Float

Scale Properties

Name	Description	Type
Use Custom Scale	If checked, the Min and Max scale values in the Base properties will be ignored, in favor of the more granular scale options below	Boolean
Scale Sort	If set to True, objects are arranged based on their scale, instead of randomly. This is particularly noticeable with falloffs	Boolean
Scale Sort Dither	When using scale-based object sorting, this dithers the different object passes, giving us a more natural look	Float
Falloff Sharpness	Controls the scale falloff's sharpness	Float
Xmin Scale	Minimum scale on the X axis	Float
Ymin Scale	Minimum scale on the Y axis	Float
Zmin Scale	Minimum scale on the Z axis	Float
Xmax Scale	Maximum scale on the X axis	Float
Ymax Scale	Maximum scale on the Y axis	Float
Zmax Scale	Maximum scale on the Z axis	Float

Object-based Scaling

Name	Description	Type
Objects	Add meshes or curves to affect the scale of the scattered objects	Actor
Distance	Controls the strength of the scale influences	Float
Multiplier	Controls the distance from the inputs for the influence to apply	Float
Falloff		Float

Vertex Color Masking

Name	Description	Type
Blend Mode	The blending mode to use for all vertex color masking	Dropdown
Red Channel	If checked, the blending mode dropdown below will take this vertex channel into account.	Boolean
Green Channel	If checked, the blending mode dropdown below will take this vertex channel into account.	Boolean
Blue Channel	If checked, the blending mode dropdown below will take this vertex channel into account.	Boolean
Threshold	Controls the vertex color masking threshold. Higher values can make the mask go beyond the vertex colors, and include the scattered points closest to the area with vertex colors.	Float

Landscape Layer Masking

Name	Description	Type
Layer Name 1	The name of the landscape layer to mask by	String
Layer Strength 1	The strength of the landscape layer mask	Float
Layer Name 2	The name of the landscape layer to mask by	String
Layer Strength 2	The strength of the landscape layer mask	Float
Layer Name 3	The name of the landscape layer to mask by	String
Layer Strength 3	The strength of the landscape layer mask	Float

Texture Masking

Name	Description	Type
Texture Path	When a texture is provided, this allows you to mask objects by texture	Asset
Texture Channel	Selects the channel to be used from the texture	Dropdown
Color Threshold	Defines a threshold value ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. Colors in the texture below this threshold will be discarded during texture sampling.	Float
Texture Tile	Control the tiling of the texture	Float

Misc Settings

Name	Description	Type
Max Count	Maximum number of objects/instances you can scatter. Higher the value, the more instances you'll have.	Integer
Random Scatter	If set to true, the scatter algorithm will default on a white noise pattern, instead of the default blue noise.	Boolean
End Cull Distance	Distance from camera at which each instance completely fades out	Integer
Receive decals	If set to true, instances receive decals	Boolean
Enable collision	If True - collision is set to "Enabled (Query and Physics)", if False - "NoCollision"	Boolean