use several "instances" of a textured object ?

[rodlord]

Hi -

I'm working on a project that will need to have 4 objects used several times over with various placements in an environment.

The most flexible thing would be to be able to place "instances" of a textured model so that if changes and alterations to the master object are required these will be reflected in all the instances without having to plough through every one in turn making the same changes to each.

In the dim and distant past in the days of Renderman it was possible to do this by including a reference to a model file in the command stream which would reference whatever the current version of that file was.

I'm assuming that there is no way to achieve something similar in EIAS and that I have no choice but to literally duplicate each group of surfaces and texture placements and if changes are necessary to go through each group making the same alterations ?

I'm really hoping somebody will tell me I'm wrong !!

Thanks

Rod

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Rod,

- Right now on EIAS 9.1, only Placer Deposit from Northernlights3D can do this.. but its in our plans :)

- If you use Master Materials.. even if you duplicate several times the same model and all will be using only one Master Material, every time you change the material, everything will be updated.

Thanks

Tom

 

[rodlord]

Thanks Tom,

Yes - I'm fine with Master Materials and am using a few. But each face of these objects (houses, garages, etc) has its own texture map (bricks, windows, doors, roof tiles, etc). I would need to create a Master Material literally for every face of each object. Even that would be fine if I thought that only a texture or two might have to be adjusted, but more of a problem is the geometry. If I have to make a change to geometry there appears to be no way for an INSTANCE to reference or link to a model file rather than having to re-import it. That means that all the parts of the new import need to be resurfaced and then the newly imported model to be duplicated, distributed around the environment again, and then all the old versions deleted.

I will look at the Northernlights Placer and see if it might do the job.

Thanks for that.

Cheers

Rod