Fertilizer 64-bit? At least coming or not at all?

[Netvudu]

Hi there.
Anybody knows if SG_Fertilizer, this great plugin by Sebastian Goetsch will ever get released in 64-bit version?
We´re going through a production that benefits from it, but not having 64-bit version would force us to separate scenes in several passes as the poly number chokes the 32-bit version.

[Greenlaw]

Hi,

Yeah, Fertilizer is pretty cool and it's something I've wanted to use on a few jobs around here. However, I seem to recall that it was incompatible with ScreamerNet. I believe we did use it on a proof-on-concept project a while back but we had to render the Fertilizer elements locally.

Anyway, I vote for ScreamerNet compatibility first.

DRG

[sculptactive]

Yes please. Fertilizer 64bit would be great

[papou]

i can't agree more. a must have tool.
Networking support will be a great add too.

[Sensei]

After watching video http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~goetsch/Fertilizer/wachsani6.avi I guess that making it working with ScreamerNet will kill better randomization, and unnecessary complicate plug-in.. Bake displacement to MDD and it'll work in either 64 bit render and ScreamerNet..

[sculptactive]

Now that SmartMorph is no longer being developed, Fertilizer the only morph plugin that works in this way.
I am keeping my figures crossed that a 64bit version is made.

[gerardstrada]

Hi there.
Anybody knows if SG_Fertilizer, this great plugin by Sebastian Goetsch will ever get released in 64-bit version?
We´re going through a production that benefits from it, but not having 64-bit version would force us to separate scenes in several passes as the poly number chokes the 32-bit version.


As far as I know, Sebastian has the intention of releasing a 64-bit version of Fertilizer (and an update for SG_CCTools too) :)



Gerardo

[sculptactive]

That good news

[papou]

.. Bake displacement to MDD and it'll work in either 64 bit render and ScreamerNet..
Thats the way we do.

The dev of x64 version is a nice news.

[OlaHaldor]

I'm gonna be a badass and bring this one back to life. I'm doing a job now, due late March for an opening vignette for an award show. Fertilizer x64 would certainly save the day!

Any news on this, or a possible workaround to make text "pop out of its shape" over time ?

[Sensei]

Now that SmartMorph is no longer being developed

Do you saw this thread?
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93536

[sculptactive]

Do you saw this thread?
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93536


Yes I did.

Sadly there is still no 64bit SmartMorph and the plugins are expensive considering Pawel´s is busy with other projects, so they are are no longer properly supported and have bugs.

Lets hope Fertilizer 64bit is around the corner.

.

[Sensei]

Pawel was very curious how I make 64 bit and MacUB versions of mine plug-ins. Asking detailed questions, so I am guessing he is thinking about it seriously..

[sculptactive]

That´s good to hear, but I am still skeptical.

I, like a lot of people prefer to find a solution in LW where possible as I have been burnt too many times buying plugins that suddenly are no longer supported.

Don´t misunderstand me, Pawel has the right to spend his time where ever he wants and if he feels it´s else where that´s his right.
It is simple for me, whilst there are no guarantees (even where LW is concerned), if I do buy a plugin I need to at least feel it will be supported next year.
That's why I have bought several plugins from you (Sensei)

[sculptactive]

Still no Fertilizer or SmartMorph 64Bit.

Anyone heard any news....

[kopperdrake]

Nope - but I'm still interested in a 64 bit Fertiliser version too. I've a project coming up that could do with it!

[garynb]

Hi Guys is there a way to export a Fertilizer morph as a sequence to use in 9.6, I'm on a mac but should be the same technique if there is one?

Cheers

Gary

[dee]

You can create an mdd file, just ad MD_scan after fertilizer.

[sculptactive]

You can create an mdd file, just ad MD_scan after fertilizer.

Yep, this is what I am doing at the moment.
Using Fertilizer in LW32bit, once saved as MDD carrying on in LW64bit mode.

Another question. To make Fertilizer work correctly you need to set the Subdivision order to last, but for the Displacement maps to work correctly you need to set the subdivision order to first.

Is there a way of making them both work at the same time?

.

[garynb]

Hi Guys

How do you export an animation done by the fertilizer plugin to 9.6. It was mentioned earlier as an option using mdd. I have never done this before any help would be great.

Cheers

Gary

[sculptactive]

I assume you mean 9.6-64bit as Fertilizer works in 9.6-32Bit.

Use the MD_Scan (Object Properties/Add Displacement) to save and export MDD file.
Use the MD_Plug (Object Properties/Add Displacement) to import MDD file to 9.6-64Bit.


.

[garynb]

I'm on mac so it's from 9.3.1cfm to 9.6 ub.

Thanks for the reply, I will try it now.

Cheers

Gary

[sculptactive]

I'm on mac so it's from 9.3.1cfm to 9.6 ub.

Gary

Arhh yes.

When you reload the scene into ub. Do not open MD_Scan again. Just use the MD_Plug.

[stevecullum]

Fertilizer is that tool for animating an extrusion of geometry along a path right?

There is a node in DPKIT that does this...look up 'shifter'

Might not have all the functions of fertilizer though...

[garynb]

I've tried them all, shifter, trailer, serpent but all have problems either with render problems or the meshes are messed up. Fertilizer just works and if you add a Fertilizer a second time you can animate the extrusion off as well, by using reverse keys.

Only problem I see with using mdd files is that you can not move the animation around after its baked. Is there a way round this? attaching to a null etc?

Cheers

Gary

[gerardstrada]

That good news

Just to let you know Sebastian Goetsch has released a new version with a new feature called SG_Fertilizer2. Yes, 32 and 64-bits!

http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~goetsch/Fertilizer2/

Please, feel free to test it, comment and spread the word :)



Gerardo

[sculptactive]

Just to let you know Sebastian Goetsch has released a new version with a new feature called SG_Fertilizer2. Yes, 32 and 64-bits!

http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~goetsch/Fertilizer2/

Please, feel free to test it, comment and spread the word :)

Gerardo



Fantastic!!

.

[sculptactive]

Really nice secondary Growth addition.

I wish it was possible to add a name when you add the the Displacement.
When you have 5 SG_Fertilizer2´s added it can get confusings.

It does not seem possible to directly open up a LW file in 64bit which used the old SG_Fertilizer. You get the "Can´t find plugin" message.

Still it is great great to get a 64bit version.

.

[gerardstrada]

Yes, the old version is avaliable only in 32 bits version. But as you say, for 64-bits, we can use the SG_Fertilizer2 now.



Gerardo

[sculptactive]

Yes, the old version is avaliable only in 32 bits version. Gerardo

I probably did not explain what I meant very well.

It does not seem possible using LW 64bit and the new SG_Fertilizer2 to open an old LW 32bit file that had previously used the SG_Fertilizer plugin. You get the "No plug-in of the type DisplacementHandeler" message.

I think thats clearer...

[Greenlaw]

Only problem I see with using mdd files is that you can not move the animation around after its baked. Is there a way round this? attaching to a null etc?

I normally apply .mdd files through ClothFX because Metalink only works with ClothFX. Anyway, if you use ClothFX, just set the Playback Mode to Local and you should be able to move it around wherever you like. (We'd be in serious trouble if we couldn't do that.)

It's been a long time since I used MD_Plug, but I think its equivalent feature was called Keymove or something like that. Try it; if that doesn't work, use ClothFX.

Greenlaw

[sculptactive]

Possible problem?

Using SG_Fertilizer2 64bit

Once SG_Fertilizer2 has been added, if I add an endomorph using the Morph mixer the endomorph will not work.

If I cancel the SG_Fertilizer2 plug-in the Morph Mixer plug-in works ok.

It seems the new SG_Fertilizer2 now stops the Morph Mixer plug-in from working.

Can someone else confirm that this is correct and that it is not just me missing a step.

Thanks

[gerardstrada]

I probably did not explain what I meant very well.

It does not seem possible using LW 64bit and the new SG_Fertilizer2 to open an old LW 32bit file that had previously used the SG_Fertilizer plugin. You get the "No plug-in of the type DisplacementHandeler" message.

I think thats clearer...

Do notice SG_Fertilizer and SG_Fertilizer2 have different internal names. When LW ask you for the old plugin (32bits), it is asking for SG_Fertilizer, not the new version. This will happen with 32bits or 64bits. The message you are getting is because LW64 can't read 32bits plugins. Different internal names commonly means they work internally in different ways, but let's ask to Sebastian if backward compatibility is possible :)


Possible problem?

Using SG_Fertilizer2 64bit

Once SG_Fertilizer2 has been added, if I add an endomorph using the Morph mixer the endomorph will not work.

If I cancel the SG_Fertilizer2 plug-in the Morph Mixer plug-in works ok.

It seems the new SG_Fertilizer2 now stops the Morph Mixer plug-in from working.

Can someone else confirm that this is correct and that it is not just me missing a step.

Thanks
Yes this is correct. Let's ask to Sebastian about this too. But a simple solution is to not use MorphMixer. Instead, do add the morphmap in the Displacement Node Editor (Before Local Displacement). This allows to apply SG_Fertilizer2 over those morphmaps.



Gerardo

[gerardstrada]

Just to let you know Sebastian was updating a new version with these bugfixes while I was typing the previous message :)




Gerardo

[sculptactive]

But a simple solution is to not use MorphMixer. Instead, do add the morphmap in the Displacement Node Editor (Before Local Displacement). This allows to apply SG_Fertilizer2 over those morphmaps.

Thanks for the MorphMap tip and the update info.

[jwiede]

Any chance of getting Sebastian to port plugins to UB? It'd be awesome to have CC tools, Fertilizer, and C4 for Mac LW.

If it's a matter of money, I know I'd be more than willing to either help support porting costs, or pay for the UB versions (if priced reasonably). I suspect others would too. Just give us a way to earmark donations to "Mac UB support", and some idea of what's needed as a goal.

Not having CC tools for Mac LW is particularly painful, and worth money to resolve. Somewhat depressing that Mac LW can't easily to linear workflow, given the work Apple's put into gamut correction infrastructure for OSX, trying to keep content creation / media folks happy.

[gerardstrada]

Well, it seems problem is not money but time (he's commonly very busy by developing customized tools) and he makes these free tools in his spare time. Don't know in the case of the MAC platform (your idea sounds good), but he is always willing to help and make things viable with any serious studio or CG professional. So just in case, he can be contacted through his e-mail:

skidbladnir@web.de

As far as I know, he has made also enhancements or special improvements for some of his free plugins. I'm aware that several LW developers make this (on request). It's commonly much more accessible, since a part of the tool is already developed. We see a free plugin out there, but we can be sure there are several studios and CG professionals whom have versions of that tool with steroids :)



Gerardo

P.D. Btw, being the first system for linear workflow at gamut level, the SG_CCtools should be shipped with LW too :D

[Sebastian G.]

I had send the code for my ambient occlusion node to a few people who attempted to build a UB version. As you may have noticed, there's no UB version yet.
So apparently it is more difficult and time consuming than expected. For something like the CCTools, even I can foresee that there will be serious porting problems and probably additional fixes required later.
The best way to support Macs in the long run would be for me to buy one of those overpriced machines + OSX myself. However, the donations will never reach that level, and those who actually made a donation will be quite disappointed.

Or does anyone know of a way to build UBs on Windows or Linux?

[jwiede]

Well, Lightwolf has loads of experience doing UB ports for people, if he hasn't tried yet you could contact him and see if he thinks a quick port would be feasible.

Do your plugins rely a lot on Windows infrastructure (direct-to-OS gfx, image kernels, etc.) or do they mostly stick to LW SDK APIs? Also, were the prior attempts trying to port to UB or pre-UB Mac (CFM)? Porting Win to Mac CFM was significantly trickier than porting to Mac UB (IMO), and that could explain the past problems.

I'm in no way advocating such an approach, but there are quite a few folks running OSX more or less successfully on non-Apple hardware (Hackintoshes, as they're know). If you'd rather not purchase a Mac, you might consider looking into the Hackintosh approach, depending on how you feel about the legality issues. That said, a Mac Mini is pretty inexpensive.

Building UBs on non-Mac platforms isn't technically impossible, but as far as I can tell you'd essentially wind up doing a custom GCC port. You'd also run into Hackintosh-similar legality issues using the system frameworks for OSX and certain construction aspects of UB binaries. Perhaps someone else knows of an easier cross-platform solution?