Graswald ships Gscatter 0.10
Blender vegetation tools developer Graswald has released Gscatter 0.10, the latest version of its object scattering tool for Blender, currently available free in beta.
The release, described as the “most powerful update yet”, adds support for multi-emitters, linked effects, a point cloud proxy system, and the option to use the active camera for camera culling.
Paint 3D plants into your Blender scenes
Released in 2021, Gscatter lets users scatter 3D models across surfaces in Blender: mainly to populate scenes with environment objects like plants or rocks.
Users create scatter systems by selecting an Emitter – an object in the scene on which to scatter geometry – and applying Effect Layers to control the distribution, scale and rotation of the objects scattered.
It is possible to control the distribution procedurally, or by painting weight masks.
New in Gscatter 0.10: support for multiple emitters and linked effects
To that, Gscatter 0.10 adds a number of new ways to control scattering. We can’t find an online changelog, but this is the summary of the new features from Graswald’s email to subscribers:
• Multi-emitter support
• Linked effects
• Effect visualisation
• Point cloud proxy system
• Use active camera for camera culling
Can be used with your own 3D plants, or those from Graswald’s online library
Although Gscatter comes with a small set of 3D plants – grasses, herbaceous plants and trees – it’s designed to be used with external models: either your own, or those from Graswald’s online asset library.
Since we last wrote about Graswald, the firm has restructured its pricing, discontinuing its commercial Graswald and Graswald Pro plugins, and introducing subscriptions to the plant library.
The firm is now developing a pro version of Gscatter for users with paid subscriptions, although it “will keep a free Gscatter version available for everyone [on] a strict budget or doesn’t need advanced features”.
Pricing and system requirements
Gscatter 0.10 is compatible with Blender 3.2+. It is currently available free in beta.
At the time of writing, five species from Graswald’s online library can be downloaded for free, in Blender format for use with Gscatter, or in FBX and Alembic format for use with other DCC software.
For access to Graswald’s full library of 3D plants, subscriptions cost $10/month or $96/year for individual users, and $89/month or $828/year for five-user team subscriptions. Downloads are token-based.