This will probably be unsolvable except with a script. I'm so-so at understanding already written code, but unfortunately I can't make heads or tails of writing it from scratch (so I'm not much of a Developer, here *wince*). I don't know if this would be a lot of work or not, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask.
I have a landscape full of instanced plants (TangoAlpha's Hemlock Folly, specifically), and I want to use it in Poser. I have Code66's wonderful "Instances to Objects" script, but I'd like to pare it down first.
1. My other questions will probably depend on this one: is there a way to delete any object that's not visible in the camera viewport? If I have a bunch of plants, and I don't need the ones off-camera for this one shot, can I find a good way to automate getting rid of them?
2. The next is more of what I'm looking at: what if the objects are instanced, but ungrouped?
3. What would be nice, but might be too much to ask for (?): what if the objects are instanced, and grouped (using the "Group Like Sibling Instances")?
I'm ignoring the problem of giant Ultrascatter groups at the moment, which this scene does have. I already spent probably more time than I should have dividing up the huge instance groups (involving a lot of cutting and re-pasting in a text editor X| ), to allow "Break Instance Group" to finish in my lifetime, which is why my second question is more relevant at this point. If I have to do it again for other projects, I'll live. So I'm just looking at nice, manageable, humanly-possible instance groups ATM. And if I have to de-instance them first, I can do that. Unless someone would like to ponder that problem (breaking giant instance groups) also/instead.
I was determined to get this done by hand (selecting what's onscreen, inverting, deleting what's left), but I've finally gotten to the groups where there's what looks like 500+ plants onscreen in the viewport. I'm not that patient. XD
Thank you in advance for any contemplating or coding that might happen. :) If it can't be done, I'll find something else to do. XD