Biomes
The Biomes & Collections features are not yet released and will be available in version 1.1.7. Coming soon!
Biomes?
Biomes are curated plant ecosystems ready to scatter in Blender using Geo-Scatter or Biome-Reader.
👉 For an overview of how Biomes compare to Collections, see: Biomes & Collections Overview.
Where to find Biomes¶
Click the icon in the main interface to open the Biomes & Collections browser, where you can preview and manage available biomes.
Browse Biomes¶
At the top of the browser, you can select a category of biomes.
You also have the Detail selection, which lets you choose either Low or High detail level. Low Detail biomes should primarily use LD plants, while High Detail biomes should primarily use HD plants. Some variation is allowed, but this serves as a general guideline.
If a biome is already built and available in your library, the Build Biome button will be replaced by a Biome Built label.
Available Actions
- Build Biome: See Building a Biome.
- INFO: Displays information about the biome. See Info Popup.
- Menu:
- Add plants to queue: Adds these plants to your queue. This will erase all current items in your queue.
- Check Installed Plants: Checks which plants you already have imported in your library. See Installed Plants Popup.
- Open Biome Folder: Available once the biome is built. Opens the specific biome folder located at:
C:\Users\%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\data\scatter library\_biomes_\PF2B
Info Popup¶
The Info Popup provides details about the selected biome. It shows the plants included in the biome, and you can click the info button next to a plant to view more details about it.
Installed Plants Popup¶
Similar to the regular Info Popup, but this one checks whether the actual plants are present in your library. There are two options:
Verifies which plants from the biome are already imported and stored in your biome .blend library files.
Note: This check only looks at the root folder defined in PF2B Preferences > Plant Library > Blend Storage. If you have moved your blend files elsewhere or into subdirectories, they may appear in red in this popup. However, they will still work in the biome as long as the blend files are inside your Asset Library, where Geo-Scatter or Biome-Reader can find them.
Checks whether the plants in the biome are installed in your PlantCatalog library on disk, regardless of whether they are in the biome .blend files.
If a plant is missing, run Re-Index Plants under PF2B Preferences > Misc.
Building a Biome¶
Before You Start
When building biomes, you must start from a new/empty scene. The scene is used as a temporary location for the imported plants, so do not run Build Biome in a project with existing work you want to keep.
When you click Build Biome, PF2B will:
- Export plants from PlantFactory based on the biome definition.
- Store the exported models in
.blendfiles within your Asset Library. - Prepare biome-specific files required by Geo-Scatter or Biome-Reader.
Once the process is complete, the biome becomes available in the scattering plugin of your choice. You can then scatter it in your Blender scene to generate rich, natural environments:
👉 For instructions on using Geo-Scatter or Biome-Reader, please check www.geoscatter.com
Where the Biomes are Stored
Your .blend files are organized in the Asset Library location defined in Preferences > Plant Library > Biomes & Collections > Blend Storage.
After importing the biomes you want, you should see something like this:
…and inside your Asset Browser, where everything is categorized, tagged, and presented with clear thumbnails:
