Houdini 20.0 Nodes Dynamics nodes

Gas Guiding Volume dynamics node

Blends a set of SOP volumes into a set of new collision fields for the creation of a guided simulation.

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Since 16.0

The Gas Guiding Volume DOP reads in a surface volume, velocity volume, and sink volume from an external SOP to act as a guide for the FLIP simulation. The surface volume is converted into a scalar field and combined with the existing collision field in the FLIP solver. The velocity volume is converted into a vector field and blended with the existing collision velocity field in the FLIP solver. Both fields are used to assign the guiding velocity to the FLIP simulation through the collision fields using the internal solvers.

Note

These combined fields are only used in the viscosity and pressure projection solvers; other operations in the FlIP Solver use the original collision fields.

Finally, the sink volume is converted to a scalar field and used to remove FLIP particles inside of this surface. The sink surface is useful for remove particles deep inside the guiding surface field. Maintaining a thin region of fluid along the inside of the guiding surface is useful for allowing particles to flow into the FLIP simulation.

Tips

In order to properly bind this DOP with the FLIP Solver, it must be attached to the Volume Velocity input. In addition, the collision fields in the Solver folder must be replaced.

For example, Collision Surface should read guidingcollision instead of collision, Collision Weights should read guidingweights instead of collisionweights, Collision Velocity should read guidingvel instead of collisionvel. The Source Surface and Sink Surface fields in the Solver folder can be linked to the Guiding Surface and Guiding Sink fields by the guidingsurface and guidingsink field names, respectively.

Parameters

Visualize Guiding Surface

Enables a visualizer for the scalar field created by the volume connected to the Guiding Surface.

Guiding Surface

The surface is combined with the existing collision field and used to apply the Guiding Velocity in the FLIP Solver to maintain the desired simulation behavior.

Guiding Velocity

The fluid at the Guiding Surface will be assigned the Guiding Velocity in the same manner as a collision object. An existing collision object takes priority over any Guiding Surface so the Guiding Velocity will not be applied to the fluid near collisions.

Guiding Sink

Particles that flow too deep into the Guiding Surface may impact performance. For efficiency, they can be removed by using the Guiding Sink surface. Any particles inside of this surface will be removed (even if this surface is outside of the Guiding Surface).

Note

The following items in Volume Fraction Method should match match the settings in the Collisions folder in the FLIP Solver if there are collisions present.

Volume Fraction Method

The solver uses fractional estimates of collision volumes to increase the accuracy of the pressure solve around curved or sloped surfaces.

Samples Per Axis

How many samples are taken per axis when the Volume Fraction Method is set to Collision Supersampling. Increasing this value makes for a more accurate estimate, but note that the total number of samples taken is the cube of this number.

Stick on Guide

Causes the fluid’s velocity to match the Guiding Velocity when close to a Guiding Surface. See the Gas Stick On Collision DOP help for more information.

Stick Scale

The amount of Guiding Velocity to blend into the fluid’s velocity, where a value of 1 indicates fully matching the Guiding Velocity.

Max Distance

Specifies the world-space distance within which to apply the effect.

Max Cells

Specifies the maximum number of voxels within which to apply the effect.

Stick Bias

Controls how quickly within the stick distance the effect will reach the full Stick Scale. Values closer to 1 will have more effect throughout the stick distance.

Normal Scale

Scale the amount of velocity adjustment in the direction normal to the Guiding Surface.

Tangent Scale

Scale the amount of velocity adjustment in the direction tangent to the Guiding Surface.

Tip

Only collision velocity in the normal of the collision surface gets applied in the pressure solve. Increasing the Tangent Scale will encourage the fluid to match the tangential Guiding Velocity as well.

Control Field

Scale the effect by this spatially varying field, which should match the Guiding Surface in resolution.

Inputs

All Inputs

Any microsolvers wired into these inputs will be executed prior to this node executing. The chain of nodes will thus be processed in a top-down manner.

Outputs

First Output

The operation of this output depends on what inputs are connected to this node. If an object stream is input to this node, the output is also an object stream containing the same objects as the input (but with the data from this node attached).

If no object stream is connected to this node, the output is a data output. This data output can be connected to an Apply Data DOP, or connected directly to a data input of another data node, to attach the data from this node to an object or another piece of data.

Locals

channelname

This DOP node defines a local variable for each channel and parameter on the Data Options page, with the same name as the channel. So for example, the node may have channels for Position (positionx, positiony, positionz) and a parameter for an object name (objectname).

Then there will also be local variables with the names positionx, positiony, positionz, and objectname. These variables will evaluate to the previous value for that parameter.

This previous value is always stored as part of the data attached to the object being processed. This is essentially a shortcut for a dopfield expression like:

dopfield($DOPNET, $OBJID, dataName, "Options", 0, channelname)

If the data does not already exist, then a value of zero or an empty string will be returned.

DATACT

This value is the simulation time (see variable ST) at which the current data was created. This value may not be the same as the current simulation time if this node is modifying existing data, rather than creating new data.

DATACF

This value is the simulation frame (see variable SF) at which the current data was created. This value may not be the same as the current simulation frame if this node is modifying existing data, rather than creating new data.

RELNAME

This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).

In this case, this value is set to the name of the relationship to which the data is being attached.

RELOBJIDS

This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).

In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the object identifiers for all the Affected Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.

RELOBJNAMES

This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).

In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the names of all the Affected Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.

RELAFFOBJIDS

This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).

In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the object identifiers for all the Affector Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.

RELAFFOBJNAMES

This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).

In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the names of all the Affector Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.

ST

The simulation time for which the node is being evaluated.

Depending on the settings of the DOP Network Offset Time and Scale Time parameters, this value may not be equal to the current Houdini time represented by the variable T.

ST is guaranteed to have a value of zero at the start of a simulation, so when testing for the first timestep of a simulation, it is best to use a test like $ST == 0, rather than $T == 0 or $FF == 1.

SF

The simulation frame (or more accurately, the simulation time step number) for which the node is being evaluated.

Depending on the settings of the DOP Network parameters, this value may not be equal to the current Houdini frame number represented by the variable F. Instead, it is equal to the simulation time (ST) divided by the simulation timestep size (TIMESTEP).

TIMESTEP

The size of a simulation timestep. This value is useful for scaling values that are expressed in units per second, but are applied on each timestep.

SFPS

The inverse of the TIMESTEP value. It is the number of timesteps per second of simulation time.

SNOBJ

The number of objects in the simulation. For nodes that create objects such as the Empty Object DOP, SNOBJ increases for each object that is evaluated.

A good way to guarantee unique object names is to use an expression like object_$SNOBJ.

NOBJ

The number of objects that are evaluated by the current node during this timestep. This value is often different from SNOBJ, as many nodes do not process all the objects in a simulation.

NOBJ may return 0 if the node does not process each object sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJ

The index of the specific object being processed by the node. This value always runs from zero to NOBJ-1 in a given timestep. It does not identify the current object within the simulation like OBJID or OBJNAME; it only identifies the object’s position in the current order of processing.

This value is useful for generating a random number for each object, or simply splitting the objects into two or more groups to be processed in different ways. This value is -1 if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJID

The unique identifier for the object being processed. Every object is assigned an integer value that is unique among all objects in the simulation for all time. Even if an object is deleted, its identifier is never reused. This is very useful in situations where each object needs to be treated differently, for example, to produce a unique random number for each object.

This value is also the best way to look up information on an object using the dopfield expression function.

OBJID is -1 if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

ALLOBJIDS

This string contains a space-separated list of the unique object identifiers for every object being processed by the current node.

ALLOBJNAMES

This string contains a space-separated list of the names of every object being processed by the current node.

OBJCT

The simulation time (see variable ST) at which the current object was created.

To check if an object was created on the current timestep, the expression $ST == $OBJCT should always be used.

This value is zero if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJCF

The simulation frame (see variable SF) at which the current object was created. It is equivalent to using the dopsttoframe expression on the OBJCT variable.

This value is zero if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJNAME

A string value containing the name of the object being processed.

Object names are not guaranteed to be unique within a simulation. However, if you name your objects carefully so that they are unique, the object name can be a much easier way to identify an object than the unique object identifier, OBJID.

The object name can also be used to treat a number of similar objects (with the same name) as a virtual group. If there are 20 objects named “myobject”, specifying strcmp($OBJNAME, "myobject") == 0 in the activation field of a DOP will cause that DOP to operate on only those 20 objects.

This value is the empty string if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

DOPNET

A string value containing the full path of the current DOP network. This value is most useful in DOP subnet digital assets where you want to know the path to the DOP network that contains the node.

Note

Most dynamics nodes have local variables with the same names as the node’s parameters. For example, in a Position DOP, you could write the expression:

$tx + 0.1

…to make the object move 0.1 units along the X axis at each timestep.

Dynamics nodes