Houdini 20.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Convert HeightField geometry node

Converts a 2D height field to a 3D VDB volume, polygon surface, or polygon soup surface.

Since 16.0

Parameters

Height Layer

The name of the height volume to operate on, usually height.

Convert to

Choose, which type of geometry or volume you want to create.

Polygon

Convert the height values stored in the grid to a polygonal surface.

Polygon Soup

Like “Polygon”, but outputs a polygon soup surface. Polygon soups are more efficient representations of dense polygonal geometry, but do not allow most editing operations.

VDB

Convert the height values to a 3D VDB volume. Note that this representation takes a lot more memory than a height field.

Connectivity

How to lay out the polygons when Convert to is “Polygon” or “Polygon soup”. “Rows”, “Columns”, and “Rows and columns” are probably not useful for terrain data.

Density

A ratio between output resolution and grid points in the source height field. For example, a value of 0.5 will output half the resolution (one polygon for every four voxels in the source), a value of 2 will output twice the resolution (four polygons for ever one voxel in the source).

Bake Point Colors

Creates point colours using any heightfield material present on the geometry. This provides a close approximation for the output of HeightField Visualization or HeightField Erode.

Extrusion

Extrude Base

Whether to include an extruded base when outputting polygons. VDB output always includes the base.

Depth

The height of the base.

Base Normal

The direction of the normals created for the base.

Flatten Base

Flattens the base. If you turn this off, the bottom of the extrusion has the same shape as the top, creating an extruded surface effect.

Flatten on, depth -1.

Flatten off, depth -20.

Geometry nodes