Houdini 20.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Ocean Foam geometry node

Generates particle-based foam

Since 16.0

This node creates foam particles that can be used to enhance rendering of an ocean surface. The input is a one or more merged Ocean Spectrum layers that comprise the ocean.

There are two modes for this SOP:

Emitter

Particles are created within a specified region based on various emission criteria from the input ocean layers. These particles could then be fed into any custom particle simulation for emission.

Solver

Foam particles are created according to the various emission criteria then run through a 2-D particle simulation that incorporates the ocean velocity and neighboring particle proximity to give realistic foam behavior. The output of this mode can be used directly for rendering foam with the Ocean Surface shader.

Parameters

Mode

Emitter will create particles according to emission criteria. Solver will also run those particles through a 2-d foam simulation.

Emission

This section controls foam particle emission.

Particle Density

The density of particles to emit per unit of area, before culling by the emission criteria. Increasing this value will give more detailed foam renders at the expense of a higher particle count.

Region

Type

The type of region used for the emission area.

Grid

Emit particles over the specified grid.

Camera

Emit particles within the frustum of the specified camera.

Size

The world space size of the emission grid.

Center

The world space center of the emission grid.

Camera

Restrict emission to the specified camera’s frustum.

Z Near

The distance from the camera to start emitting foam.

Z Far

The distance from the camera to stop emitting foam.

Window X/Y

The min/max portions of the camera’s view for emission. This allows you to add padding to ensure good boundary conditions or focus into a key area of the scene.

Z Density Falloff

Areas that are farther from the camera along the z-axis will emit fewer particles with a larger radius for less expensive simulation and rendering at a distance. When set to 0, the distance from camera will have no effect on particle density.

Conditions

This section controls the emission criteria. All enabled criteria must be met for emission.

Min Cusp

Emit foam where the ocean waves are above this cusp level.

Min Velocity

Emit foam where the ocean waves are moving faster than this speed.

Min Height

Emit foam where the ocean waves are above this height.

Ocean Evaluation

This section controls how the input ocean layers are evaluated when generating and simulating foam.

Time

The time at which to evaluate the ocean surface.

Downsample

Downsample the incoming ocean spectra before evaluating any ocean values. This parameter specifies the number of powers of two to remove from the resolution of the incoming ocean spectrum. For example, if the spectrum was originally specified at resolution 10 to generate a 1024 x 1024 volume, downsampling by 2 will evaluate ocean volumes at resolution 8, a 256 x 256 volume.

Displace Particles

By default the particles are output in 2-d “rest” space, as expected by the Ocean Surface shader. Enabling this option will output the particles displaced by the ocean waves, usually for custom simulation or later processing.

Solver

This section controls the foam simulation.

Foam

Life Expectancy

How long the foam particles will live (in seconds).

Life Variance

Foam particles will live the number of seconds in Life Expectancy, plus or minus this number of seconds. Use 0 for no variance.

Drift Rate

The amount of horizontal ocean velocity to impart to the foam particles. Increasing this value will increase the amount of squashing and stretching of the foam on the surface.

Preserve Foam

Increase or decrease the lifespan of foam particles based on the local density of particles, which can help create clumps and streaks of foam on the ocean surface over time.

Min Foam Density

When the number of particles surrounding a foam particle lies in the range of this value down to zero, proportionally reduce its lifespan each timestep by the Reduction Rate.

Max Foam Density

When the number of particles surrounding a foam particle lies in the range of Min Foam Density up to this value, proportionally increase its lifespan each timestep by the Preservation Rate.

Preservation Rate

The proportional amount to increase the lifespan of a foam particle with sufficiently high local foam density. This value is the number of seconds to add per second, so if greater than one can effectively preserve high density foam clumps from ever being killed.

Reduction Rate

The proportional amount to decrease the lifespan of a foam particle with sufficiently low local foam density. This value is the number of seconds to reduce the lifespan per second.

Keep Attributes

The list of attributes to keep from the foam simulation. The defaults of pscale, rest, age, and life are required for proper rendering with the Ocean Surface shader. Set this parameter to * to keep all attributes.

Simulation

Reset Simulation

Clears the entire simulation cache.

Start Frame

The starting frame for the simulation. Set this parameter earlier than your initial render frame to pre-populate the ocean with foam.

Substeps

The number of substeps to take in the simulation.

Cache Simulation

Enables the simulation cache.

Cache Memory (MB)

Specifies how much memory in megabytes can be consumed by the cache for the foam simulation.

See also

Geometry nodes