Mouse channel node

Outputs X and Y screen values for the mouse device.

See also: Keyboard

This CHOP outputs X and Y screen values for the mouse device.

The Mouse X and Y positions are output through the channels named in the Position X and Y parameters, when the Active button is enabled.

The range of the mouse values are -1 to +1 in X, and -0.8 to +0.8 in Y. 0, 0 is the center of the screen.

The Mouse and Keyboard CHOPs are often connected to the Position and Active inputs respectively of the Record CHOP to enable the recording of channels generated by the Keyboard and Mouse.

Parameters

Control

Active	While on, the mouse movement will be output from the CHOP, and the CHOP will cook every frame. Otherwise the CHOP will not cook and the current mouse X or Y values will not be output.
Position X	The name of the channel that records the horizontal movement of the mouse.
Position Y	The name of the channel that records the vertical movement of the mouse.
Use Tablet	If enabled, and a tablet is connect to the system, the current parameters of the stylus will be reported.
Pressure	How hard the stylus is pressing on the tablet. A value of `0` represents no pressure, while `1` is maximum pressure.
Angle	The direction the stylus is facing on the tablet. If the stylus tip is facing the top of the tablet, it is `0`. If facing the right side, it is `90`.
Tilt	The angle off the horizontal of the stylus. A value `0` means the stylus is lying flat. A value of `90` means the stylus is pointing straight down. Negative values mean the stylus is reversed.
Roll	The angle to which the stylus is twisted about its own length. Again, a value from `0-360` in degrees.
Cursor	Which tool is currently active. `0` means a mouse-like device, `1` means a pen, and `2` means an eraser.

Common

Some of these parameters may not be avaiable on all CHOP nodes.

Scope

To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs have a scope string. Patterns can be used in the scope, for example * (match all), and ? (match single character).

The following are examples of possible channel name matching options:

`chan2`	Matches a single channel name.
`chan3 tx ty tz`	Matches four channel names, separated by spaces.
`chan*`	Matches each channel that starts with `chan`.
`foot`	Matches each channel that has `foot` in it.
`t?`	The `?` matches a single character. `t?` matches two-character channels starting with t.
`r[xyz]`	Matches channels `rx`, `ry` and `rz`.
`blend[3-7:2]`	Matches number ranges giving `blend3`, `blend5`, and `blend7`.
`blend[2-3,5,13]`	Matches channels `blend2`, `blend3`, `blend5`, `blend13`.
`t[xyz]`	`[xyz]`matches three characters, giving channels `tx`, `ty` and `tz`.

Sample Rate Match

The Sample Rate Match Options handle cases where multiple input CHOPs’ sample rates are different.

Resample At First Input’s Rate	Use rate of first input to resample others.
Resample At Maximum Rate	Resample to highest sample rate.
Resample At Minimum Rate	Resample to the lowest sample rate.
Error if Rates Differ	Does not accept conflicting sample rates.

Units

The units for which time parameters are specified.

For example, you can specify the amount of time a lag should last for in seconds (default), frames (at the Houdini FPS), or samples (in the CHOP’s sample rate).

Note

When you change the Units parameter, it does not convert the existing parameters to the new units.

Time Slice

Time Slicing is a feature which boosts cooking performance and reduces memory usage. Traditionally, CHOPs calculate the channel over its entire frame range. If the channel does need to be evaluated every frame, then cooking the entire range of the channel is unnecessary. It is more efficient to calculate only the fraction of the channel that is needed. This fraction is known as a Time Slice.

Unload

Causes the memory consumed by a CHOP to be released after it is cooked and the data passed to the next CHOP.

Export Prefix

The Export prefix is prepended to CHOP channel names to determine where to export to.

For example, if the CHOP channel was named geo1:tx, and the prefix was /obj, the channel would be exported to /obj/geo1/tx.

Note

You can leave the Export Prefix blank, but then your CHOP track names need to be absolute paths, such as obj:geo1:tx.

Graph Color

Every CHOP has this option. Each CHOP gets a default color assigned for display in the Graph port, but you can override the color in the Common page under Graph Color. There are 36 RGB color combinations in the Palette.

Graph Color Step

When the graph displays the animation curves and a CHOP has two or more channels, this defines the difference in color from one channel to the next, giving a rainbow spectrum of colors.

Usages in other examples

Example name	Example for