Sprite
particle node
Changes sprite rendering attributes like texture coordinates, SHOP, rotation, and size.
Houdini lets you render render textures on particles , called “sprites”. This operator lets you control how the texture is applied to the particle.
To see the effect of this operator in the viewer, you must set the viewer’s display options to render particles as sprites.
This operator modifies the following attributes: spriteuv, spriteshop, spriterot and spritescale. The operator will add the attributes if they do not exist already.
Using Sprite
-
Select the
particle system you want to be affected. -
Click the
Sprite tool on the Drive Particles tab. -
Press D in the scene view to open the display options window.
-
Open the Particles tab and set Display particles as Sprites.
-
Close the window.
-
At the SHOP level, create a
Material with a VEX Decal and a Mantra: Sprite Procedural, and connect them to the Output Shaders node. -
Assign a Texture Map to the VEX Decal in the parameter editor.
-
Go back to the SHOP level and drag your material onto your particle system.
You can rotate and scale the sprites by turning on the Rotate and Scale checkboxes and editing the values in the Sprite node parameter editor.
Sprites always face the camera.
Parameters
|
Activation |
Turns this node on and off. The node is only active if this value is greater than 0. This is useful to control the effect of this node with an expression. Note that this is activation of the node as a whole. You can’t use this parameter to deactivate the node for certain particles. |
|
Source Group |
Only affect a group of points (created with, for example, a Group POP or Collision POP) out of all the points in the input. |
|
Texture Offset |
UV offset of lower-left corner. |
|
Texture Size |
Texture size across the sprite. |
|
Sprite SHOP |
SHOP with which to shade the sprite. |
|
Resolve SHOP Path |
If set, the Sprite SHOP path is resolved relative to this node, and the spriteshop attribute is set to the full path of the SHOP. If not set, no attempt is made to find the shop, and the exact string entered in the Sprite SHOP parameter is put into the This option is useful when creating custom operators. |
|
Rotate |
The rotation of the texture (around the view axis) in degrees. |
|
Scale |
Size of the sprite. |
Local variables
Standard POP local variables
|
AGE |
The seconds a particle in the template has been alive. |
|
AX AY AZ |
Acceleration of the particle. |
|
BBX BBY BBZ |
The point’s relative position in the bounding box. |
|
DEAD |
Point is dead. |
|
ITER |
Processing iteration number. |
|
JUSTHIT |
A collision for this particle was detected (for example, by the Collision POP) during the processing of this timestep (that is, this iteration of the particle simulation). This variable is cleared at the beginning of each timestep. Note that the collision POP actually detects any collisions which would have occurred the during the previous frame. |
|
LIFE |
Percent of total life used (from 0 to 1). |
|
LIFESPAN |
Expected lifetime of particle. |
|
MAPU MAPV MAPW |
Point or vertex texture coordinates. |
|
NPT |
Total number of points. |
|
NGRP |
Total number of points in source group. |
|
NX NY NZ |
Normal vector. |
|
PT |
The point number of the currently processed point. The |
|
RESTX RESTY RESTZ |
The rest position. |
|
SLIDING |
The sliding state of the particle. |
|
SPRINGK |
Elasticity of a point. |
|
STOPPED |
Point is stopped. |
|
STUCK |
1 if particle is stuck to a collision object. |
|
TENSION |
Spring tension. |
|
TIMEINC |
Time increment. |
|
TX TY TZ |
Point position. |
|
U V |
Surface UV values. |
|
VX VY VZ |
Velocity direction. |
|
WEIGHT |
Point spline weight. |
Added by Collision POP/Limit POP
|
DIST |
Distance from particle to last collision. |
|
HCR HCG HCB |
Diffuse color at the collision point on the surface the particle collided with. |
|
HITID |
ID for last collision. You can control how this attribute is set in the Collision or Limit POP to help distinguish types of collisions. |
|
HITTIME |
The time at which the last collision occurred. |
|
HMAPU HMAPV |
The texture map UV coordinates for the surface location where the last collision occurred. |
|
HNX HNY HNZ |
The normal at the surface location where the last collision occurred. |
|
HTX HTY HTZ |
World space position of the last collision. |
|
HU HV |
The UV coordinates for the surface location where the last collision occurred. |
|
NUMHIT |
Number of times the particle has collided. |
Added by Color POP
|
CA |
Point or vertex alpha value. |
|
CR CG CB |
Diffuse point or vertex color. |
Added by Property POP
|
ATTRACT |
Attractor point. |
|
CHARGE |
Charge of the particle. |
|
CLING |
Point is clinging to geometry. |
|
DRAG |
Point drag. |
|
FOLLOW |
Leader to follow. |
|
MASS |
Point mass. |
|
PSCALE |
Particle Scale. |
|
SCALEX SCALEY SCALEZ |
Non-uniform scale. |
Added by Proximity POP
|
NEAREST |
Either the point number or id of the particle nearest to this one. |
|
NEARESTDIST |
The distance to the nearest particle. |
|
NUMPROXIMITY |
The number of particles within a specified proximity to this particle. |
Added by Rotation POP
|
ROTA |
Rotation angle. |
|
ROTX ROTY ROTZ |
Rotation axis. |
Added by Source POP
|
GEN |
Generation. |
|
ID |
ID number, which always remains constant. |
|
ORIGIN |
Original Source point was birthed from. |
|
PARENT |
Parent’s ID Number. |
Added by Speed Limit POP
|
SPEEDMAX |
Maximum speed. |
|
SPEEDMIN |
Minimum speed. |
Added by Sprite POP
|
SROT |
Sprite rotation around view axis (in degrees). |
|
STEXU STEXV |
Texture coordinate of sprite’s lower-left corner. |
|
STEXW STEXH |
Size of sprite in texture space. |
|
SX SY |
Sprite scale. |
Controlled by Suppress Rule POP
|
SUPPPOS |
Suppress default position rule. |
|
SUPPVEL |
Suppress default velocity rule. |
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SUPPUP |
Suppress default up-vector rule. |
|
SUPPAGE |
Suppress default aging rule. |
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SUPPROT |
1 if particle is suppressing its default rotation rule. |
|
SUPPANGVEL |
1 if particle is suppressing its default angular velocity rule. |
Added by Up Vector POP
|
PVX PVY PVZ |
Previous velocity. |
|
UPX UPY UPZ |
Up vector. |
Added by Location, Source, Softbody, Split POPs
|
SPEED |
Absolute speed of particle. |
Usages in other examples
| Example name | Example for |
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