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Attractor particle node

Attracts or repels particles using a referenced Force SOP or Point SOP.

This operator attracts or repels the input particles toward/away from a force defined by a Force SOP (for metaballs) on the Force tab of a Point SOP (for other geometry types).

The magnitude of the referenced force determines the how much the force attracts or repels the particles, but it interacts with the mass and charge attributes of the particles (if a particle is negatively charged the effect of this operator is reversed), unless you use the Ignore charge and Ignore mass options.

Note

To apply a global force to particles, use the Force POP.

You can use a SOP connected to one of the POP networks inputs as the attractor, or reference an arbitrary SOP, according to the Attractor use parameter on the Attractor tab.

  • Using an input gives you the flexibility to easily change which geometry to use for the attractor, either manually or programatically.

  • Using an explicit reference is useful when the attractor geometry is in a known location and is not expected to change.

This operator modifies the accel attribute.

Using Attractor

  1. Click the Attractor button from the Drive Particles tab.

  2. Click LMB the particle system you want to be attracted or repelled and press Enter to confirm your selection.

  3. Click LMB the object you want the particles to be attracted to or repelled from and press Enter to confirm your selection.

    The degree of attraction/repulsion can be modified in the parameter editor.

Parameters

Activation

Turns this node on and off. The operator is only active if this value is greater than 0. This is useful to control the effect of this node with an expression.

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.

Attractor

Attractor Use

How the points of the attractor affect the input particles.

All points

All points affect each particle.

Single point per particle

Only one point affects each particle. The attract attribute controls. Use the Property POP to set the attractor-related attribute on particles.

Geometry Source

Specifies the SOP to use.

Use Parameter Values

Use the SOP specified in the SOP parameter below.

Use First Context Geometry

Use the SOP connected to the POP network’s first input.

Use Second Context Geometry

Use the SOP connected to the POP network’s second input.

Use Third Context Geometry

Use the SOP connected to the POP network’s third input.

Use Fourth Context Geometry

Use the SOP connected to the POP network’s fourth input.

SOP

Path to the SOP (when Geometry source is set to Use Parameter Values).

Ignore Transform Object

Particles normally use the object space of the SOP being cooked. Turn this parameter on to not transform into the space of the cooking SOP.

Stop At Attractor

Particles stop when they reach the attractor.

Scale

Multiplies or divides the force of the attractor.

Show attractor radius in guide

Shows the radius of the force as part of the node’s guide geometry. Turn on the node’s template flag to see the guides.

Show acceleration in guide

Shows the applied acceleration as part of the node’s guide geometry. Turn on the node’s template flag to see the guides.

Defaults

Ignore Charge

Ignores any charge attributes on the input particles.

Override Charge

Replaces any charge attributes on the input particles with the value of the Charge parameter below.

Charge

Charge to use when Override charge is on.

Ignore Mass

Ignores any mass attributes on the input particles.

Override Mass

Replaces any mass attributes on the input particles with the value of the Mass parameter below.

Mass

Mass to use when Override mass is on.

Noise

The parameters on this tab add randomness to the attraction force. This makes particles more or less attracted at random, creating a less uniform effect.

Seed

Seed value for the random turbulence generator.

Turbulence

Number of iterations of fractal noise to add.

Roughness

Scale of noise added with each iteration.

Exponent

Noise attenuation exponent.

Frequency

Spatial frequency of noise field in X, Y, and Z.

Amplitude

Maximum value of noise field.

Offset

Amount to shift noise along X, Y, and Z axes.

Noise Type

Method used to generate noise. Hermite Interpolation and Improved Hermite are fastest.

Hermite Interpolation

Uses splines to interpolate values in the noise field.

Sparse Convolution

More computationally expensive, but produces noise fields free of artifacts present in the Hermite methods.

Improved Hermite

Uses a more linear interpolation than Hermite interpolation.

Alligator Noise

Provides a very different look than the other noise types.

Locals

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.

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.

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.

SUPPUP

Suppress default up-vector rule.

SUPPAGE

Suppress default aging rule.

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.

Examples

The following examples are specifically designed to demonstrate this node:

AttractToCurvePoints

$HFS/mozilla/documents/examples/nodes/pop/attractor/AttractToCurvePoints.cmd

AttractToGrid

$HFS/mozilla/documents/examples/nodes/pop/attractor/AttractToGrid.cmd

AttractToRing

$HFS/mozilla/documents/examples/nodes/pop/attractor/AttractToRing.cmd

Chaser

$HFS/mozilla/documents/examples/nodes/pop/attractor/Chaser.cmd

The following examples use this node:

PopFlow

$HFS/mozilla/documents/examples/nodes/dop/particlefluidsolver/PopFlow.otl

PopFlow

$HFS/mozilla/documents/examples/nodes/dop/particlefluidsolver/PopFlow.otl

SparksStream

$HFS/mozilla/documents/examples/nodes/pop/stream/SparksStream.cmd