Houdini 22.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Agent Collision Layer 2.0 geometry node

Creates a new agent layer that is suitable for collision detection.

Since 22.0

This node provides an interactive way of creating and modifying collision shapes for an agent. The resulting layer is suitable for use as the agent’s collision layer in a ragdoll simulation.

See the ragdoll simulation page for examples of how to use this node.

Parameters

Agent Group

The agents to add the new layer to.

Layer Name

The name of the new layer.

Copy Source Layer

Specifies whether to use an existing layer as the starting point for the new layer. All of the shape bindings from the Source Layer will be copied.

Source Layer

If Copy Source Layer is enabled, specifies the name of an existing layer to copy shape bindings from.

Keep External References

When new shapes are added to the shape library, a copy is first made so that the modifications do not affect other agents that reference the original shape library (such as those in the input SOP’s geometry). When this option is turned on, and the original shape library references a file on disk, the new shape library is marked as including the original shape library. In this situation, when the agent is saved to a geometry file, the path to the original shape library is saved out along with any new shapes that were not included from the original library. Otherwise, the entire shape library is saved to the geometry file, and the original shape library file is not referenced.

Set as Current Layer

Sets the current layer of each agent to the new layer.

Set as Collision Layer

Sets the collision layer of each agent to the new layer.

Joint Group

The joints to build collision shapes for. Joints outside of this group are not configurable.

Clear Overrides

Clears all manual overrides added from the node’s viewer state.

Generate Shapes

Generate Shapes Group

The joints to build collision shapes for, using the Generate Convex Hulls from Skin Geometry and Generate Basic Shapes options. If Generate Convex Hulls from Skin Geometry or Generate Basic Shapes is turned off, joints that are not included in the Generate Shapes Group are unconfigurable.

If Generate Convex Hulls from Skin Geometry is turned on, joints that are not included in the Generate Shapes Group will have their corresponding collision shapes merged together with the shape of the first found parent joint. This is useful in scenarios when, for example, you want to treat the hand of a humanoid character as a single shape and not have a separate shape for each finger segment.

Generate Convex Hulls from Skin Geometry

When turned on, generates collision shapes for joints which have an influence on the deformation of the agent’s rest geometry, i.e. joints that have been skinned to the rest geometry. The resulting shapes are built using the selected algorithm that creates convex hulls. The available algorithms from the drop-down menu are Shrinkwrap and Convex Decomposition. See the Shrinkwrap and Convex Decomposition SOPs for more information.

This option requires the agent to have skinned geometry with a valid boneCapture point attribute in its current layers.

Max Concavity

The maximum distance from a point on the geometry to its closest convex hull edge. Reducing this value will produce convex hulls that are a closer fit to the input geometry, but the geometry may be split into more segments.

This parameter is available when Generate Convex Hulls from Skin Geometry is turned on, and the algorithm selected from the drop-down menu is Convex Decomposition.

Generate Basic Shapes

When turned on, generates basic collision shapes for the joints in the Generate Shapes Group. This method attempts to position and scale the newly created basic shapes using the skeleton’s hierarchy. Select the basic shape to use from the drop-down menu.

Guide Geometry

Display Guides at Rest Transform

When turned on, displays the guide geometry at the rest transform.

Tip

Turning this off allows you to visualize the shape intersections that may appear throughout the input animation.

Display Collision Shapes

When turned on, displays the guide geometry for the collision shapes in the viewport.

Display Intersections

When turned on, guide geometry showing intersections between collision shapes is displayed in bright red. These intersections usually cause instability when trying to run the solver.

See also

Geometry nodes