Houdini 20.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Ocean Source 2.0 geometry node

Generates particles and volumes from ocean “spectrum” volumes for use in simulations

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Since 16.0

This node uses an Ocean Spectrum connected to the first input to generate particles and volumes that can be used to drive FLIP simulations of ocean splashes, layers, and tanks.

This node can create thin layers of particles to allow simulation of only a small part of an ocean surface. It can also generate boundary layers that surround the simulated liquid tank and help suppress wave reflections and preserve water volume and velocity over the duration of the simulation. These boundary layers also enable animation of the Center parameter to track a moving object.

This node will usually be created via shelf tools that apply one of the following presets:

Guided Ocean Layer

Generates a thin layer of particles on top of a guiding ocean surface. The particles are initialized with ocean velocities. The guiding ocean surface and velocity volumes are used both as a boundary layer and as a guiding surface to drive the thin layer of particles. This preset is most useful for simulating the ocean surface where closely matching the underlying ocean spectrum surface is necessary.

Wave Tank

Generates a full tank of particles initialized with ocean velocities as well as boundary layer surface and velocity volumes that can be used to update the simulation velocity in the boundary layer. This preset is most useful for simulations that require a full liquid simulation including interaction with deeper parts of an ocean.

Flat Tank

Similar to the output from the Particle Fluid Tank with the addition of a boundary layer, allowing particles to exit the simulation and the tank to track a moving object by animating the Center parameter.

Parameters

Initialize

Initialize the parameters to the specified preset.

Particle Separation

The smallest distance between any two generated particles in the initial configuration.

Oversampling

The amount to oversample the particles. For example, a value of 2 will create twice as many particles.

Grid Scale

The voxel size of any volumes created will be the product of this parameter and the Particle Separation.

Size

The size of the set of particles or volumes created by this node.

Center

The center of the set of particles or volumes created by this node.

Particles

Create Particles

Generate particles with ocean velocities within the ocean surface and the specified box.

Water Level

The top level of the particles before being deformed by the ocean surface. A value of zero represents the surface of the ocean.

Fill Volume

Fill the bottom of the tank with particles, starting at the Water Level value.

Layer Size

Specifies the size of the layer of particles to create.

Guiding Surface Thickness

Specifies the size of the guiding surface applied to the FLIP simulation.

Jitter Seed

Random seed for creating jitter.

Jitter Scale

The amount of jitter to apply to the positional values of the particles.

Kill Inside Collision

Delete any particles inside any collision objects plugged into the second input.

Surface

Depth

The Surface SDF will represent the ocean at the specified depth. This differs from simply offsetting the output surface SDF as it takes into account the Depth Falloff setting.

Smoothing

Controls the radius of the points used to generate volumes. Higher values are more expensive but give smoother volumes.

Velocity

Velocity Field

Output a field containing the ocean velocity values.

Max Extrap Cells

When generating velocity volumes, how many voxels from the ocean surface to extrapolate velocity values.

Boundary Layer

Create Boundary Layer

Create a small layer around the perimeter of the simulation to maintain surface and velocity. Enabling this layer will decrease the size of the active simulation by the amount specified in the Padding parameters.

Lower Padding

The size of the layer extruded into the simulation from the lower simulation boundaries. Set this parameter to zero to disable the layer on any given axis.

Upper Padding

The size of the layer extruded into the simulation from the upper simulation boundaries. Set this parameter to zero to disable the layer on any given axis.

Surface Evaluation

Type

The type of surface to evaluate, Ocean or Flat. The parameters for the Ocean type are from an embedded Ocean Evaluate SOP. The parameters for the Flat type are from an embedded Particle Fluid Tank SOP.

Time

The time at which to evaluate the ocean surface.

Downsample

Downsample the incoming ocean spectrum 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.

Tip

The same high resolution spectrum can be processed by separate Ocean Evaluate and Ocean Source nodes, for example the former with no downsampling to deform surface geometry, and the latter at a downsampled resolution to generate the more expensive volume or point output.

Max Resolution

Downsample the incoming ocean spectra to the specified maximum resolution before evaluating any ocean values. This parameter is useful to avoid evaluation of very high-resolution spectra when only requiring simulation data, for example. It can also be more convenient than the Downsample parameter when there are multiple incoming spectra of different resolutions.

Depth Falloff

Specifies how deformation and velocity values falloff as the input points lie below the ocean surface.

None

Values do not falloff below the surface.

Exponential

All values have the same exponential falloff below the surface.

Exponential by Frequency

Values have an exponential falloff that is scaled per wave frequency. With this setting the contribution from small, high frequency waves falls off very quickly. It is the most accurate setting and most expensive to compute.

Falloff Scale

An additional scale applied to the exponential falloff modes in Depth Falloff. For the most physically accurate values this should be set to 1 in conjunction with the Exponential by Frequency mode.

Depth Divisions

The number of divisions along the depth axis if the computed ocean are 3D, as specified by the Depth Falloff parameter. Higher values are more accurate but more expensive to calculate.

Max Displacement Frame

When generating volumes and points, this node needs to calculate the maximum horizontal and vertical displacement in the input ocean waves. If this parameter is enabled, the displacement will be estimated only once at the specified frame, which is fast, gives a stable point output, and is typically accurate enough for good results. However, in the case of animated wave amplitudes or quickly varying instancing geometry, it may be necessary to continuously re-calculate the displacement by disabling this parameter.

Scatter Density

Scatter points on the surface of the tank, which can help create a flat surface for a FLIP simulation. For a value of 1 the scattered points will be approximately separated by Particle Separation. Increasing this value will oversample the surface.

Oversampling Bandwidth

The points will be oversampled to this distance from the surface of the tank if Oversampling is enabled. This parameter is specified in multiples of the Particle Separation.

Inputs

Ocean Spectrum

The Ocean Spectrum volume to evaluate when the Surface Evaluation type is Ocean.

Collision Geometry

Geometry used to cull particles and volumes from within collisions.

Outputs

Initial

The Initial output returns geometry consisting of particles used to initialize a FLIP Object.

Maintain

The Maintain output returns a volume for the ocean surface and velocity fields when the Surface Evaluation type is Ocean. These volumes are used in the boundary layer to maintain the ocean dynamics throughout the simulation.

See also

Geometry nodes