Houdini 20.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Pyro Trail Path geometry node

Generates curves to use as trails for the Pyro Trail Source node.

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Since 18.5

Overview

This node is a higher level tool to quickly generate pyro trail paths. It takes the incoming points and generates a cloud of points around them using the Pyro Scatter From Burst node, followed by a Ballistic Path node to generate the paths based on the scattered points, without the need of any particle simulation. If no input is provided, it creates trails shooting out from to the origin.

Tip

If you dive inside this node, some of the attributes can be changed on the generated points before they are used to generate the paths.

Using the time attribute

Each point on the curve stores a time attribute, which always starts at 0 on the first point of each curve, and increases with each consecutive point on the curve, indicating the position of the projectile on the path at a given time.

Warning

This attribute is used by the Pyro Trail Source node, so it must be preserved.

If you need to extract the point where the projectile is at a given time, use the Extract Point From Curve node with the Distance Attribute set to time and Cut At set to Current Time.

Since time starts at 0 for each path, you must offset its value if your timeline starts at a frame other than 1.

For example, if you want to offset time manually to extract the projectile from the path starting from frame 1001, do the following.

  1. Append an Attribute Adjust Float SOP with the Attribute Name set to time.

  2. Make sure Operation is set to Add.

  3. Set the Constant Value to 1001.

  4. Set the Unit Settings to Time, which will convert the value of 1001 into units of time.

    This will offset time attribute values by 41.666 for every point on the trails.

  5. Append an Extract Point From Curve SOP with the Distance Attribute set to time and Cut At set to Current Time. This will ensure to extract a point based on the time attribute using the global time.

Tip

You can manipulate the time attribute to slow down or speed up the projectile along its trajectory. For example, multiplying time values by 2 will uniformly slow down the flight.

Using the startframe attribute

This node also creates a float type primitive attribute called startframe, which stores the frame number when the projectile is launched on the path. When startframe stores values other than 1, it must be combined with the time point attribute. Pyro Trail Source will automatically do this combination if a primitive startframe attribute is found on the curves, making sure the trail source starts at the right time.

To combine the startframe attribute with the time attribute manually and extract the projectile from the path, do the following.

  1. Append an Attribute Promote node.

  2. Set the Original Name to startframe.

  3. Set the Original Class to Primitive.

  4. Set the Promotion Method to First Match.

    This will transfer the startframe attribute from curve primitives to their points.

  5. Append an Attribute Adjust Float node with the Attribute Name set to time.

  6. Set Adjust With to Attribute.

  7. Make sure Operation is set to Add.

  8. Set the Adjustment Attribute to startframe.

  9. Set the Unit Settings to Time.

    For each point, this will convert the value of startframe from frames to seconds and add the result to time.

  10. Append an Extract Point From Curve node with its Distance Attribute set to Time and Cut At set to Current Time.

    This will ensure the extract a point based on time attribute using the global time.

Customizing Trails

It is possible to generate trails for multiple bursts with one node. By default, all bursts will have the same properties, as set by the node’s parameters (such as Initial Size, Direction, etc.). To vary these properties for each burst, select the Set Varying option on the menu next to the corresponding parameter. This will use a different random value in the provided range for each input point. These generated random numbers are seeded with point numbers by default. To use a custom integer attribute instead, set Randomization By to Seed Attribute. This will ensure that randomized properties will remain the same for an input point even if points are shuffled or removed from the input, provided value of the Seed Attribute stays the same.

You can also manually override parameter values with attributes. For example, if the input geometry has a pscale point attribute, its values can be used instead of the global Initial Size. This allows you to finely control the size of each burst. To do this, the menu next to the corresponding parameter must also be set to Use Attribute.

Parameters that can be controlled by point attributes are listed in the table below.

Parameter Name

Range

Attribute Name

Attribute Type

Initial Size

0 to ∞

pscale

float

Direction

(-1,-1,-1) to (1,1,1)

N

vector

Number of Trails

0 to ∞

copynum

integer

Spread Start Angle

0 to 180

spread_startangle

float

Spread Angle

0 to 180

spread_angle

float

Azimuth Start Angle

0 to 360

azimuth_startangle

float

Azimuth Angle

0 to 360

azimuth_angle

float

Line Start

0 to ∞

line_start

float

Line Length

0 to ∞

line_length

float

Velocity Scale

0 to ∞

vscale

float

Drag

0 to ∞

drag

float

Mass

0 to ∞

mass

float

Start Frame

∞ to ∞

startframe

float

Trail Duration

0 to ∞

life

float

Speed Scale

0 to ∞

speed

float

Collisions

This node is not able to handle colliders to the same level as a particle simulation. However, a basic clipping and a collision system has been created to handle simple use-cases. If you need more advanced collision handling, you need to run a particle simulation to obtain ballistic paths.

To make a particle simulation with the generated trail paths, do the following.

  1. Create Pyro Scatter From Burst node and change its parameters to match this node.

  2. Choose the Simulated Trails option from the Quick Setup dropdown menu on the Pyro Scatter From Burst node.

    This will generate a particle simulation setup that is converted into pyro trails.

Parameters

General

Group

The subset of the input geometry points to use for point cloud generation. Leave this blank to use all points.

Guide Display

Set this menu to Distribution Guide to visualize where trails can originate. This is determined by Spread Angle, Spread Start Angle, Azimuth Angle and Azimuth Start Angle.

Quick Setups

This menu lets you run some simple scripted setups to help with the most common tasks.

Single Input Point

Creates an Add node with a single point that is ready to be positioned where you need the explosion to happen.

Color by Start Frame

Creates an Attribute Wrangle node upstream that helps you visualize the startframe point attribute over time to see when each input point is triggered.

Pyro Trail Source

Creates a Pyro Trail Source node to generate source points from the trails. These points can be rasterized into volumes that can serve as sources for a pyro simulation.

Initialize

Force Uniform will set all parameter override menus to Set Uniform. This is useful if you want all scatter properties to be controlled by the parameter interface. Use Attribute will look for incoming attributes and corresponding parameters will be set to Use Attribute.

Additional Guides

Bursts usually disappear soon after their creation, which can makes it difficult to visualize them together with the trails. Turn this on to see pyro bursts as guides while displaying this node to help synchronize the animation of different elements. It can accept a white-space separated list of Pyro Burst Source nodes.

Fuse Input Points

When multiple input points are used for one explosion by the Pyro Burst Source SOP, you usually only need one input point to generate the trails. Enabling this allows you to fuse all incoming points into one or fuse them together by matching attribute values of a custom attribute. When points are fused together, the startframe point attribute will be set to the minimum value of all fused point values, while direction (N) will be averaged.

None

No points will be fused together, all points will contribute to generate trails.

All Into One

All incoming points will be fused to a single point that will be used for trail generation.

By Attribute

Points that have the same value for Match Attribute will be fused into a single source.

Match Attribute

The attribute to control which points will be fused together. To fuse points together, they have to have the same attribute value. This must be an integer attribute.

Randomization By

Controls how the random selection is seeded for parameters that are using Set Varying. Topology changes on the input geometry can shift element numbers, causing a different random selection to be used. Seed Attribute lets you provide an integer attribute to make sure the random value is not dependent on element order.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Seed Attribute

The integer type attribute to use for random selection for parameters that are using Set Varying.

Source

Shape

Shape

The trails can be launched in a spherical shape around the incoming points or along the burst’s direction (as set by Direction) when this is set to Line. Use Sphere if you want trails launching from the center of the explosion or Line when you want trails shooting out from the rising mushroom cloud.

Sphere

Line

Initial Size

The starting size of the burst in which trails will be launched. A value of 1 means the diameter of the burst is roughly 1 unit.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Size Scale

Scales the existing pscale attribute by this amount when the menu is set to Scale Attribute. This allows you to quickly scale your burst without adjusting the attribute values.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation. Sizes will be between Initial Size - Variation and Initial Size + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Direction

The direction of the burst. You can change the direction to make the trails come out from the side of a building, for example.

When Shape is set to Sphere, this vector also corresponds to spread angle of 0. When using Line (Shape), the Direction controls the line that shoots out trails.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation in degrees. The varied direction will spread out in a cone shape from Direction.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Shape Offset

Controls the random scattering of starting points for trails. Change this value to obtain different trails for the same set of shape parameters.

Trail Distribution

Number of Trails

The number of trails to generate per input point. Increase this parameter to create more trails.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation. Trail counts per input point will be between Number of Trails - Variation and Number of Trails + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Spread Start Angle

When Shape is set to Sphere, it sets the minimum angle the scattered points can spread out from the burst’s direction vector (as set by Direction). Set Guide Display to Distribution Guide to help visualize the given angle.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation in degrees. Start angles will be between Spread Start Angle - Variation and Spread Start Angle + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Spread Angle

When Shape is set to Sphere, it sets the angle trails can spread from Spread Start Angle towards the opposite of burst direction (as set by Direction). Set this to 180 degrees on a node with default settings to make the trails shoot out in all directions. Set Guide Display to Distribution Guide to help visualize the given angle.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation in degrees. Spread angles will fall between Spread Angle - Variation and Spread Angle + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Line Start

When Shape is set to Line, the trails are generated around a line representing the burst direction (as set by Direction). This parameter sets how far away this line should be created from its input point in world units.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation for Line Start. The generated values will be between Line Start - Variation to Line Start + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Line Length

When Shape is set to Line, the trails are generated around a line representing the burst direction (as set by Direction). This parameter sets the length of the line in world units.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation for Line Length. The generated values will be between Line Length - Variation to Line Length + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Azimuth Start Angle

Azimuth controls how trails are generated around the burst direction (as set by Direction), therefore you can use it to generate trails only on a desired side of the explosion. By default, the value of 0 will create trails on the +X axis and they are rotated around the burst direction vector counter-clockwise as the value increases.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation in degrees. The variation will be from Value - Variation to Value + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Azimuth Angle

Azimuth controls how trails are generated around the burst direction (as set by Direction), therefore you can use it to generate trails only on a desired side of the explosion. Increasing this value will spread out the trails from the Azimuth Start Angle around the burst direction both clockwise and counter-clockwise. The value of 360 means that trails will be created all around the burst direction.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation in degrees. The generated values will be between Azimuth Angle - Variation and Azimuth Angle + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Prune by Noise

Removes some of the trails based on a noise pattern. Use this to create more interesting trail patterns. When this checkbox is turned on, Number of Trails might need to be increased to compensate for the removed trails.

Size

Controls base feature size of the generated noise. The value applies to each axis.

Offset

The offset along the Y-axis. Change this value if the current noise pattern is undesirable.

Roughness

The scale increment between iterations of fractal noise. The higher the value, the larger the “jaggedness” added to the output.

Radius Along Length

When Shape is set to Line, this controls the radius in which the points can be scattered along the length of the line. When the ramp’s value is 1, the radius is equal to Initial Size.

Trail Generation

Velocity

Velocity Scale

Sets the length (magnitude) of the launch velocity for the trails. Increase this to make the trails shoot out faster and cover larger distances during their life time.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation for velocity scale. The generated values will fall between Velocity Scale - Variation and Velocity Scale + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Top Spread Angle

Controls “verticality” of the paths for points further away from the center, when Shape is set to Line. The spread angle refers to the angle between the burst’s direction (as set by Direction) and a path’s starting velocity vector. Therefore, a spread angle of 0 will result in a path that’s aimed in the burst’s direction, and a spread angle of 90 will result in a path that starts out perpendicular to the burst’s direction. In the common case of Direction pointing away from Gravity, values near 90 will produce paths that are shooting out horizontally at the top of the emission line. Use the +/- button to quickly randomize the value per trail. The spread angle for the starting point of a path is fully determined by its distance to the burst center along the direction. When this distance is at Line Start or its sum with Line Length, spread angle will be set to Bottom Spread Angle and Top Spread Angle, respectively. The spread angle is linearly interpolated for distances between them.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation in degrees. The generated values will be between Top Spread Angle - Variation and Top Spread Angle + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Bottom Spread Angle

Controls “verticality” of the paths for points closer to the center, when Shape is set to Line. The spread angle refers to the angle between the burst’s direction (as set by Direction) and a path’s starting velocity vector. Therefore, a spread angle of 0 will result in a path that’s aimed in the burst’s direction, and a spread angle of 90 will result in a path that starts out perpendicular to the burst’s direction. In the common case of Direction pointing away from Gravity, values near 90 will produce paths that are shooting out horizontally at the bottom of the emission line. Use the +/- button to quickly randomize the value per trail. The spread angle for the starting point of a path is fully determined by its distance to the burst center along the direction. When this distance is at Line Start or its sum with Line Length, spread angle will be set to Bottom Spread Angle and Top Spread Angle, respectively. The spread angle is linearly interpolated for distances between them.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation in degrees. The generated values will be between Bottom Spread Angle - Variation and Bottom Spread Angle + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Enable Direction Noise

When this checkbox is turned on, it changes the direction of the trails based on a noise pattern. Use this to randomize and create more variation in the trail directions.

Amplitude

Sets the strength of the noise. Higher values will create more variation between the trails.

Size

Controls base feature size of the generated noise. The value applies to each axis.

Offset

The offset along the Y-axis. Change this value if the current noise pattern is undesirable.

Roughness

The scale increment between iterations of fractal noise. The higher the value, the larger the “jaggedness” added to the output.

Enable Length Noise

When this checkbox is turned on, it changes the length (magnitude) of the launch velocity for the trails based on a noise pattern. Increasing launch velocity makes the trails shoot out faster and cover more distance during their lifetime.

Scale Min

Sets how much of the launch velocity can be scaled down from its original length. The value of 1 means, that no velocities will be shorter than their original length.

Scale Max

Sets how much of the launch velocity can be scaled up from it’s original length. The value of 1 means, that no velocities will be longer than their original length.

Size

Controls base feature size of the generated noise. The value applies to each axis.

Offset

The offset along the Y-axis. Change this value if the current noise pattern is undesirable.

Roughness

The scale increment between iterations of fractal noise. The higher the value, the larger the “jaggedness” added to the output.

Limit Length

Limits the magnitude of the launch velocity. Use it to limit the minimum or the maximum launch speeds.

Limit Min

Limits the minimum launch speed.

Limit Max

Limits the maximum launch speed.

Ballistic Properties

Drag

Sets the air resistance for the projectiles. Higher values will result in faster loss of energy and shorter travel distance. A Drag of zero will produce a symmetric arc.

Pyro Trail Paths with Drag values from left to right : 3, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation. Drag values will fall between Drag - Variation and Drag + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Mass

Sets the mass for the projectile. Higher values will cause the projectile to more strongly resist drag and travel a longer distance.

Pyro Trail Paths with Mass values from left to right : 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3.
Combined view of Drag (yellow) and Mass (green) values.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation. Projectile masses will be between Mass - Variation and Mass + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Gravity

Sets the force that attracts the projectile towards the ground. Set all components to zero if you want straight trails, which are not affected by gravity.

FPS

The number of divisions in the path for every second of time. Usually one wants a division per frame, thus this is often related to your frames per second.

Substeps

Sets how many times to divide the trail into further segments. The larger the number, the more points will be created for each curve to help with post-deformations. You do not need to change this parameter from the default, if you do not intend to apply any post-deformation.

Start Frame

Start Frame

This node sets the startframe primitive attribute on the generated curves to indicate when each trail is to start. This parameter can be used to control timing of the projectiles. The startframe attribute gets set on the incoming points before the trails are seeded; therefore, all points created from the same input point will have the same start frame. Use Offset per Point to vary the start frame per scattered point. Use the button to the right of this parameter to visualize start frames for scattered points; grey points haven’t triggered at the current frame, while red ones have.

Note

As the float type time point attribute is used to tell where the projectile is on the path at a given time, the startframe attribute is combined with time when using Pyro Trail Source following this node. Therefore you must make sure to preserve this attribute. For more information, see Using the time attribute and Using the startframe attribute.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Start Frame Visualizer

When this is turned on, it colors trails that have not started as grey, and already started trails as red.

Offset

Offsets the existing startframe attribute by this amount when the menu is set to Shift Forward or Shift Backward. This allows you to quickly change the startframe attribute without needing to adjust the attribute value. This value sets startframe on the incoming points before the trails are generated, so all paths created from the same input point will have the same start frame.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation. The generated values will cover the range from Start Frame to Start Frame + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Offset per Point

Sets the maximum allowed start frame offset for each trail. You need to turn this on to vary the start frames for trails generated from the same input point. This will set the offset value as unit of frames, when you only need couple of frames as offset. However, if you need an offset longer than a few seconds, using As Time Duration might be a better alternative. Random Distribution will pick startframe values between Start Frame and Start Frame + Offset per Point, which can be useful when Shape is set to Sphere. Use Along Direction when Shape is set to Line to start the trails gradually along the burst’s direction (as set by Direction).

Offset per Point

Sets the maximum allowed start frame offset extension for each trail as unit of time. It might be easier to provide the offset as unit of time when the trails need to live longer than a few seconds.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Start Frame Over Length

When Shape is set to Line, this ramp allows you to start the trails that are closer to the burst center before ones that are further away. The left side of the ramp applies to trails that are the closest to the burst center, while the right side is for trails that are the furthest. When the ramp’s value is set to 0, it will set startframe to the value given by Start Frame. When the ramp’s value is 1, it will set startframe to Start Frame + Offset per Point.

Timing

Trail Duration

Sets the length of the trails in frames. Higher values produce longer trails.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Trail Duration

Sets the length of the trails in seconds. Higher values produce longer trails.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation for Trail Duration. The generated values will be between Trail Duration and Trail Duration + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Speed Scale

Sets how fast the projectile is moving on the trail path. Lowering this value will make the projectiles move slower, while increasing this value will make them move faster.

Click the randomization button on the right side of this parameter to randomize the value per incoming element. This will create/select a corresponding attribute adjust node to give you greater control over the parameter’s value.

Variation

Sets the maximum allowed variation for Speed Scale. The generated scales will be between Speed Scale and Speed Scale + Variation.

Seed

Controls the random selection for variation. Change this value if the current variation is undesirable.

Basic Collision

Clip Below Height

Turning on this checkbox lets you clip projectiles that fall below Clip Height on the Y-axis.

Clip Height

The height to use for clipping. Trajectories will terminate once the Y coordinate falls below this value.

Enable Static Collision

Turns on a basic collision detection system for the path to collide with objects.

Collision Geometry Path

The SOP path to the geometry the projectile paths need to collide with. If the geometry contains a kill primitive attribute that is set to 1, trajectories will terminate when they hit that primitive; otherwise, they will bounce and continue.

Number of Bounces

The maximum number of allowed bounces for projectile paths. After this number of bounces, the path will terminate. Set this to 0, if you want to eliminate all projectiles on the first collision hit.

Bounce

Specifies what fraction of the original speed is maintained on collision in the direction of the collision normal. A value of 1 will simply reverse this normal component of velocity, whereas smaller values will also reduce it. A value of 0 will kill the projectile upon collision.

Bounce Forward

Specifies what fraction of the original speed is maintained in the tangential plane of the collision. A value of 1 will leave the tangential velocity unaffected; a value of 0 will eliminate the tangential component of velocity after the collision.

Output Attributes

Generic Attributes

Copy Input Attributes

Copies custom created point attributes from the input points to the generated trails. This will ignore copying all internally used attributes.

Attributes

Only copy attributes whose names match this pattern. The default * copies all attributes. This will ignore copying all internally used attributes.

Promote Input Attributes

When this checkbox is turned on, attributes will be promoted from input points to curve primitives that they generate.

Trail Id

The primitive attribute storing a unique id attribute for each generated path.

Trail Index

The primitive attribute storing the index number of the generated trails.

Launch Speed

The primitive attribute storing length of the velocity vector at the start of each trail.

End Time

The primitive attribute storing the time when the trail ends.

Randomization Attribute

When this checkbox is turned on, the trailid primitive attribute will be created to store the value used by the Randomization By parameter.

See also

Geometry nodes