Hi I’m new to using groups in SOPs so not sure the best way to go about what I’m doing. I have a collection of points and I want to group them together so I only apply effects per group. I’ve set up the basic idea of what I want to do here.
ParticleGroups.toe (4.4 KB)
The method in this example though would mean I would have to create multiple groupSOPs and multiple particleSOPs to achieve a particle system per group.
I figured I could use a python script to group the particles together based on some criteria but that doesn’t eliminate the problem of multiple particleSOPs.
I was wondering if it was possible to use SOP groups within a glsl material
Or if there is a better way of doing it entirely.
Thanks
Hello,
Thats two different questions, group stay inside SOP world, CPU use. If you want to pass information to the GPU, you can use attibute, mainly with point SOP. You can create custom attribute and retrieve it with GLSL in the shader.
A third way, more powerful is to use texture to create your points with point cloud techniques. With it you can, for exemple use the alpha layer to determine group, using different value for each group and you can retrieve it easely in the shader. You can create more attribute using more textures with the same size.
The new POP operator, in alpha for the moment, will greatly simplify the process. It will be introduced in the next experimental.
ParticleGroupsNew.toe (95.0 KB)
another version with GLSL oututing a second texture for colors
ParticleGroupsNew.2.toe (95.1 KB)
Great thanks. I hadn’t thought about using the alpha channel like that but will work perfectly for my needs.
Unfortunetely I’m stuck in the old 2022 editions until I can find more money under my couch.
The new features look great though.