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Vex/Vops: by Deborah R. Fowler

This document compares different methods for moving points along normals in Houdini, including using point wrangles, VOPs, VEX nodes, and Python. It notes that point wrangles are currently the preferred method. It provides code examples of using a point VOP node and VEX node to add a random normal to the point position. When doing this in Python, it is necessary to explicitly loop through points and recalculate normals afterwards via another node.

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Chikmaglur Listing
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43 views

Vex/Vops: by Deborah R. Fowler

This document compares different methods for moving points along normals in Houdini, including using point wrangles, VOPs, VEX nodes, and Python. It notes that point wrangles are currently the preferred method. It provides code examples of using a point VOP node and VEX node to add a random normal to the point position. When doing this in Python, it is necessary to explicitly loop through points and recalculate normals afterwards via another node.

Uploaded by

Chikmaglur Listing
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 14

Vex/Vops

by Deborah R. Fowler

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 1


move a point along a normal

• first pointwrangle
• next in vops
• next in vex
• in python

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 2


Point Wrangles
Currently (H16) this is
the preferred method

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 3


Side note about point wrangle nodes

Could also use a point node, but the pointwrangle node is faster by about
10x. Once you are used to the syntax, use pointwrangle in favor of point.
The syntax of the @ sign is an attribute and can be used to create or fetch
(in the code below it is setting the normal to be random based on the
point)

@N = rand(@P);
Note in H13 only @N = rand(P); works but not in H14/15

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 4


Point Vop
• hit tab and type in point vop (H13 it was vop sop)

• dive into the point vop and you will see


geometryvopglobal1 and geometryvopoutput1 – we are
going to add the N to P and pipe that back into P

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 5


in a point vopP = P + rand(P) * N looks like this:

Note that the colors are meaningful, green is a vector, teal


green a float and blue an integer value and pale orange a string
(dashed lines will indicate there is a type conflict)

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 6


now you have something that sort of acts like a
mountain node
Let’s do the same thing in vex

• vops are the pictoral representation of vex


• vops nodes represent code

The vops are compiled to vex code (vcc is a


script that is used for this that exists in
Houdini bin)

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 7


Create a vex node prior to H16 (see next
slide for H16)
File/New Operator Type

Make sure you rename your otl (hda)


and put it somewhere relative to your
hip so you can find it

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 8


The Geometry Operator type no longer exists in
H16 https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/50606/
Easiest way to do this now is to create a basic hda

sop mysop()
{
}

• Put this into a vfl file.


• Run vcc -l mysop.hda mysop.vfl

Then install the digital asset and proceed as before.

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 9


in the vex node
• click on Edit Vex Function
• now type into the function “sop” under the
code tab

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 10


Important

• vex is stored in the otl (or hda), vops are


stored in the hipnc and converted to vex
automatically
• hda (previously labeled otl and still stored in
otl directories) are very handy for sharing
assets

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 11


Note about Normals

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 12


Now in Python
• hit tab and type python
• or File/New Operator Type and select python
(similar to the vex)
Two things to note:
-python uses calls to HOM (Houdini object
module)
-python and vops do not compute the normal
after so we need to add a facet or fuse to do
this (see hipnc) (in H13 vex/vops both recomputed normals, now only vex does)

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 13


python version

Note that vex and vops operate on each point, in python we


explicitly loop thru the points, grab the position and normal
information in the correct form and set the point position to
the new value. Here we used a point wrangle node before to
set the random normal. (see hipnc for more details)

9/17/2017 Deborah R. Fowler 14

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