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| Since | 17.0 |
The SOP Merge Field DOP performs calculations on a pair consisting of the
destination DOP field and a source SOP volume or VDB. This node supports the
majority of the operations that can be performed with
Gas Calculate, but doesn’t require the source volume
to be imported into a DOP field before merging can be carried out. In addition,
SOP Merge Field allows for length-wise comparison of vector fields as well as
activity region-aware combining.
The destination field can be a scalar, vector, or a matrix field. A scalar field can be combined with either a volume or a VDB primitive. A vector field can be merged with a triplet of volumes, a triplet of scalar VDBs, or a single vector VDB. Lastly, a matrix field can be combined with 9 volume primitives or 9 scalar VDBs (mixing of types is not allowed).
Parameters ¶
Dest Field
Result of the operations is stored in this DOP field.
Stencil Field
A scalar field to use as a stencil for where to perform this node’s computations. Voxels whose stencil value strictly exceeds 0.5 will have the operation applied, while the rest will be left unchanged.
Note
If a stencil field isn’t provided or does not exist, the operation will be performed everywhere.
Source SOP
Path to the SOP that contains volume or VDB primitives to be merged.
Volume Name
List of names of the primitives to be merged. If Dest Field is scalar, this has to be a single volume or VDB; if it is a vector field, then the list must consist of three volume names, three scalar VDB names, or one vector VDB name. This list must contain nine volume names or nine scalar VDB names if Dest Field corresponds to a matrix field.
SOP Mask
Name of the SOP scalar volume or VDB by which source volume is multiplied before merging with the Dest Field.
DOP Mask
Name of the DOP field by which the source volume is multiplied before merging with the Dest Field.
Absolute
When this option is enabled, negative mask values are interpreted as 0 and positive values are interpreted as 1.
SDF
When this option is enabled (along with Absolute), negative mask values are interpreted as 1 and positive values are interpreted as 0.
Calculation
The merging operation.
Copy
Values in the Dest Field will be overwritten by those in the source volume.
Add
Result is the sum of values in Dest Field and source volume.
Subtract
Result is the difference between values in Dest Field and source volume.
Multiply
Result is the product of values in Dest Field and source volume.
Divide
Values in the Dest Field will be divided by the corresponding values in the source volume.
Maximum
Result is the larger of the values in Dest Field and source volume. For vector fields, comparison can be performed length-wise by enabling Use Vector Norm.
Minimum
Result is the smaller of the values in Dest Field and source volume. For vector fields, comparison can be performed length-wise by enabling Use Vector Norm.
Average
Result is the average of values in Dest Field and source volume.
Guide
Values in the Dest Field are pushed towards the corresponding entries in source volume, in accordance to settings of Acceleration Guide Strength, Deceleration Guide Strength, and Direction Guide Strength.
Use Vector Norm
If Calculation is set to Maximum or Minimum and destination is a vector field, enabling this option forces length-wise comparison of values (as opposed to component-wise).
Guide Direction Independently
When Calculation is set to Guide, this option can be enabled to guide
a vector field’s length and direction independently. Guiding is performed
component-wise if this option is disabled.
Note
Acceleration Guide Strength and Deceleration Guide Strength apply to the vector lengths when this option is enabled, and Direction Guide Strength applies to to the vector directions.
Acceleration Guide Strength
Controls how strongly the Dest Field's values are pushed towards the source volume. Applies for the voxels in which the source volume has larger values than the Dest Field.
Deceleration Guide Strength
Controls how strongly the Dest Field's values are pushed towards the source volume. Applies for the voxels in which the source volume has smaller values than the Dest Field.
Direction Guide Strength
When Guide Direction Independently is enabled, controls how strongly the Dest Field's vectors are pushed to align with source volume’s. This option only has an effect with vector fields.
Clamped
When enabled, only parts of the Dest Field that fall within the active region of the source volume are modified.
Note
Active region for a native Houdini volume is defined to be the area
inside its bounding box. VDBs, on the other hand, may have an arbitrary
active region. The 
VDB Visualize Tree SOP
can be used to visualize the active voxels of a VDB primitive.
Transform
The source geometry can be transformed to account for differences between transforms of the Source SOP and a reference object. None will prevent any corrective transform from being applied. Into This Object will ensure that the object-level transform of the Source SOP will be accounted for. Into Specified Object will first transform Source SOP into the space of Transform Object before merging the fields.
Transform Object
The reference transformation object. When Transform is set to Into Specified Object, Source SOP will first be transformed into this object’s space before merging is carried out.
Dest, Source, Post Time Scale
The relevant add and/or multiply operand is scaled according to the current
timestep. If a is the addition operand and m the multiplication
operand and t the timestep, the operands are changed as follows.
None
a = a
m = m
Add
a = a * t
m = m
Multiply
a = a
m = e ^ (ln(m) * t)
Both
a = a * t
m = e ^ (ln(m) * t)
Divide
a = a
m = m / t
Linearly Scale Multiply
a = a
m = m * t
Dest Pre-Add, Dest Pre-Mult
Before performing the Calculation, destination value is set to
A * m + a, where A is the value of the Dest Field, m is Dest
Pre-Mult and a is Dest Pre-Add.
Source Pre-Add, Source Pre-Mult
Before performing the Calculation, source value is set to A * m + a,
where A is the value of the source volume, m is Source Pre-Mult and
a is Source Pre-Add.
Post-Add, Post-Mult
After performing the Calculation, result is changed to A * m + a,
where A is the pre-transformed result, m is Post-Mult and a is
Post-Add.
Dest, Source, Post Conversion
After the add and multiply operations, the specified conversion is applied.
None
No conversion is performed.
SDF to Fog
Maps negative values to 1 and positive values to 0 with values lying within the one cell boundary getting linearly interpolated values.
SDF to Surface
Map cells on the zero boundary to 1 and those more than one cell away from the boundary to 0.
Absolute
Takes the absolute value.
Dest, Source, Post Scale
The scaling factor is applied after conversion. A length scale will multiply by the voxel size, area by the size squared, and volume by the size cubed.
Warn on Missing SOP Primitives
When enabled, this DOP will generate a warning if a named volume to be used for merging cannot be located. When disabled, the merging operation is silently skipped.
Use Timestep
Determines if the current solver timestep will be used to apply this node.
If set, the current timestep size will be multiplied by the scale and used for the time increment for this operation. Otherwise, the time scale will specify an absolute fictitious time to integrate by.
By disabling the link between the actual real time and the microsolver time, you can perform operations in a separate, fictitious, time.
Time Scale
The timestep used for this microsolver will be scaled by this amount. This allows one to achieve non-realistic effects, such as parts of the simulation operating at different speeds than other parts.
Similarly, it is useful if a solver needs to be evaluated independently of the main timestep.
Parameter Operations
Each data option parameter has an associated menu which specifies how that parameter operates.
Use Default
Use the value from the Default Operation menu.
Set Initial
Set the value of this parameter only when this data is created. On all subsequent timesteps, the value of this parameter is not altered. This is useful for setting up initial conditions like position and velocity.
Set Always
Always set the value of this parameter. This is useful when specific keyframed values are required over time. This could be used to keyframe the position of an object over time, or to cause the geometry from a SOP to be refetched at each timestep if the geometry is deforming.
You can also use this setting in
conjunction with the local variables for a parameter value to
modify a value over time. For example, in the X Position, an
expression like $tx + 0.1 would cause the object to
move 0.1 units to the right on each timestep.
Set Never
Do not ever set the value of this parameter. This option is most useful when using this node to modify an existing piece of data connected through the first input.
For example, an 
RBD State
DOP may want to animate just the mass of an
object, and nothing else. The Set Never option could be used
on all parameters except for Mass, which would use Set
Always.
Default Operation
For any parameters with their Operation menu set to Use Default, this parameter controls what operation is used.
This parameter has the same menu options and meanings as the Parameter Operations menus, but without the Use Default choice.
Make Objects Mutual Affectors
All objects connected to the first input of this node become mutual affectors.
This is equivalent to using an 
Affector
DOP to create an affector relationship between
* and * before connecting it to this node. This option makes it
convenient to have all objects feeding into a solver node affect
each other.
Group
When an object connector is attached to the first input of this node, this parameter can be used to choose a subset of those objects to be affected by this node.
Data Name
Indicates the name that should be used to attach the data to an object or other piece of data. If the Data Name contains a “/” (or several), that indicates traversing inside subdata.
For example, if the 
Fan Force DOP has the default Data Name
“Forces/Fan”. This attaches the data with the name “Fan” to an
existing piece of data named “Forces”. If no data named “Forces”
exists, a simple piece of container data is created to hold the
“Fan” subdata.
Different pieces of data have different requirements on what names should be used for them. Except in very rare situations, the default value should be used. Some exceptions are described with particular pieces of data or with solvers that make use of some particular type of data.
Unique Data Name
Turning on this parameter modifies the Data Name parameter value to ensure that the data created by this node is attached with a unique name so it will not overwrite any existing data.
With this parameter turned off, attaching two pieces of data with the same name will cause the second one to replace the first. There are situations where each type of behavior is desirable.
If an object
needs to have several Fan Forces blowing on it, it is
much easier to use the Unique Data Name feature to ensure that
each fan does not overwrite a previous fan rather than trying to
change the Data Name of each fan individually to avoid
conflicts.
On the other hand, if an object is known to have RBD
State data already attached to it, leaving this
option turned off will allow some new RBD State
data to overwrite the existing data.
Solver Per Object
The default behavior for solvers is to attach the exact same solver to all of the objects specified in the group. This allows the objects to be processed in a single pass by the solver, since the parameters are identical for each object.
However, some objects operate more logically on a single object at
a time. In these cases, one may want to use $OBJID expressions
to vary the solver parameters across the objects. Setting this
toggle will create a separate solver per object, allowing $OBJID
to vary as expected.
Setting this is also required if stamping the parameters with a Copy Data DOP.
Inputs ¶
All Inputs
Any microsolvers wired into these inputs will be executed prior to this node executing. The chain of nodes will thus be processed in a top-down manner.
Outputs ¶
First Output
The operation of this output depends on what inputs are connected to this node. If an object stream is input to this node, the output is also an object stream containing the same objects as the input (but with the data from this node attached).
If no object stream is
connected to this node, the output is a data output. This data
output can be connected to an 
Apply Data DOP,
or connected directly to a data input of another data node, to
attach the data from this node to an object or another piece of
data.
Locals ¶
channelname
This DOP node defines a local variable for each channel and parameter on the Data Options page, with the same name as the channel. So for example, the node may have channels for Position (positionx, positiony, positionz) and a parameter for an object name (objectname).
Then there will also be local variables with the names positionx, positiony, positionz, and objectname. These variables will evaluate to the previous value for that parameter.
This previous value is always stored as part of the data attached to the object being processed. This is essentially a shortcut for a dopfield expression like:
dopfield($DOPNET, $OBJID, dataName, "Options", 0, channelname)
If the data does not already exist, then a value of zero or an empty string will be returned.
DATACT
This value is the simulation time (see variable ST) at which the current data was created. This value may not be the same as the current simulation time if this node is modifying existing data, rather than creating new data.
DATACF
This value is the simulation frame (see variable SF) at which the current data was created. This value may not be the same as the current simulation frame if this node is modifying existing data, rather than creating new data.
RELNAME
This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).
In this case, this value is set to the name of the relationship to which the data is being attached.
RELOBJIDS
This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).
In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the object identifiers for all the Affected Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.
RELOBJNAMES
This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).
In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the names of all the Affected Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.
RELAFFOBJIDS
This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).
In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the object identifiers for all the Affector Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.
RELAFFOBJNAMES
This value will be set only when data is being attached to a relationship (such as when Constraint Anchor DOP is connected to the second, third, of fourth inputs of a Constraint DOP).
In this case, this value is set to a string that is a space separated list of the names of all the Affector Objects of the relationship to which the data is being attached.
ST
The simulation time for which the node is being evaluated.
Depending on the settings of the 
DOP Network
Offset Time and Scale Time parameters,
this value may not be equal to the current Houdini time
represented by the variable T.
ST is guaranteed to have a value of zero at the
start of a simulation, so when testing for the first timestep of a
simulation, it is best to use a test like $ST == 0, rather than
$T == 0 or $FF == 1.
SF
The simulation frame (or more accurately, the simulation time step number) for which the node is being evaluated.
Depending on the settings of the DOP Network parameters,
this value may not be equal to the current Houdini frame number
represented by the variable F. Instead, it is equal to
the simulation time (ST) divided by the simulation timestep size
(TIMESTEP).
TIMESTEP
The size of a simulation timestep. This value is useful for scaling values that are expressed in units per second, but are applied on each timestep.
SFPS
The inverse of the TIMESTEP value. It is the number of timesteps per second of simulation time.
SNOBJ
The number of objects in the simulation. For nodes that
create objects such as the 
Empty Object DOP,
SNOBJ increases for each object that is evaluated.
A good way to guarantee unique object names is to use an expression
like object_$SNOBJ.
NOBJ
The number of objects that are evaluated by the current node during this timestep. This value is often different from SNOBJ, as many nodes do not process all the objects in a simulation.
NOBJ may return 0 if the node does not
process each object sequentially (such as the 
Group
DOP).
OBJ
The index of the specific object being processed by the node. This value always runs from zero to NOBJ-1 in a given timestep. It does not identify the current object within the simulation like OBJID or OBJNAME; it only identifies the object’s position in the current order of processing.
This value is useful for generating a
random number for each object, or simply splitting the objects into
two or more groups to be processed in different ways. This value
is -1 if the node does not process objects sequentially (such
as the Group DOP).
OBJID
The unique identifier for the object being processed. Every object is assigned an integer value that is unique among all objects in the simulation for all time. Even if an object is deleted, its identifier is never reused. This is very useful in situations where each object needs to be treated differently, for example, to produce a unique random number for each object.
This value is also the best way to look up information on an object using the dopfield expression function.
OBJID is -1 if the node does not process objects
sequentially (such as the Group DOP).
ALLOBJIDS
This string contains a space-separated list of the unique object identifiers for every object being processed by the current node.
ALLOBJNAMES
This string contains a space-separated list of the names of every object being processed by the current node.
OBJCT
The simulation time (see variable ST) at which the current object was created.
To check if an object was created
on the current timestep, the expression $ST == $OBJCT should
always be used.
This value is zero if the node does not process
objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).
OBJCF
The simulation frame (see variable SF) at which the current object was created. It is equivalent to using the dopsttoframe expression on the OBJCT variable.
This value is zero if the node does not process objects
sequentially (such as the Group DOP).
OBJNAME
A string value containing the name of the object being processed.
Object names are not guaranteed to be unique within a simulation. However, if you name your objects carefully so that they are unique, the object name can be a much easier way to identify an object than the unique object identifier, OBJID.
The object name can
also be used to treat a number of similar objects (with the same
name) as a virtual group. If there are 20 objects named “myobject”,
specifying strcmp($OBJNAME, "myobject") == 0 in the activation field
of a DOP will cause that DOP to operate on only those 20 objects.
This value is the empty string if the node does not process objects
sequentially (such as the Group DOP).
DOPNET
A string value containing the full path of the current DOP network. This value is most useful in DOP subnet digital assets where you want to know the path to the DOP network that contains the node.
Note
Most dynamics nodes have local variables with the same names as the
node’s parameters. For example, in a 
Position DOP,
you could write the expression:
$tx + 0.1
…to make the object move 0.1 units along the X axis at each timestep.
