Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

RBD Car Follow Path geometry node

Animate a RBD Car Rig along a path.

Since 20.5

This SOP constrains and aligns an RBD Car Rig along a path while adjusting the constraint geometry’s attributes to match its intended steering and speed. It can optionally stick the vehicle to a collision ground, turn and spin the wheels, adjust the wheels and chassis to compensate for the suspensions, add drift and overshoot, while allowing for manual adjustments to be made.

This node supports the SOP and DOP contexts. In SOPs it behaves as an animation tool, and DOPs it can be used in a SOP Solver DOP to drive the constraint attributes and target velocity on the RBD pieces.

Parameters

Path Type

Curve

The path is defined by the third inputs' curve geometry and the Curve Position value between the Start and End frames.

Animation

The path is defined by the position of the car’s body between the Start and End frames. The 3 inputs (geometry, constraint geometry, and proxy geometry) should always be in sync and aligned. It is recommended to use a RBD Transform SOP.

Start/End/Inc

When building the path, each point along the path is sampled at every interval defined by Inc between the Start and End frames.

Curve Position

When Path Type is set to Curve, the position along the curve’s U. When the input curve is closed, values of 1 and over will loop. When there are more than 1 input curves, the integer value corresponds to the curve primitive index.

Drift

The amount of drift (back sliding) in corners. This is dependent on the vehicle’s speed and the maximum turning speed along the path.

Overshoot

When drifting, add some overshoot to allow the vehicle to move away from the path.

Banking

Add banking in corners, emulating the outer wheels' suspensions compressing under load.

Animate Wheels and Suspensions

This parameter is available in the SOPs Context. It allows for the animation of wheels turning and spinning as the vehicle travels along the path, and adjust the wheel and body positions to compensate for wheel suspensions when in contact with the ground.

Respect Vehicle and Turning Maximum Speed

This parameter is available in the DOPs Context. Turn on this option to enforce speed limits on the vehicle, which should result in a more physically plausible simulation while allowing the vehicle to deviate from the animation.

Response Time (ms)

Increasing this value will result in longer braking and acceleration zones, lower maximum turn speeds, while looking further ahead along the path for steering and a lower steering change of rate.

Air Resist

The base air resistance applied to the RBDs to specify how important it is to match the animated position and orientation along the path. Higher values will result in the vehicle matching its target velocity faster. When Respect Vehicle and Turning Maximum Speed is turned on, this will vary depending on whether the vehicle is in an acceleration or braking zone and how far the vehicle is to its target position along the path. Setting this value too high can cause the resulting dynamics to feel unnatural and forced.

Drag

The base drag coefficient applied to the RBDs.

Animation Offset

When in SOPs Context and animation is turned on, you can control the vehicle more explicitly and adjust its position, orientation, and the wheel direction (steering).

Steer

Adjust the wheel direction by steering left (-1) to right (1).

Blend

The amount to blend the manual steering in.

Wheel Spin Scale

Scales the wheel spin amount. Negative values will spin the wheels in reverse, and a value of 0 will lock the wheels in place. Wheel orientation is not affected.

Translate

Add a position offset.

Rotate

Add a rotation offset.

Dynamic Springs (Suspensions)

Add some springiness to the animated vehicle’s position and orientation.

Range

The number of frames on either side of the current frame to consider when calculating the effect of the springs.

Stiffness

The stiffness coefficient describing how strong the springs should be. A higher value will result in higher frequency oscillations.

Mass

The mass of the vehicle. A higher mass will result in lower frequency oscillations of higher amplitudes and be more resistant to damping.

Damping

The amount of resistance applied to the spring. A higher value causes oscillations to die off faster.

Terrain

Ground Type

Choose which type of ground collision you want to use.

Position

The center of the ground plane.

Rotation

The orientation of the ground plane.

Height Field

Specify the path to a height field to collide with.

Visualize

Visualization

Speed

The path will be colored according to the animated vehicle’s speed along the path, as specified by the Speed color ramp parameter.

Brake & Acceleration Zones

The brake zones are colored in red while the acceleration zones are colored in blue.

Excess Speed

Show the areas along the path where the vehicle animation exceeds either the maximum turning speed or the vehicles maximum speed defined by the RBD Car Rig SOP.

Advanced

Context

Choose whether this node should is used in SOPs to animate the vehicle or in DOPs to drive the constraint attributes and RBDs' target velocity attribute.

See also

Geometry nodes