ParticleInfo

The ParticleInfo node displays particle data from any particle system attached to the node's input, which is useful for troubleshooting if your particles aren't behaving correctly. For example, if a particle's texture didn't display as expected, you could enable orientation as axis to overlay axes in the 3D Viewer to check the particle's orientation. Available data includes particle index, velocity, and position as well as the total number of particles in the system. The maximum number of particles within a system in Nuke is 1000000.

Inputs and Controls

Connection Type

Connection Name

Function

Input

particles

The particle system from which to display particle information.

Control (UI)

Knob (Scripting)

Default Value

Function

ParticleInfo Tab

display

display

unchanged

Adjust the display characteristics of the particles. These settings don’t affect the render output of the scene; these are for display purposes only in the 3D Viewer.

off - hides the particles.

wireframe - displays only the outlines of the particle.

solid - displays all particles with a solid color.

solid+wireframe - displays the particles as solid color with the particles outlines.

textured - displays only the surface texture.

textured+wireframe - displays the wireframe plus the surface texture.

unchanged - doesn't change the particle's display mode. The Viewer can override this setting.

selectable

selectable

on

When enabled, you can select the particles in the Viewer by clicking on them.

render

render_mode

unchanged

Sets how the particles are rendered. This control is independent from the display selection, but has the same settings.

show count

show_count

on

Displays the total particle count in the system attached to the node, up to a maximum of 1000000.

index

showIndex

off

Displays the index of each particle in the system starting from 0 for the first particle.

ID

showId

off

Displays the unique identifier assigned to each particle in the system after it is emitted.

frame

showFrame

off

Displays the current frame for each particle's texture.

first frame

showFirstFrame

off

Displays the first frame for each particle's texture.

last frame

showLastFrame

off

Displays the last frame for each particle's texture.

time

showTime

off

Displays the age of each particle since it was emitted, in frames.

life

showLife

off

Displays the maximum lifetime of each particle as set in the ParticleEmitter max lifetime control and within the max lifetime range specified.

age

showAge

off

Displays each particles age, which is calculated as time/life and shown as a value between 0 and 1.

velocity as text

showVelocity

off

Displays the velocity of each particle at the current frame as an XYZ coordinate direction.

velocity as vector

showVelocityAsVector

off

Displays the velocity of each particle at the current frame as an arrow indicating direction. The length of the arrow also indicates the particle's position in the next frame.

orientation as text

showOrientation

off

Displays the orientation of each particle at the current frame as a quaternion, the quotient of two vectors.

orientation as axis

showOrientationAsAxis

off

Displays the orientation of each particle at the current frame as XYZ axes.

rotation axis as text

showRotationAxis

off

Displays the rotation axis as text. The rotation axis is the axis around which particles rotate if rotation_velocity in the ParticleEmitter is set to anything other than 0.

rotation axis as vector

showRotationAxisAsVector

off

Displays the rotation axis as an arrow indicating direction. The rotation axis is the axis around which particles rotate if rotation_velocity in the ParticleEmitter is set to anything other than 0.

sprite rotation (degrees)

showRotationAngle

off

When emitting sprites, displays the rotation of each sprite at the current frame in degrees.

position

showPosition

off

Displays the position of each particle at the current frame in relation to the emitter origin as an XYZ coordinate.

last pos as text

showLastPosition

off

Displays the position of each particle in the previous frame in relation to the emitter origin as an XYZ coordinate.

last pos as vector

showLastPositionAsVector

off

Displays the position of each particle in the previous frame as an arrow indicating direction to the current frame.

initial pos as text

showInitialPosition

off

Displays the initial position of each particle as an XYZ coordinate.

initial pos as vector

showInitialPositionAsVector

off

Displays the initial position of each particle as an arrow indicating direction to the current frame.

color

showColor

off

Displays the RGBA values of each particle at the current frame .

size

showSize

off

Displays the size of each particle as set in the ParticleEmitter size control and within the size range specified.

mass

showMass

off

Displays the mass of each particle as set in the ParticleEmitter mass control and within the mass range specified. A particle's mass is only useful when a force is applied to the particles.

channels

showChannels

off

Particles are emitted with channels a by default. You can change the channels with a ParticleExpression or ParticleBounce node so that downstream nodes only act on particles in certain channels. For example, you could emit particles you don't want gravity to affect in channel b and set your ParticleGravity node to only affect channel a.

axis scale

axisScale

1

When controls like velocity as vector and orientation as axis are enabled, controls the size of the axis or axes displayed in the Viewer for each particle.

first particle

firstParticle

0

Controls the range of particles for which information is displayed, starting from the index of the first particle specified.

You can use the max particles control to limit the amount of information on screen in large particle systems.

max particles

maxParticles

1000