pflow to POPs ?

[3__]

I've been using pflow in max6 for a job recently and

its a nightmare to use (stability & performance problems),

so I'm wondering if anyone whom has used pflow can

direct me to equivalent setups/tutorials for POPs.

Namely replicating the following:

find target, will collide test, conditional event branching,

material switching, animated-instanced-geometry offsetting

and object fragmenting.

thanks,

-cpb

[stevenong]

Hey cpb,

The legacy POPs tutorials, which can be found at the SESI Community under Effects of the Learn section, should cover most, if not all, of what you're looking for.

Cheers!

steven

[3__]

thanks stephen, that covers most things except

a 'will collode' test...

-cpb

[edward]

A "willcollide" test? How do you know if a particle will collide until it collides? If you're looking for an "iscollided" test, the Collide POP allows you to create a group of the collided particles.

[3__]

my guess is that plow just uses a

linear particle travel-direction vector

for an intersect ray test. the problem is

that the vector changes from fame to

frame if the particle trajectory is curved.

It could probably be scripted to guess

a trajectory crve based on a sample of

previous frames though.

-cpb

[edward]

That's only if you know the function of the trajectory. You have no way of knowing in general, esp in POPs given that you can do anything you want at any frame.

[Marc]

There is the little known 'dist' attribute that the collision pop will give you.

Its meant to return the distance to collision, but its only accurate if your particles are moving in a very consistent way (like, I dunno.. a straight line perhaps? ). It may help a little though...

Cheers

Marc

[3__]

$DIST works very nicely for a linear 'will collide test',

thanks Marc. now for the trickiest one:

having particles seek random locations on an object

or having them seek a random location that

has a given diffuse colour...

-cpb