Skybar

Package the vops into a material, then you can promote the parameter like normal.

On the Geometry ROP you have Pre-Render Script, you can write hscript there (or change to python) to make it change the parameter on your Switch. I dont have the syntax in my head but i can look it up tomorrow if you dont get it working.

You can create ROP networks in /out. Create a bunch of Geometry ROPs, link them to each sim, merge them and render the merge. You can choose to render frame by frame or node by node.

You could try the Gas Intermittent Solve DOP.

There is a preset to Grow Hairs on the point wrangle, might give you some tips:

Unpack the geometries before creating the alembic, and/or create a 'path' attribute and check "build hierarchy from attribute" on the alembic rop.

Hard to say without a hipfile.

Being node-based both Fusion and Nuke are more similar to Houdini than After Effects is. As with everything there is a learning curve, but if you are already thinking in terms of nodes it shouldn't be too hard to get into it. Both Fusion and Nuke work really well so if you are on a budget pick the cheaper one :). There might be more resources and learning material for Nuke since I think it might be the most popular option (?), but other than that it shouldn't matter too much. I don't do much comp at all these days but I liked how you connect and handle Fusions nodes, a lot more than in Nuke which is a pain in the ass imo.

I think the main problem is heavy objects shouldn't move so much after they have hit the ground, and that is quite difficult to have any sort of control over.

You can use the Instance SOP. Just supply the path as a string attribute on the cached lowres points, that points to the correct highres piece on disk.

Set the emission type on the pop source to "all points".

I'm not a photographer expert by any means, but I didn't notice anything like that at all. It worked just as a normal DSLR, except the fact that the colors of your image is different Another thing you could try, create your scene normally with green leaves etc. Then render with only red lights and in comp pick the color of where the leaves are and set the white point to that. That's essentially mimicking what happens in real world and what you do in camera. To set the white balance on my camera I photographed straight down into grass on a sunny day, so green stuff becomes that nice white. If you don't do this the image is mostly red. I think the easiest thing is to just fake it though and do white leaves from the start.

I bought a camera already modified for less than what a new one would cost, that was 10 years ago though but I don't think its too bad. People buy smartphones for $1000 nowadays, thats more crazy i think. Ontopic though, why not just make a standard leafshader but instead of green for color you use white. It is white because it reflects all (infrared) light.

The SOP Path for Input 1 on the popwrangle9 doesn't evaluate right.

Did you change that preference before or after you created the sim? It doesn't change existing nodes, only ones created afterwards. Think of it more as a global default. Set the preference to 0.1 and drop down a Gravity DOP and see what happens. Now set it back to 1 and drop down a second Gravity DOP.