VEX get particle life?

[Atom]

Hello All,

 

I can't seem to find the syntax for fetching the life values from a particle system. For some reason they are stored as life[0] and life[1] in the geometry spreadsheet instead of simple floats.

 

When I try to fetch the life value I get VEX errors.

float current_particle_life = f@life[0];

if I try to fetch it as vector I no longer get an error but the value returned is always zero.

float current_particle_life = v@life[0];

If I fetch the attribute directly I do get a value but it does not match the values in the spreadsheet?

float current_particle_life = f@life;

I also want to fetch life[1] which is the death time of the particle.

 

Does anyone know the correct syntax for fetching both parts of the life attribute into individual floats?

[Skybar]

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini15.0/vex/snippets

[Atom]

Ah, thank you.

 

It looks like I needed the short character 'u' to access that type of variable.

float current_particle_life = u@life[0];
float current_particle_death = u@life[1];

[fsimerey]

Did you try this ?

float current_particle_life = v@life.x;
float current_particle_death = v@life.y;

[Atom]

Thanks Francois, I did not try that, it is nice to know the alternate method as well.

[fsimerey]

You're welcome.

Thanks too to Skybar, i didn't know the u@ and p@ datatypes.

vector2 (2 floats)

u@name

vector (3 floats)

v@name

vector4 (4 floats)

p@name