point numbers swimming on morphing geometry

[bonassus]

This question is about making point numbers stop moving around on a morphing geometry. I have a piece of undulating geometry created with expanding volume that is converted to polygons and then remeshed. The number of points increases on the mesh and the timeline moves forward. If the point number display is turned on I can see that the points move around on surface on each frame. I'm wondering if there is a way to make the points stop moving around relative to there neighbors even though the point number is increasing on every frame. I was trying to do something with the Attribute Interpolate node but there isn't a rest geometry at it is being generated by the volume on each frame. I would like to render this with a polywire but currently the mesh appears to change on every frame and doesn't look like a consistent mesh. I know this is a vague. It would be great if there is a solution to this. 

I hope this made sense.

Thanks

[lukeiamyourfather]

You could sort the points by height or something like that but it's going to be near impossible to have unwavering point order on a polygon created from a free-form volume. If consistent topology is paramount then find another way to create your geometry that doesn't rely on a volume being converted into polygons. Start with a known set of polygons and move them around as needed.

[bonassus]

Good suggestions thanks!

[Juraj]

Hi, depending on shape of your volume you can try this way: Create a sphere / cube / tube covering the whole object and every frame project it using ray sop onto meshed version of volume. This way you will have consistent topology and point count. If your meshed volume is convex, then it could work. If concave then it might be tricky.

 

[bonassus]

Juraj,

Using the ray sop did something pretty cool. As you said the concave parts of the deforming mesh stretched but it's much closer to what I imagined. That is a good trick for a Houdini learner. 

 

Thanks!