Can't access components of a vector with point()?

[gazegaze]

Hi,

Learning VEX and this is simply out of curiosity since I'm trying to build an intuition for how houdini works under the hood.

I know I can read a vector from say point 5, like so:

vector test = point(0, "P", 5);
printf("%f", test);

{0.091506,0.482963,-0.091506}

Is there a way I can directly access only a component, like P.x with the point function?

To my surprise, substituting "P" with "P.x" doesn't work, i.e:

float test = point(0, "P.x", 5);
printf("%f", test);

0.000000

 

I know I can access it via variable indices in the first example like

vector test = point(0, "P", 5);
printf("%f", test[0]);
 

0.091506

but it doesn't seem to work within the function. Neither "P.x" nor "P[0]" works. Is there a good reason for this?

Grateful for any input you may have!

GG

Edited November 12, 2022 by gazegaze

[haggi]

You cannot retrieve point attribute components this way, you will have to read the vector and then as you already know, use the component from this vector.

[Nippelmanius]

In order to access a single vector component, you would need to explicitly type cast the point() function to vector:  

float test = vector( point( 0, "P", @ptnum) )[0];

 

[gazegaze]

Thanks alot guys, appreciate it!