InMesh is a powerful condition node that can be used in nearly an unlimited way of situations. Any legal 3ds Max mesh can act as a Node-Input along with a particle position to tell if a particle is considered inside a mesh volume or not.
InMesh is a powerful condition node that can be used in nearly an unlimited
way of situations. Any legal 3ds Max mesh can act as a Node-Input along
with a particle position to tell if a particle is considered inside a
mesh volume or not.
As this is a true volume test function, the time it takes to get the result depends on the amount of faces that need to be tested. The more faces a mesh has the longer this InMesh test will take.
ON - (Bool) This input data
stream determines whether the operator is considered 'on' or 'off'. You
can connect other operators to this input channel such as a Bool
Helper to activate/deactivate the whole operator.
Time - (Time) This input data stream is used to define the local
time for the operator when the user wants to override the default system
time.
Node - (Node) Connect any operator or Helper node that offers
an output data stream to this input. All collision space warps (such as
deflectors) bound to this node will be used instead of those bound to
the thinkingParticles icon. Be aware that if this option is used, that
the Active and Inactive lists within this operator's rollout will no longer
be used, so you won't be able to turn the various space warps on or off
as you could by binding the space warp directly to the icon.
Position - (Position) is used to define the first node or object
that is to be used to determine the distance value. Without two nodes,
this condition will not function.
SubTree - (Bool) defines if the object Sub-Tree should be used
for the InMesh conditon. A value of 1.0 will enable the use of the Object
Sub-Tree while any value equal or below 0 will deactivate the use of the
Object's Sub-Tree.
Particle Shape - instead of supplying a Node connection, a particle
group can also be used to supply a 3D mesh.
Output - will be active
(True) when the InMesh condition is valid and a particle position is inside
an object.
Use SubTree - when checked, the object's Sub-Tree (linked childs)
will be used for the InMesh condition test as well. Uncheck the option
to test the Parent object only.
The example setup shown above creates the output as seen below. Particles
are created and "sprayed" in this setup, whenever a particle
is inside the Torus-Knot object it is moved into a different particle
group and the particle's color and shape changes. Note the "Inverse"
test as well, this moves particles out of the "Inside Particle"
group when they are outside of the Torus-Knot object again.
All Particles inside the mesh are changing Group, Shape and Color