> modifiers

Move Along Mesh

modifiers/move-along-mesh·v1.3.0

IN:2 OUT:1

SUMMARY

The Move Along Mesh attaches instances to a mesh surface and animates them along the mesh based on its orientation. It works in two phases: first, attaches instances to the mesh based on proximity or random scattering; second, pushes instances along the mesh based on the orientation of the mesh.

The "up" vector of the chosen mesh acts as the "forward" vector for movement. This node works best in conjunction with the Orient Mesh node, which can easily generate these orientations for you along with options for swirling around the mesh, adding curl noise, and blurring the generated vectors for smoother motion.

If your instances start crowding each other you can try to enable Relaxation, but this can be tricky on surfaces with very high curvature.

PARAMETERS

PAGEMove Along Mesh

Group	Group	If there are input groups, specifying a group name in this field will cause this POPX to act only upon the group specified.
Mesh to Attach To	Mesh	Reference to a POP for the mesh to attach instances to when no second input is connected.
Display Mesh	Displaymesh	Visualizes the mesh in the viewport.
[+]Display Color	Displaycolor	Color for mesh visualization when Display Mesh is enabled.
Initialize	Initializepulse	Resets the simulation state to initial conditions.
Start	Startpulse	Begins the simulation from the current state.
Play	Play	Toggles simulation playback on or off.
Step	Steppulse	Advances the simulation by one frame.

PAGEAttach

Lock to Mesh	Locktomesh	Locks the initial attachment positions so they don't need to be recalculated every frame, improving performance.
Reattach to Mesh	Reattachtomesh	Recomputes attachment points for all instances.
[+]Attach Mode	Attachmode	Determines how instances are attached to the mesh: Nearest Point or Scatter.

PAGEAnimate

Seed

Seed

Random seed value for scatter-based attachment.

PAGEAttach

Search Radius	Searchradius	Maximum distance for finding nearest attachment points when using Nearest Point mode.
Maintain Offset	Maintainoffset	Blend amount for maintaining the original offset distance from the mesh surface.
Maintain Orient Offset	Maintainorientoffset	Blend amount between the original orientation and the mesh orientation.
Visualize Offset	Visualizeoffset	Displays lines showing the offset between instances and their attachment points.
Fetch Offsets Lines	Fetchoffsetslines	Creates a select POP with the selected offsets lines of the instances for visualization.

PAGEAnimate

Do Falloff	Dofalloff	Enables falloff-based modulation of movement effects.
Falloff Attribute	Falloffattr	Specifies which attribute to use for falloff values that modulate movement intensity.
Speed	Speed	Global speed multiplier for instance movement along the mesh.
Random Speed	Randomspeed	Amount of random variation applied to each instance's speed.

Seed

Speedseed

Random seed value for speed randomization.

PAGEAnimate

Enable Life Time	Enablelifetime	Enables lifetime-based effects for instances, causing them to age and potentially be removed after a certain duration.
Life	Life	Base lifetime duration in seconds for each instance.
Life Variance	Lifevariance	Amount of random variation in lifetime duration between 0 (no variance) and 1 (maximum variance).

Seed

Lifeseed

Random seed value for lifetime variance.

PAGEAnimate

Output Life Attributes	Outputlifeattrs	Outputs LifeTime and Age attributes for each instance when enabled.
Scale by Age	Scalebyage	Enables age-based scale modulation using a ramp curve.
[+]Remap Scale	Remapscale	Remaps the output scale values from the ramp to this range.
Open Scale Ramp Editor	Openscalerampeditor	Opens the internal scale ramp editor for creating custom scale curves over lifetime.
Reset Scale Ramp	Resetscaleramp	Resets the scale ramp to default values.
Custom Scale TOP	Customscaletop	Reference to an external TOP for scale control. When specified, overrides the internal ramp editor.
Enable Point Relax	Enablepointrelax	Enables relaxation forces that push instances apart to prevent crowding on the mesh surface.
Relax Iterations	Relaxiterations	Number of relaxation iterations to perform per frame. Higher values create stronger separation but may be slower.
Max Relax Radius	Maxrelaxradius	Maximum distance at which relaxation forces affect neighboring instances.
[+]Distribution	Distribution	Neighbor distribution method for relaxation.
Num Hash Buckets	Numhashbuckets	Number of hash buckets for spatial neighbor lookups.
Max Neighbors	Maxneighbors	Maximum number of neighboring instances to consider for relaxation calculations.
Relax Strength	Relaxstrength	Intensity of the relaxation force. Higher values push instances apart more strongly.

PAGECommon

Bypass	Bypass	Pass through the first input to the output unchanged.
Free Extra GPU Memory	Freeextragpumem	Free memory that has accumulated when output memory has grown and shrunk.
Render Primitives	Renderprimitives	Toggles rendering of POPX Geometry or shows it as point instances only.
Convert to Point Primitives	Converttoptprim	Converts points to primitive points when Render Primitives is toggled off.
SRT / RST	Srtrst	Sets the transform order when using POPX Geometry as built-in TouchDesigner instances.

INPUTS

Input 0 POP – POPX/POP Geometry

Input 1 POP – Mesh to Attach To

OUTPUTS

Output 0 POP – POPX_out1