Nodegraph
Interface
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Main working area: displays the actual nodes & connections
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Visualization mode: Allows to change the color scheme of the graph. Hitting the
Pkey when the nodegraph is focused will cycle through those display modes. HittingShift+Pwill cycle backwards. These default shortcuts can be changed in the editor user settings. -
Show color legend when using other visualization modes than normal
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Toggles between smooth wires (default), and hard wires
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Saves the current viewport as the default for this graph
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Clear the saved viewport and revert to 'auto-fit'
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Fits the view to the entire graph
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Opens a search dialog in the current graph
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(Only on Developer Mode) Force-recompile all graphs
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Enables the nodegraph debugger, that will capture all particles and display the node output value when available.
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Cycles backward the current debugged particle (the node output values)
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Cycles forward the current debugged particle (the node output values)
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Clears the soloed renderers
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Opens the nodal editor settings
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Displays the hierarchical location in the graph, when diving inside template nodes / subgraphs.
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Graph type indicator: Either “Event Graph” (event graph containing the layers) or “Simulation Graph” (particle / data graph, inside a layer).
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Separator between the graph and stats/infos panel. Drag to the left to show the stats/infos panel
Key Bindings (defaults)
Key |
Description |
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Select nodes, dragging creates a selection rectangle |
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On a node: contextual menu, On empty space: creation dialog |
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Pan view |
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Zoom in/out |
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Open selected node, if possible (template, script, or curve) |
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Preview passthrough creation on wire |
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Create passthrough |
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Jump to previous graph panel |
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Jump to next graph panel |
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Cycle forward/backward through nodegraph display modes |
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Swap node inputs |
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Search graph |
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Hide search widget |
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Group selected nodes into a new template |
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Annotate selected nodes |
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Enable/Disable node (Toggle node) |
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Solo node (Solo the currently selected nodes, un-solo others) |
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Show node creation dialog |
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Show node insertion dialog if mouse cursor is on a wire |
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Convert node to link |
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Convert node to property |
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Convert node to attribute |
Creating nodes
Nodes can be created via the “node contextual menu”. To display the node contextual menu you can either:
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Right click or hit the
Spacekey in an empty space of the nodegraph -
Drag a link from a node’s input/output pin, drop it in an empty space from the nodegraph
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Hover a link and hit
Ctrl+Space, or right click → Insert node
Node can also be created by drag&dropping them from the effect treeview or the template shelf.
They can also be copy/pasted from one graph or effect to another.
NOTE: You can still move in the nodegraph space while holding Left-click (and still holding Right-click) or by dragging your link next to a border of the nodegraph.
Creating Passthroughs
You can create passthrough nodes by holding the ALT+SHIFT keys to preview the passthrough insertion location & move it around, and then Left-click to create the passthrough node.
You can also create a passthrough with Right-click > Add Passthrough.
From a passthrough, you can create new wires going out the right side of the passthrough by holding the SHIFT key and Left-click + Drag.
You cannot create new wires going out of the left side of a passthrough, you will need to plug a wire into a passthrough to connect it on its left side.
Modifying values
You can quickly modify float and int values by holding the CTRL key and scrubbing using Left-click + Drag.
Contextual Menus
Nodes
Contextual menu when right-clicking on nodes.
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Simulation Fences
Fences are a very basic concept but kinda complex to use. You can create fences between layers and between nodes (/!\ Not supported yet).
To create fences, it needs two or more selected nodes. The first one that you will select will be the "priority" node and will have arrows pointing towards the others nodes.
The others nodes will now wait for the complete execution of every operation of the priority node. (If between layers, it will wait until all particles have finished executing)
It is particularly useful when making complex simulations using spatial-layers or grids.
Search
Using Ctrl+F or the Find button in the toolbar, a search dialog will open and allow you to search nodes and their contents
F3 will focus the next match, Shift+F3 will focus the previous match.
Color visualizers
The nodegraph editor provides different color schemes to view the nodes with.
These each color nodes and wires to help visualize a specific set of informations.
You can toggle between the different color schemes by using the dropdown in the nodal editor toolbar, or by using the P and Shift+P keys:
Color scheme: Normal
This is the default mode, which colors nodes based on their type and high-level function.
Color scheme: Exec rate
This mode colors the nodes based on if they are computed at spawn, evolve, or render time.
Blue nodes run at spawn, purple nodes run at evolve, and the orange node runs a render time.
If the color difference between the 3 colors is too hard to see, you can switch to an alternate color scheme by changing the color deficiency option in your user settings:
Color scheme: Sim Stage
This mode colors the nodes based on the simulation stage in which they are executed.
By default, there is a single simulation stage.
Multiple simulation stages are created when using simulation-fences.
Color scheme: Simulation location
With this scheme, nodes will be colored based on if they’re running on the CPU or GPU.
Blue nodes run on the CPU, and green nodes run on the GPU (in this layer, the spawn nodes are CPU, and evolve+render nodes are GPU)
Color scheme: Performance
In this mode, the editor will color the nodes based on the performance metrics gathered from the simulation running in the 3D viewport.
This allows to quickly spot performance hotspots in an effect, and dig to the root of what’s taking time during the simulation.
Here, the Physics and SmallPointAA nodes are the ones taking the most time to simulate.
NOTE: Currently this is only able to show the performance metrics for CPU simulations, we do not instrument the GPU sims yet.
Solo Renderers
Some of the renderers can be exclusively drawn on the viewport.
This allows to hide all other renderers, but they will still be simulated as usual.
To enable it, after selecting a group of nodes (renderers or/and templates), you can set them to be exclusively drawn by clicking on 'Solo' in the context menu.
In the nodegraph, the renderer nodes that are solo will be displayed with a surrounding highlighting.
The nodes that contain solo nodes will have the same highlighting but with a dashline border.