Particle Interaction Geometry Nodes Tutorial (Blender 3.5a Simulation Branch)

The Blender 3.5 alpha simulation branch can be downloaded here:

***IMPORTANT*** The newer December 10th version of Blender 3.5 alpha will crash with the .blend file from gumroad. Make sure to download the November 24th version! *Update*: There is now an additional .blend file in gumroad that is updated to work with the newer build.

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[ericawildebeest]

That was honestly incredibly helpful. Thank you so much. I like that I'm not just copying what you're doing and getting an output. You're explaining what ever step actually does.

[sammediad]

Learn Simulation Nodes they said, it will be fun they what a journey true this system! Thanks a lot

[pooh.mi.k]

Just finished this in 4.2! Thank you so much, super helpful!

[albin]

A True Master ! thank you for sharing your experimentation and knowledge.

[coleorloff]

Dude! This is such a succinct and clear explanation. That's for walking us through it. I'm really looking forward to more.

[KDawg]

This was another great explanation. I love the trick with the merge by distance to find the midpoint. Brilliant!

[vikkiarts]

Great Tutorial as always. I got great understanding on collision detection and evasion of particles. I'd like to add something to it. At the last step, you don't need to realize the instances, you just have to change the attribut type to "Instancer" from "Geometry" in shader nodes. It works both in Cycles and in EEVEE. I'm not sure since which version blender stores attributes on instances but it's definitely before simulation nodes. I'm did this test in the version 3.6 stable.

Thank you for this wonderful tutorial.

[hadriscus]

Now that's what I call a tutorial, great job. Haven't dived into simulation nodes yet ! am eager to see what people do with them.

[MrTomyCJ]

Thank you!!! I thought that as of these early versions, particle interaction was impossible.

As of the latest versions, you will be able to store attributes in instances and use them in shading, saving the step of realizing instances. In cycles, you can also directly render the points, without needing to instance spheres onto them. These 2 things should improve performance, but the collision detection is probably still the performance bottleneck. This should improve a lot once proper loops are added, which is a planned feature.

[KDawg]

FYI - I got rid of instancing the icosphere because cycles will render the particles. I added a set material node and all of the attributes work just like before. It also runs a bit faster due to less geometry.

[nonprofit]

this going to be a sleeper killer channel, nice work man

[EC]

WHOA ! this is reminding me so much of TyFlow effects....so damn cool that this is possible now in Blender !

[peterallen]

This is fantastic. Thank you for the file and then explaining each node group. Is there a way to "skin" (if thats the right term) the isospheres so you get a "metaball" mesh one could output as an ABC file? Thanks again

[juncando]

I just downloaded 3.4. WTF. I haven't even finished learning the new features of 3 :D Blender is a wonderful animal.

[mrponki]

Before starting, I had to stop and pray "cmon laptop, don't break this looks too cool"

[genesis]

Distributing with node groups is so much more optimized than mesh to volume method, seriously sometimes when I try volume method I get slideshow with even points not to mention instances can't wait to see cache node.

[audiojog]

Amazing render...!! Can this be exported as interactive video as exe or in a player where the view angle can be changed or rotated using mouse or touch ? if yes hot to do so .. Thanks

[nicolanarracci]

Fantastik tutorial thank you, (if you can zoom a little bit more on the node i'll be happy)

[stuwheeler]

Thanks for the explanations of everything sim nodes aren't as intuitive as regular geonodes.

[vagabundios]

Great tutorial and wonderful explanations! But I can't figure out how you set the material, since there isn't a "set material" node, how do you link it to the simulation? Thanks!