Houdini Botanical Node - Branches

This advanced geometry solver will let you blaze through your project's plant requirements, and have fun while doing it! Beautiful trees and branching structures, with enough control to really express unique artistic ideas, and without burdensome restrictions on how you can use the final output mesh & curve data.

Example scenes include a multi-level instanced growth setup, and are a great way dive into the techniques of tree growth in particular.

Made for Houdini Indie. As always, no black boxing; all the internal networks and code are accessible.

If you need Houdini FX (full commercial vs. limited commercial) asset types, the node is also on the Orbolt store: https://www.orbolt.com/search/?q=quaternioff

Updates to this node are free. Happy growing!

Be sure to check out the other tools in the Quaternioff store!

Update V2.0

• Bugfix for an extra vertex added within the branch curves; this isn't readily apparent in the viewport, but can cause issues when used with additional geometry operations like resamples.
• Reorganized UI to use collapsible folders, since there is frequently a need to tweak multiple categories of settings.
• Ability to control max growth steps and radius based on when the branch was created from its parent (u-param step); helps create more organic branching shapes.
• New control parameters, such as max growth variance, self repulsion ease-in, u parameterization-based variance, and more.
• Named output attributes with buttons for faster configuration, including key attrs for use with the new wind simulation node.
• New example scenes using the new node, including a cactus model.
• Python 3 fixes, and adjustments of manual editing code to work with the new freeze frame options.

The node type name, significant parts of the algorithm, and menu location has changed to a new standard (Quaternioff/<category>/QPT <category> <name>). The order of outputs has also changed to mesh first and curves second.

A one for one replacement with all matching parms likely won't give the same result and is not recommended. This script is provided in case you'd like to try anyway, or modify it to your needs.

Ensure that you've entered the houdini shell environment before running it. Change the version of python in the command, as appropriate for your version of houdini. e.g.:

$HFS/python/bin/python3.9 upgrade_botanical_branches_v1_to_v2.py <YOUR HIP SCENE FILE>

General-purpose HDA installation guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r2wWbkrWx9xs2ZYwg2xDpN2pu-qKUtE7ZerilIKALCE/edit?usp=sharing