Porting popular modifiers to geometry nodes
Hello!
This is largely about developments discussed here: devtalk.blender.org/t/gsoc-2021-porting-popular-modifiers-to-geometry-nodes-weekly-reports/19126
Lead by some frustration I searched on RCS for anything about nodes such as curve deform, displace or simple deform and found almost nothing. There is however that devtalk thread that deals with exactly this idea of porting modifiers, although last activity seems to be from 2021? Is that still planned? Forgive me if I am missing some conclusive info on this.
I am submitting this Idea to bring attention to it and gauge user interest in porting modifiers.
Personally, I've already built versions of some modifiers such as simple deform for my own use. But in other cases I try to use them in modifier stack together with multiple steps of GN, but I've found that is often more limiting or breaks the workflow in some peculiar way. Having ready-made nodes that blender ships with, even simple stuff like solidify and mirror, would make transitioning to everything-nodes for a less advanced user way easier. And even if you are able to engineer the behavior of modifiers yourself, having the common ones already as nodes is frankly a huge time saver, and possibly more optimized.
To my eyes, these modifiers would be handy to have as nodes:
- "Curve" (deform)
- "Simple deform"
- "Wireframe" or edge extrude along normals like asked here
- "Mirror"
- "Decimate"
- "Remesh"
- "Displace"
4 Comments
AFAIK It is planned, the overall project isn't named "Everything Nodes" just for show. But the BF is not and cannot make everything at once. They started with the goal of making tools for scattering assets needed for Sprite Fright:
It then seems to have moved towards simulation, giving us the curernt particles and hair systems we have now.
The link you posted is a weekly report from Fabian Schempp's Google Summer of Code 2021: GSoC 2021: Porting Popular Modifiers To Geometry Nodes: Weekly Reports . His final report does give a few more explanations of how it went by the end of his session: User:Fabian Schempp/FinalReport - Blender Developer Wiki
GSoCs are basically 3-months-long internships where a student is sponsored by Google to work on an opensource project like Blender. Things done in a GSoC sometimes end up in the final release, sometimes not, sometimes it takes time to review and fix the patches if possible, and sometimes the patches are just not within the current devs' priorities of the time.
This is super insightful! Thank you for linking all of this and allowing me to catch up.
Yes GN needs to be made more accessible with higher level functions/nodes. I'm also thinking of stuff already possible but cumbersome like Polar/Cartesian coordinates conversion.
This is wild, I've written a proposal that tackles exactly what you're talking about. Just haven't posted because I find that it wouldn't get much track. It goes like this:
"In my mind Geometry Nodes for modeling will blow up if / when the current Modifiers are released as “Geometry Node Based Modifiers”. By extending the functionality of them while keeping things user-friendly, it will make them more accessible to people who are intimidated by nodes.
To make them more accessible, a separate column could appear with "Geometry Nodes Based Modifiers" when you click to add a Modifier. These modifiers would be the same as the ones currently available in Blender but with extra options that are possible with GeoNodes.
Additional modifiers, such as "Array on Curves", could also be added. This would allow users to add objects to an existing curve, even using a picker to choose the object, making it easier for people to understand how useful GeoNodes can be. The modifier could have exposed parameters to change the amount, distance, rotation, scale, and merge by distance.
When people click on a modifier in the Geometry Nodes view, they would have access to the complexity behind it and understand the system more easily.
Modifiers like "Solidify" could have options for extra loops based on the extrude function, along with all the current functionality. "Circle Array" created directly from the object (super useful, a simple solution to pick everyone’s interest). There are many examples / ideas.
I've been using these modifiers, along with a few more in a project I'm currently working on, and I couldn't have done it without them. I believe that these Geometry Nodes-based modifiers have the potential to revolutionize modeling in Blender."