Notch Reference Manual

Volumetric Tracer

Method

Renders a procedural as a volume. Unlike the Volumetric Generator node, this volume is not restricted to a bounded region of space. This allows a free camera flight through the volume without needing to animate or switch bounding boxes.
This node is highly performance-intensive and processing time depends on resolution.

Example
Example Nodegraph

Transform

Name Description
Position X Move its position along the x-axis in local space.
Position Y Move its position along the y-axis in local space.
Position Z Move its position along the z-axis in local space.
Rotation Heading Rotate the object about the y-axis.
Rotation Pitch Rotate the object about the x-axis.
Rotation Bank Rotate the object about the z-axis.
Scale X Scale along the x-axis.
Scale Y Scale along the y-axis.
Scale Z Scale along the z-axis.

Inherit Transform Channels

Toggle which transform channels should be inherited. By default, all are on.

Attributes

Name Description
Visible Control whether the node is visible or not to the scene.
Alpha Alpha transparency amount.
Colour Colour of the volumetric cloud.
Depth Alpha Scale The alpha density of the cloud.
Max Depth The maximum depth at which raymarching should terminate.
Num Slices Increase the number of slices to increase the precision of the tracer at the cost of memory and computation.
Error Tolerance Increase this tolerence level to fix holes in the cloud shape, which can happen if the procedural field becomes too distorted.
Coarse Alpha Threshold A threshold for the low-resolution first pass raymarch. A higher threshold may increase performance but introduce artefacts.
Fine Alpha Threshold A threshold for the high-resolution first pass raymarch. A higher threshold may increase performance but introduce artefacts.
Shadow Area Sets the size of the shadowmap casting area
Shadow Max Distance The maximum distance that shadows will be cast to.
Direct Illumination Intensity The intensity of the light applied directly to the cloud (before shadowing).
Shadow Absorb The hardness or density of the cloud with respect to shadow-casting. Increasing this value makes for more contrasted shadows, decreasing it makes for softer shadows.
Shadow Scatter The scattering effect of the direct illumination.
Shadow Tint Colour Shadows will be tinted by this colour.
Shadow Map Size The resolution of the shadowmap used for shadow casting.
Ambient Absorb The hardness or density of the cloud with respect to ambient light.
Ambient Instensity The amount of ambient light added to the cloud.
Static Shadows While this property is enabled, shadows will not be generated. The last-generated shadowmaps will be cached and re-used.
Apply Shadows To Solid Objects Determines whether volumetric shadows should be cast onto solid objects.
Apply Shadows From Solid Objects Determines whether solid objects should cast shadows onto the volumetrics.

Inputs

Name Description Typical Node Input
Procedural Root Use a Procedural Root as an input, so the renderer is treated seperately from the roots transforms. In this case, the renderer itself would be connected to the scene Root node. Procedural Root
Light Light nodes used for lighting and shadowing of the volumetrics. Light
Mask A 2D mask image that can be used to define areas of the screen which are raytraced. Video Source
Bounding Box A bounding box that may be used to contain the raytraced area in 3D space. Bounding Box
Transform Modifier Links all transform properties to the input node. Null
Target Node Always faces the x-axis towards the inputs anchor point. Null
Local Transform Override Override the transformation values of the node, relative to its parent. Null

Outputs

There are no outputs from this node.