Procedurals

Updated: 15 Jan 2025

Method #

In Notch a procedural is a 3-dimensional field of signed distances, where an position in the field hold a value of its distance to a “surface”, defined by shapes added to the field. This is often known as a Signed Distance Field (SDF). An SDF alone does not represent geometry, but surfaces and volumes can be generated from the field and rendered conventionally using procedural rendering nodes. For this process to work most efficiently, the SDF must be well-formed and devoid of extreme distortions. Some rendering nodes such as Procedural Meshing provide an Error Tolerance which relaxes this restriction at the cost of decreased performance.

The following node categories are available for working with procedurals:

• Procedural Root, Root node from which all other procedural nodes should have connection path to.
• Cloning, Repeat their child systems in various ways.
• Displacement, Displace and modify the generated SDFs.
• Generators, Generate SDFs using Particles, Meshes, Images, Etc.
• Render Nodes, Change how the generated SDF is rendered in the scene.

Clone the shapes in a Procedural system.

Clone

Clone children in a Procedural System.

Mirror

Mirror children in a Procedural system.

Repeat

infinitely clone children in a Procedural system.

These nodes apply spatial displacements in a procedural.

FBM Displacement

Apply FBM deformation to a procedural.

Fluid Affector

Apply a fluid deformation to a procedural.

Melt

Smooth a procedural.

Onion

Layer the surfaces of the procedural.

Pyroclastic Displacement

Add blobby noise to a procedural.

These nodes generate a distance field for use in a procedural.

3D Primitive

Generates a 3D primitive for a procedural.

Cellular Noise

Generates a cellular noise pattern for a procedural.

Editable Code

Generates a shape for a procedural system from custom code.

Fractal

Generates a 3D Fractal structure for Procedurals

Fractal Noise

Generates 3D fractal noise for a Procedural system.

Image

Genreate a Procedural shape from an image.

Level Set (Field)

This node allows a Field to be used as a procedural generator source.

Mesh

Generates a 3D Object for a procedural.

Particles

Generate shapes from particles for a procedural.

Particles As Primitives

Generate primitive shapes from particles for a procedural.

Procedural Null

Combine multiple generators together before adding them to a Procedural system.

Reaction-Diffusion

Performs reaction-diffusion simulation to a Procedural system.

Spline

Generates a 3D Spline for Procedurals

Voronoi Node

Generates a 3D Voronoi pattern for procedurals.

These nodes convert the procedural distance field into rendered geometry, voxel grids, or other systems.

Procedural Meshing

Renders a procedural system as geometry.

Procedural Raytracer

Renders a procedural system as a raytraced surface.

Nodes

Procedural Root

The root for a Procedural system.