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This CHOP provides a variety of functions to limit and quantize the input channels.
Limiting a channel causes all its values to lie within a range. Several different methods are available for limiting:
Off
Do not limit the values.
Clamp
Simply cut the channel value off if it is out of the Maximum/Minimum range, and replace it with the Maximum or Minimum limit value.
Loop
Continue the channel at the other end of the interval.
Zigzag
Mirror the values back inside the interval.
Quantizing a channel value snaps its values to the closest allowable value (the "quantized values"). Quantizing methods are: Floor, Ceiling, and Round.
Quantizing a channel index is like quantizing in time, and acts as a sample and hold mechanism. The channel is sampled at a quantized index, and held at that value until the next quantized index at which time the value takes on the input value at that point.
Parameters
Limit
Type
The limit function to use:
Off
Do not limit the values.
Clamp
Simply cut the channel value off if it is out of the Maximum/Minimum range, and replace it with the Maximum or Minimum limit value.
Loop
Continue the channel at the other end of the interval.
Zigzag
Mirror the values back inside the interval.
Maximum
The maximum value the output channel can have.
Minimum
The minimum value the output channel can have.
Positive Only
Takes the absolute value of the channel, making all negative values positive.
Normalize
Scale and shift the channel so that it lies between -1 and +1.
Quantize
Quantize Value
Selects the quantization method to use: Off, Floor, Ceiling, and Round.
Value Step
The increment between quantized values.
Value Offset
The offset for quantized values, to allow steps to not lie at zero, the default.
Quantize Index
Selects whether to quantize the index relative to the sample 0, or the start index of the CHOP.
Index Step
The increment between quantized indices, in seconds, frames or samples.
Index Offset
The offset for quantized indices.
Common
Some of these parameters may not be available on all CHOP nodes.
Scope
To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs have a scope string. Patterns can be used in the scope, for example *
(match all), and ?
(match single character).
The following are examples of possible channel name matching options:
chan2
Matches a single channel name.
chan3 tx ty tz
Matches four channel names, separated by spaces.
chan*
Matches each channel that starts with chan
.
*foot*
Matches each channel that has foot
in it.
t?
The ?
matches a single character. t?
matches two-character channels starting with t.
r[xyz]
Matches channels rx
, ry
and rz
.
blend[3-7:2]
Matches number ranges giving blend3
, blend5
, and blend7
.
blend[2-3,5,13]
Matches channels blend2
, blend3
, blend5
, blend13
.
t[xyz]
[xyz]
matches three characters, giving channels tx
, ty
and tz
.
Sample Rate Match
The Sample Rate Match Options handle cases where multiple input CHOPs’ sample rates are different.
Resample At First Input’s Rate
Use rate of first input to resample others.
Resample At Maximum Rate
Resample to highest sample rate.
Resample At Minimum Rate
Resample to the lowest sample rate.
Error if Rates Differ
Does not accept conflicting sample rates.
Units
The units for which time parameters are specified.
For example, you can specify the amount of time a lag should last for in seconds (default), frames (at the Houdini FPS), or samples (in the CHOP’s sample rate).
Note
When you change the Units parameter, it does not convert the existing parameters to the new units.
Time Slice
Time Slicing is a feature which boosts cooking performance and reduces memory usage. Traditionally, CHOPs calculate the channel over its entire frame range. If the channel does need to be evaluated every frame, then cooking the entire range of the channel is unnecessary. It is more efficient to calculate only the fraction of the channel that is needed. This fraction is known as a Time Slice.
Unload
Causes the memory consumed by a CHOP to be released after it is cooked and the data passed to the next CHOP.
Export Prefix
The Export prefix is prepended to CHOP channel names to determine where to export to.
For example, if the CHOP channel was named geo1:tx
, and the prefix was /obj
, the channel would be exported to /obj/geo1/tx
.
Note
You can leave the Export Prefix blank, but then your CHOP track names need to be absolute paths, such as obj:geo1:tx
.
Graph Color
Every CHOP has this option. Each CHOP gets a default color assigned for display in the Graph port, but you can override the color in the Common page under Graph Color. There are 36 RGB color combinations in the Palette.
Graph Color Step
When the graph displays the animation curves and a CHOP has two or more channels, this defines the difference in color from one channel to the next, giving a rainbow spectrum of colors.
Locals
C
the current channel (0 to NC-1).
NC
the total number of channels.
Examples
LimitBasic Example for Limit channel node
This example file uses the Limit CHOP both to limit the height and to "quantize" the values of a channel.
By limiting the height the Limit CHOP can keep data values from going to high or from falling to low. To "quantize" the data, the curve is broken into steps rather than a smooth curve.
The following examples include this node.
BlendLimit Example for Composite channel node
LimitBasic Example for Limit channel node
See also |