Position raycast operator | Extension 2.0

[TubeSmokeGuy]

Hi!

Again I got a feature request for the position raycast operator.

So I would be very happy if you could add a "max. Raylenght" (max. = maximum) parameter to position particles somewhere inbetween the raycast origin surface and the target surface or to prevent them from going too far away or limit the distance from theo origin.

Additionally it would be cool if this max. raylength parameter could be affected by a greyscale map driven multiplier from the origin object. And finally on top a standard "variation percent" parameters, like much other operators have, for bring some extra randomness into the max. raylenght parameters.

Greetings !


Just a side note: As you may have noticed I post many feature requests, ideads and suggestions. I would be very happy if you could leave a quick note so I know you noticed. Somehow I sometimes feel that I am trying in vain. I know you're a busy man, so I don't want to annoy you, but as I asked, a quick note would be nice.

[tyFlow]

I think this would be better suited for a Script operator, where you can use the built-in raycasting functions and texture sampling functions exposed in the API to have exact control over particle positions on surfaces. If you wanted to limit how far away a particle can move, you'd first cast your ray against the object, check the length of the vector between the rayhit point and the particle position, and if the ray length is beyond a certain length, you'd normalize the vector and then multiply it by the max length. Then you'd assign the new position to the particle by adding the vector to its currently position.

[TubeSmokeGuy]

Maybe an option would be good to convert any operator to a script operator, so that the base is given and the user has just to do lesser customization work to the operator istead of writing a new one. But don't know if this is allerady possible.

The other point is. Parameters like ray lenghts and ray length limits are basic parameters of raycasting. So i think having them directly ready to use in the position raycast operator would make it more complete.