Wrappers

Artist-facing nodes in Natsura. Wrappers combine core building blocks into streamlined tools with sockets, parameters, and presets designed for everyday use.

Wrappers are the artist-facing nodes in Natsura.
They package together multiple low-level operations into a single, more usable tool with parameters, sockets, and defaults.

Think of wrappers as shortcuts: they provide a familiar cockpit for common workflows while still exposing hooks for mapping, effectors, and advanced control.

Why Wrappers?

  • Reduce graph complexity — a single wrapper can replace several core nodes.
  • Faster iteration — most defaults “just work” out of the box.
  • Socket-based design — easy to plug in mappings, effectors, and decorations.
  • Still flexible — wrappers can contain other wrappers, and advanced users can drop down to core nodes when needed.

Wrappers are designed for artists first, but they also serve as a bridge: technical artists can open them up, see how they’re built, and extend or customize them.

Common Wrappers

::card

title: Grow icon: i-lucide-tree-deciduous to: /docs/nodes/core/grow

The centerpiece; one growth step, optionally looped and forked. ::

::card

title: Repeat icon: i-lucide-repeat to: /docs/nodes/core/repeat

Repeat a graph fragment multiple times. ::

::card

title: Split icon: i-lucide-split to: /docs/nodes/core/split

Fork a graph into multiple children. ::

::card

title: Switch icon: i-lucide-git-branch to: /docs/nodes/core/switch

Choose between different branches of logic. ::

::card

title: Prune icon: i-lucide-scissors to: /docs/nodes/core/prune

Remove or gate growth dynamically. ::

::card

title: Wrangle icon: i-lucide-code to: /docs/nodes/core/wrangle

Inject custom attributes, gates, or effectors via VEX. ::

Wrappers vs Core Nodes

  • Wrappers: artist-friendly, parameterized, socket-enabled.
  • Core nodes: internal nodes (grow_core, repeat_core, etc.) meant for building custom wrappers or debugging.
  • Execution: Simulate runs everything, regardless of how it was authored.

Notes

  • Wrappers can contain wrappers. For example, Grow includes repeat, split, and switch logic internally.
  • You can mix wrappers and core nodes in the same graph.
  • Some wrappers (like Grow 1.1) now consolidate multiple common actions to reduce cognitive load while keeping flexibility.
This page is under construction.
Expect expanded documentation, detailed parameter guides, and workflow examples in future updates.

Simulation

How Natsura evaluates growth graphs. Simulation resolves deferred rules, applies mappings and effectors, and generates final geometry.

Mapping

Attribute-driven parameter control. Build your own behaviours instead of relying on fixed UIs.