Deflection Effector

Deflection Effector makes branches aware of the rest of the tree. At each growing point it looks for the nearest points of the same tree, including the branch's own earlier points, and points toward them. The mode on the Grow row, Attract or Repel, decides whether branches gather toward the rest of the tree or keep away from it, so the crown doesn't grow back through itself.

It reads only the tree, not the scene around it. For a tree that responds to its surroundings, wire the environment into the Simulate's Geometry input (see Simulate).

Add it from the effector picker on a Grow: the Add Effector button in its Effectors, or the Effectors button on the Natsura toolbar. It has no inputs to wire.

Settings

Distance is how far it looks for other points (1 by default), and Points is how many of the nearest it uses (4). Strength scales the result (1), and the Grow row's strength scales it again.

Name is the attribute this effector writes, the node's name by default.

Status

Deflection Effector is experimental.