The node graph editor
The node graph is the single source of truth. Every setting, force and collider lives in a node, and the sidebar edits and displays that graph.
Opening it
Section titled “Opening it”Click Open Node Editor in Scene Setup. BLUX creates the graph if needed and opens it in Blender’s node editor as the BLUX Physics Graph. The editor opens the scene’s graph, so you do not see an empty canvas with a New button.
How a graph reads
Section titled “How a graph reads”Data flows left to right.
- Emitters make particles or gas. Materials say what the particles are made of.
- Forces and Colliders act on the simulation.
- Everything feeds a Solver node: Atom, Blaze, Hydro or Impact.
- The solver’s Simulation State goes through any meshers into the Simulation Output node, which decides how the result is cached and displayed.
Optional Details nodes attach to a solver: Combustion, Dissipation and Turbulence for Blaze, Liquid Two-Phase and Whitewater for Hydro, Atom Multiphase for Atom, and groups, constraints, rebar, debris, joints, activation and triggers for Impact. Join nodes merge several emitters, forces or colliders into one link.
A solver accepts only some node types. For example, a Particle Emitter does nothing in a Blaze graph, and a Wind Force does nothing in an Impact graph. See the compatibility table.
The header
Section titled “The header”When the BLUX Physics Graph is shown, the node editor’s header adds:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Play / Pause | Starts or pauses the live simulation. |
| Step | Advances one frame. |
| Reset (arrow icon) | Resets to the first frame. |
| Bake | Bakes the frame range. |
| Sync Mesh | Rebuilds the render mesh from the cached frames. |
| Templates | Builds an example scene. |
| My Presets | Saves and loads your own graphs. |
| Tidy | Arranges the nodes. |
| FPS readout | Simulation steps per second, once a run has started. |
Validation
Section titled “Validation”A node that the active solver ignores shows a warning row on the node. The Scene Setup panel also lists errors and warnings with the node’s name. Fix errors before you run. Warnings and information rows tell you that something is unused or muted.
Tidy arranges nodes by their links. Nodes sit in columns that follow the data flow left to right, each column left-aligned, with a fixed gap between columns and between nodes, ordered to keep links short.
- With two or more nodes selected, it arranges only those.
- With fewer, it arranges the whole graph.
- The group keeps its top-left corner.
Adding nodes
Section titled “Adding nodes”Press Shift+A in the editor. Nodes are grouped as Emitters, Materials, Forces, Colliders, Details, Rigid Bodies, Scripting, Solvers, Output and Utilities. The Node Reference lists every node in the same order, with its sockets, settings and defaults.
Switching solver
Section titled “Switching solver”You can change a graph’s solver without deleting nodes. Click another solver button in the main panel. Nodes of the other solver stay in the graph, unused, until you switch back.