What are Initiators?

thinkingParticles offers an advanced concept for rule processing of its wire setups. It works through a new type of operator called an Initiator.

Initiators provide a different rule processing behavior and enhance the speed and flexibility of thinkingParticles' real-time particle playback when burdened with a complex set of rules and conditions.

There are 3 Initiator Operators that you can use within your DynamicSets.

PPass
PPassAB
PSelection

The main idea behind an Initiator is control. An Initiator behaves differently from other operators. All connected conditions or operators are evaluated only as soon as the Initiator is evaluated. This type of behavior offers much more control for the processing of rules than with any other type of operator.

In the example above, within the Crash DynamicSet there is a Repulsion Bounce Operator and a Fragment Operator connected to the PPassAB Initiator. This is shown within the DynamicSet Wire Setup View (see below).

Now even though the DynamicSet Tree View indicates that the Repulsion Bounce and Fragment operators should be processed before the PPassAB operator, they will not be processed in the order as they appear. Since they are connected to the PPassAB Initiator, only when the PPassAB is processed will the connected operators be evaluated in the order as they appear in the DynamicSet Tree View (Repulsion Bounce first, then the Fragment operator).

This behavior applies to operators connected to the Initiator only.

Where to go Next?

At this stage, you should have a pretty solid idea of how Initiators inside of Thinking Particles work. Beyond that, if you've gone through the rest of the introduction, you should also have a fairly good grasp on how the various components within thinkingParticles are connected. Now might be a good time to review this information be revisiting the Introductory materials, or proceeding ahead to the Tutorials to get some hands-on experience. The more time you invest in learning thinkingParticles, the more significant the rewards and the look of your particle animations will be.