# Settings

Here you can find settings for each sequence.

## Sequence Information (read-only)

This is **read-only** information to show the pattern of this sequence, and if it's using a relative path.

![sequence_information](../images/sequence_information.png)

## Geometry Nodes

While all files are imported as plain geometry, we provide some templates that we have found to be incredibly useful for visualizing particle data. The exact [geometry node](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/geometry_nodes/index.html) setup can be seen in the [geometry nodes tab](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/geometry_node.html) and may be modified as desired, e.g. to set the particle radius.

When applying the `Point Cloud` geometry node, the vertices of the mesh are converted to a [Point Cloud](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/point_cloud.html), which can be rendered only by [Cycles](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/cycles/introduction.html) and only as spheres.

When applying the `Instances` geometry node, the vertices of the mesh are converted to cubes, which can be rendered by both [Eevee](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/eevee/index.html) and [Cycles](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/cycles/introduction.html). You are free to change instanced object in [Geometry Node Editor](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/geometry_node.html).

**CAUTION: Because this node setup relies on the [`Realize Instances`](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/geometry_nodes/instances/realize_instances.html) node, the memory usage increases extremely rapidly. Make sure to save the `.blend` file before attempting this, as Blender may run out of memory!!! Depending on your hardware and instanced object, it may be safe to use as many as 100k particles.**

Applying the `Mesh` geometry node will restore the default geometry nodes, which simply displays the imported geometry as it is.

![geometry_nodes](../images/geometry_nodes.png)

Notes:

1. `Instances` is super memory hungry compared to `Point Cloud`.
2. After applying `Point Cloud` or `Instances` geometry nodes, you need to assign the material inside the geometry nodes, to be able to shade the object according to some imported field. So to save your work, you can simply assign the material here, then apply the `Point Cloud` or `Instances` geometry nodes.
3. To access the attributes for shading, use the [`Attribute`](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/shader_nodes/input/attribute.html) node in the [Shader Editor](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/shader_editor.html) and simply specify the attribute string. The imported attributes can be seen in the [spreadsheet](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/spreadsheet.html) browser of the Geometry Nodes tab and are also listed in the [addon UI](#attributes).


## Attributes

This addon will also import attributes[^1] of the mesh object into the blender [attribute](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/geometry_nodes/attributes_reference.html) system.

Here it shows all the vertex attributes detected and imported. To avoid name collisions with [blender built-in attributes](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/geometry_nodes/attributes_reference.html#built-in-attributes), all names are renamed using `bseq_`  as prefix. Names are read-only. For example, `id` -> `bseq_id`. Keep this in mind when accessing attributes in the shader editor.

The value of the attributes can be viewed in blenders [spreadsheet](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/spreadsheet.html) which is part of the geometry nodes tab. There are many ways to use these attributes, such as [attribute node](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/shader_nodes/input/attribute.html) when shading.

![attribute](../images/attribute.png)

[^1]: Vertex attributes only for now

### Split Norm per Vertex

We also provide the ability to use a per-vertex vector attribute as custom normals for shading. For more details check the official documentation [here](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/structure.html#modeling-meshes-normals-custom).

The button `Set selected as normal` will set current selected attribute as vertex normal[^2]. The button `Clear normal` will reset the vertex normal to use the default face normals.

[^2]: The addon does not check if the selected attribute is suitable for normals or not, e.g. if the data type of the attribute is an integer instead of float, then Blender will simply give a runtime error.