ca32fb604e
Many nodes output anonymous attributes (e.g. the top selection in the Cylinder node). The actual data is only contained in the geometry output though. The field output just contains a reference to this data (essentially just the generated name of an attribute). This data can be output even without computing the geometry itself. As of right now, this only simplifies the code a bit, but does not have a bigger impact, because to use the anonymous attribute, you always need the geometry anyway. However, with the upcoming simulation nodes, it's possible to create the anonymous attribute in one frame and to access it in another frame. In the other frame we only need the anonymous attribute reference and don't have to create the actual geometry again. Skipping creating the actual attribute on the geometry can have a significant performance benefit.
Blender
Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline-modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking and video editing.
Project Pages
Development
License
Blender as a whole is licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3. Individual files may have a different, but compatible license.
See blender.org/about/license for details.