Geometry Nodes: Mesh Point Cloud Conversion Nodes

This commit adds nodes to do direct conversion between meshes and point
clouds in geometry nodes. The conversion from mesh to points is helpful
to instance once per face, or once per edge, which was previously only
possibly with ugly work-arounds. Fields can be evaluated on the mesh
to pass them to the points with the attribute capture node.

The other conversion, point cloud to mesh vertices, is a bit less
obvious, though it is still a common request from users. It's helpful
for flexibility when passing data around, better visualization in the
viewport (and in the future, cycles), and the simplicity of points.

This is a step towards T91754, where point clouds are currently
combined with meshes when outputing to the next modifier after geometry
nodes. Since we're removing the implicit behavior for realizing
instances, it feels natural to use an explicit node to convert points
to vertices too.

Differential Revision: https://developer.blender.org/D12657

2 files changed, 4 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/source/blender/blenkernel/BKE_node.h b/source/blender/blenkernel/BKE_node.h
index 16d4eb51d31..70700246d29 100644
--- a/source/blender/blenkernel/BKE_node.h
+++ b/source/blender/blenkernel/BKE_node.h
@@ -1503,6 +1503,8 @@ int ntreeTexExecTree(struct bNodeTree *ntree,
 #define GEO_NODE_DISTRIBUTE_POINTS_ON_FACES 1090
 #define GEO_NODE_STRING_TO_CURVES 1091
 #define GEO_NODE_INSTANCE_ON_POINTS 1092
+#define GEO_NODE_MESH_TO_POINTS 1093
+#define GEO_NODE_POINTS_TO_VERTICES 1094
 
 /** \} */
 
diff --git a/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/node.cc b/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/node.cc
index c8ba7991f31..8a6f1471ddb 100644
--- a/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/node.cc
+++ b/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/node.cc
@@ -5778,6 +5778,7 @@ static void registerGeometryNodes()
   register_node_type_geo_mesh_primitive_uv_sphere();
   register_node_type_geo_mesh_subdivide();
   register_node_type_geo_mesh_to_curve();
+  register_node_type_geo_mesh_to_points();
   register_node_type_geo_object_info();
   register_node_type_geo_point_distribute();
   register_node_type_geo_point_instance();
@@ -5785,6 +5786,7 @@ static void registerGeometryNodes()
   register_node_type_geo_point_scale();
   register_node_type_geo_point_separate();
   register_node_type_geo_point_translate();
+  register_node_type_geo_points_to_vertices();
   register_node_type_geo_points_to_volume();
   register_node_type_geo_raycast();
   register_node_type_geo_realize_instances();