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

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/source/blender/nodes/NOD_geometry.h b/source/blender/nodes/NOD_geometry.h
index bf780042600..6cbb45f80aa 100644
--- a/source/blender/nodes/NOD_geometry.h
+++ b/source/blender/nodes/NOD_geometry.h
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ void register_node_type_geo_mesh_primitive_line(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_mesh_primitive_uv_sphere(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_mesh_subdivide(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_mesh_to_curve(void);
+void register_node_type_geo_mesh_to_points(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_object_info(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_point_distribute(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_point_instance(void);
@@ -108,6 +109,7 @@ void register_node_type_geo_point_rotate(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_point_scale(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_point_separate(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_point_translate(void);
+void register_node_type_geo_points_to_vertices(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_points_to_volume(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_raycast(void);
 void register_node_type_geo_realize_instances(void);