I have a sim I'm running with nParticles. There are 3 nParticle objects with instanced geometry and I don't want them to interpenetrate. I originally set up the sim using the nParticles self-collide but I found since the volume emitters occupy the same space, sometimes a few nParticles of one object are actually emitted INSIDE the collision width of another particle, so they get trapped. The nParticles have instanced geometry that is NOT in the shape of a sphere so when the particles are trapped inside they bounce around and interpenetrate the instanced geo like it's their job.
SO, I wanted to add a radial field to each particle using "Use selected as source of field" so the radial will "push" the particles away and they won't get trapped. BUT, when I do this, the particles I attached the field to no longer calculate. I checked their count at frame 45 and it is at zero. The emitter rates are all set to 1000. (they have max count values to control the amount of particles) Anybody know why this is happening?
Do I need to use traditional particles? I would rather not because I do need the collisions and self-collisions to work as well. I suppose I could create a traditional particle system that emits the radial field and attach it to the original particle using it as a goal. But (A) I'd like to keep this as simple as possible, and (B) I really want to know what I don't understand here.
What is the story here? Anybody know?