What can be used instead Attribute Sample Texture node in Geometry Nodes?

Question

I wanted to go through this tutorial, but at the very beginning it turns out that I simply do not have an Attribute Sample Texture node.

I use Blender 3.0.

Maybe this node was replaced with some new one, or is there an alternative way to reproduce the effect of this node?

Answer 1

Since that tutorial was made, the Geometry Nodes system has radically changed. It now uses 'Fields', which are evaluated and interpolated at every requested coordinate of a given space, rather like shader nodes.

Given a vector-space, a texture node is now implicitly sampled at the relevant points , when an evaluation is asked of it:

Here, the Wave Texture node is evaluated at the 'Positions' (Equivalent to 'Object' Texture Coordinates in shader nodes) of the subdivided input Geometry, automatically interpolated between its vertices. (The Position input node is actually optional, here, it is the default.)

If you prefer learning from videos, I would suggest, at least to start with, you seek out the ones made after 'Fields' were introduced.

Answer 2

I've stumbled on the same thing. The pace of Geometry Nodes breaking changes since their inception has made a lot of training resources obsolete.

I've not found a clear and up to date introduction material, so after trial and errors, I think I've come up with the correct modern way of doing a simple displacement map like in the mentioned tutorial. Tested on Blender version 3.3 (current LTS) and 3.4.

Robin Betts' proposed answer is a good pointer to the Fields feature, but I wanted to provide an updated way of doing the same effect as in the tutorial, maybe it can be useful to others.

The simplest solution I came up with:

Explanation:

• Now that the Attribute Sample Texture node is gone, you have to use the Noise Texture node (a specialized texture sampling with embedded noise controls).
  • No need to create a new attribute like in the video (noise), just pass along the Factor (Fac) float value.
  • No need to assign a source vector, default texture coordinates are used
  • The Scale parameter directly controls the strength of the displacement
• Create a new Vector with only the Z component with the Combine XYZ node
• Add this vector to the Position node
  • The Position node means the geometry attribute that is named position
  • Which geometry's attribute is evaluated in context of the current geometry flow (i.e. the grid mesh)
• Use the Set position node to update the source geometry's (i.e. the grid mesh) position

I can't provide a full updated tutorial, but if you want the same kind of animation as he does, you probably want something like that: