How to stop boids from jittering?
I think this happens with the flocking action. Maybe a boid flips if it chooses a different other boid to approach.
Some settings remove or reduced the effect but also create flat uninteresting movement.
Tutorials so far don’t address this. They ignore it or hide it by using spheres.
Examples
Very bad here.
Not as visible but still jitter.
Is there a better free add-on similar to boids?
There’s not a way in the built-in boid system to fix this, it’s a shockingly bad implementation that’s been ignored for decades. I’ve been able to write a better simulation but it’s extremely slow, still need to port it to C++… right now your best bet is to use a geonodes solution like this:
Well I guess it will work for “demon smoke”, like the Supernatural TV show, by using spheres.
This should be removed from the built add ons. If Blender never removes poor functioning or never updated built-ins then it will bloat with many many of them over time.
I’m just playing with boids so probably not buy something. Looks like a good solution though on Blendernation but canceled here:
https://blendermarket.com/products/geo-swarm?ref=2