Eucalyptus Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) So I've got a project where I have some fluid spraying inside a container, and it's quite a lot of fluid particles changing quite quickly (it's a small, complex container). I want to be able to view it from start to finish, so frame 0-240, but it's just too much data and my cache, presumably runs out of memory and can't play it in realtime. I saved a .sim sequence using a ROP Output Solver, then loaded in the .sim sequence with a File SOP in my AutoDopNetwork. It still doesn't play in realtime because it has to load the geometry and again, seems to run out of memory to store every frame. The other problem is, for this 240 frame simulation it's taking up almost 50GB. Is this realistically how much space .sims take up?? Do I really need to save out a .sim for this, or is there another easier, less storage intensive way to see my simulation in realtime (similar to Krakatoa's PRT Loader?) so I know what it's going to look like before I render. Any tips on rendering simulations or viewing them as I work are great - Thanks! Edited November 30, 2012 by Eucalyptus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenduck Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 50GB is not unusual for a sim. That sort of size is never going to play in real time. You can always render a flipbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eucalyptus Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) A flipbook seems to be the better choice for my needs of just wanting to view the simulation but not save it out. Thanks! Edited November 30, 2012 by Eucalyptus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johner Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Saving particles out as .bgeo files is a much more efficient format than .sim files. With .sim you're getting the entire state of the sim, including all volumes and extra attributes on the FLIP particles (I assume you're talking about FLIP, but this is true of sims in general - you usually just want to save the output geometry). The shelf tools create a fluidtank_fluid object that imports the FLIP particles for meshing and saving to disk, using a DOP I/O node. The important tabs on that node are Compression and Export to File. On the Compression tab delete any non-essential attributes: I I usually do something like "* ^pscale ^v" (without quotes) which just keeps P, velocity and scale, but you can keep whichever you want. Then use the Export to File tab to write out .bgeo files. After writing them out, turn on Load from Disk at the top of the node. Also, for simulation, turn off Allow Caching to Disk on the DOPNet, since you're saving the output in a more compact format, and caching just takes up space and slows things down at that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eucalyptus Posted December 5, 2012 Author Share Posted December 5, 2012 Thanks johner! So if I save out my simulation as .bgeo and then us the DOP I/O to Load from Disk, will this cause my render to go much faster as well, since it doesn't have to sim at render time, but instead just reads the geometry? If I'm understanding that correctly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenduck Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 You use the DOP import node to bring the sim data from dops to sops. Then attach a rop output driver to the dop import node and save as .bgeo. Read this back after simulating with a regular file node. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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