Effect Versioning

[draxysd]

Hi guys,

I hope I can pick your brain a little bit. I would like to know how you guys manage your effects versions. My concrete scenario is a couple of strung effects.

It starts with a RBD explosion sim, then a pyro sim off of that and finally advecting particles along the sim. I like to hold all these in the same geo which poses a bit of a problem. How do I correlate the cache version to the hip file version? My approach is to use this in the filecache node:

$HIP/geo/$HIPNAME.`opname("..")`.$OS/$HIPNAME.`opname("..")`.$OS.$F.bgeo.sc

(windows guy, so I like to keep all sequences in separate folders). This complicates if I don't want to redo the RBD sim for example, then I have to replace the $HIPNAME with the absolute name of the file which simulated the RBD version.

I know it would be much cleaner if every sim would reside in its own file, but that is a little too small of a granulation for single person workflow.

If you could shed some light/share your practices, it would benefit me immensely

[bonsak]

Hi

You might want to use one separate file cache for each 'asset' with its own version slider that is used in the file path.

-b

versioning.hiplc

[draxysd]

Hey Bonsak,

Thanks for your answer. I was thinking along similar lines.

My main problem is tracking the hip file which generated the cache when I have multiple versions because clients often want to roll back to a previous version.

My current thinking is along the lines of using python to parse the filename for prefix and version in two parameters and reference those in the filename, so I can override just the hip version to use old cache. I'm probably overthinking this though

[ikoon]

Dragan, you have interesting approach. I never used the $HIPNAME but now I understand how it may help me.

I am curious what other users have. I have quite simple preset for file cache and I use a comment string parm. Maybe it will help you to not "hardcode" hip version to the filecache version?

EDIT: btw as a part of your filecache preset, you may also have a pre-render script, which will automatically add a line to the comment "Cache v3 was made by .hip version v025"

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by ikoon

[bonsak]

Or write the hipname directly into the cache as a detail attribute:

 

[draxysd]

Hey thanks guys. Some very interesting approach.

@ikoon the comment field stays on the node as opposed to the @bonsak detail attribute which stays with the cache. Did I get this right?

Thanks again. If anyone else would like to shed some light on their caching practices, I would be more than thankfull

[ikoon]

Yes, the comment is kept on the filecache node. Bonsaks attribute is written onto disk, into each geometry file (each frame). You can view it then, anytime later, in the Geometry spreadsheet.
The versioning was also discussed here: https://vimeo.com/220218827

Cca 7:00 minute, and also comments:

DiornPlus1 year ago
qLib library ... they also have a nice custom filecaching node called waypoint, with versioning and other usefull options.

[draxysd]

Thanks for the resources @ikoon, i have qlib, will check it out.