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CHOPs update problem?


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Hi,

I have been working on an OTL for a couple of days.

It has some sliders to control different animated parts...

Then the values from these sliders are passed to a CHOP network... and there they are processed... changed (some expressions are involved)... and then exported to other animated parts...

So the user just deals with 1 or 2 sliders... and that controls the animation of some 10-20 different small parts...

So this is very normal... It is my first complex OTL... so it should be fine in theory...

But what I have noticed is that some of the parameters just do not go through the CHOPs network propery all the time...

there seems to be some update issues... I have to dive in to the CHOP network all the time and I have to disconnect and connect the same nodes... so the network is refreshed... and it works fine after that!?

:(

so some how... some nodes do not cook on the fly every time... !?

The operations that they are doing are correct... because as soon as I touch them... or rewire them... and run a flipbook... it is fine...

:(

Sorry for keep repeating my self... But this is scary... I based all my workflow on the CHOP net... and now it is unstable!?

Any help...

Thanks.

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CHOPs tends to do this sometimes....

you could add a callback to the parameters that you are using to force cook the network

HTH

Hi michael!

Thanks!... how exactly will this call back script work?

Should I be worried? Should I try to change my system... Very hard! though :(

CHOPs are so good... and they are so powerful... but this is weird...

:(

Edited by Symbolic
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I have been troubleshooting some similar issues lately, make sure that there are no recursive errors.

also you might want to make a switch that will let you toggle the exporting of the chops, it will update properly then. the user might have to tick it every once in a while to make it cook properly.

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It's easy to run into infinite recursion when exporting (ie. "pushing" data) with CHOPs. A more robust system is to "pull" the data instead using chop() expressions. However, sometimes, it's much more convenient to export though.

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It's easy to run into infinite recursion when exporting (ie. "pushing" data) with CHOPs. A more robust system is to "pull" the data instead using chop() expressions. However, sometimes, it's much more convenient to export though.

Could you please explain... pushing/pulling? And how can one pull the data?

You mean... All my values are calculated at the geometry level... there is one animated slider... then I have some other channels to add "delay", "offset", "compress time" etc... a few more calculations are done with those sliders and the final values are passed into chops... The channel of a "time shift" CHOP is linked to the "delay" slider... I guess this is pushing?

And joshjordan, thanks for the switch tip... I will try this.

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yeah you have to watch out for the infinite recursion. Although it did seem to be much more stable with that in H8 than I've seen so far in H9. Particularly when dealing with the export flag. There was also a bug or two that have been fixed where parameters weren't updating at all in H9, so there may still be some funnybusiness going on there. Could you upload a file? Never a problem in 8.

One simple thing to keep in mind is that if you are processing the whole time line in CHOPs, don't expect instant updates when adjusting parameters. There's a lot of math to do there sometimes. Although if it's not time dependent, once it cooks it should make things fly right along. There's also the unload checkbox on CHOPs in case memory starts to be an issue

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yeah you have to watch out for the infinite recursion. Although it did seem to be much more stable with that in H8 than I've seen so far in H9. Particularly when dealing with the export flag. There was also a bug or two that have been fixed where parameters weren't updating at all in H9, so there may still be some funnybusiness going on there. Could you upload a file? Never a problem in 8.

One simple thing to keep in mind is that if you are processing the whole time line in CHOPs, don't expect instant updates when adjusting parameters. There's a lot of math to do there sometimes. Although if it's not time dependent, once it cooks it should make things fly right along. There's also the unload checkbox on CHOPs in case memory starts to be an issue

What exactly is that "infinite recursion"?...

So I need to access the last node in my CHOP network with a "chop()" expression...

I will try to upload a file... but I will need some time to prepare it... my file right now is too complicated...

:(

I tried to use a switch chop... but that did not work... maybe I did not use it properly...

Any suggestions on how should I use the switch chop to force recook?... also any ideas about the call back script?...

Thanks.

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about the switch toggle:

What I meant is that if you use an export chop, you can plug a second input into it, a channel that you switch back and forth from 0 to 1. You can promote that as a toggle button in a digital asset. Then the user can tick that button to toggle exporting on and off, which can refresh the chops network.

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Hello again...

just a brief update...

...avoiding the EXPORT flag really helps... using the chop() expression instead...

//

also there is a "opcook -F" expression... this forces the network to cook....

//

I put a button with this script in my OTL...

So every time the user changes the main animation curve... he/she has to press that button...

If anybody can suggest me a better way of implementing this script... it would be a great help...

Cheers.

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