Caching root positions

 
 
 
Posted by:tbttfox
Data created:18 September 2014

Hi there,

I have been charged with making our hair guys' lives easier, and right away I saw something that I felt could be fixed.  We render on a farm, so if we don't "remember root positions" on the "Ox Hair From Guides" mod, the differences between the randomized render hairs cause major jitter in the finals.

So right now, our workflow is to render the scene to force the modifier to generate the root positions. Then we check the remember button.  Every time there's a change, we uncheck remember, re-render, and check the button again. This just seems horribly clunky to me.

Is there any way to get the modifier to generate and remember the root positions for the render hairs without rendering?

I'm also trying to make a script to do this, but I'm not following the documentation, and I can't find any examples on how to get the hair interface. 

Any help would be appreciated

~T.Fox

Hello,

Yes, this is something that we are considering simplifying. Maybe with a simple "cache" button or just a checkbox like right now without the need to render. The random mechanism could also be improved to produce more predictable results across many computers. The latter is probably what will be a more immediate solution.

Regarding documentation, please wait a little bit for the new V3 docs to go up which describe both MXS and C++ SDK access much better.

Marsel Khadiyev (Software Developer, EPHERE Inc.)

Is this still the way to render on a farm, (uncheck remember (for root and hair cluster I guess), render one frame, recheck remember, send to farm?)

You would check remember, then render, then send to the farm for that workflow. In V5 we have a simpler workflow that just locks all hair. I dont think you need to do a baking render either which is nice.

Thanks

Michael

Ok thank Micheal! I am using v5. To lock all hair in v5 is there any specific thing to do?

Hi Strob,

In the Ornatrix bar there is a button called "Lock selected hair to surface", I think this is what Michael is talking about.

Jeordanis Figuereo (Product Designer. EPHERE Inc.)