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Caching ICE Data and Simulations

Much of the work in creating a convincing animation or simulation is the process of trial and error. You usually need to try out many different combinations of settings until you find the right effect. Caching can help you do this.

Caching stores the current animation or simulation frames into a file that you can play back, whether it’s using the ICE tree, the animation mixer, or simply the playback controls and the timeline.

Caching is especially useful for trying out different variations of a simulation, bringing the simulation into the animation mixer and modifying it, or exporting the simulation to be used in another scene or on another computer. You can also read a cache file in the ICE tree and modify it with other nodes and compounds in the tree.

There are three ways of caching with ICE:

• Use the Plot > Write Geometry Cache command to plot simulation or animation, including ICE attributes, into cache files—see Plotting Simulation or Animation Data into Cache Files

• Use the Cache on File node in the ICE tree to save ICE simulations and deformations and their ICE attributes in cache files—see Writing and Reading Cache Files in the ICE Tree

• Use the Simulation Time Controls to cache an ICE simulation—see ICE Simulation Caching.

But before you do anything, you should set up your default paths for the cache files—see Setting the Default Paths for Cache Files.

Autodesk Softimage v.7.5     <     >