Hi,

In the help card for the mantra ROP, there's mention of a “Unload SOPs” toggle in the standard tab, but I don't see it in the ROP's parms in any of the tabs.

Yet-to-be-implemented feature?


–Mark

I think the feature is outdated, (you would use SOP Unload Flags now instead …in conjunction with the cache manager).

Before the only way to unload SOPs was to use the opunload hscript command. But during renders it was a pain to do this, so the Unload SOPs toggle was added.

Wolfwood
I think the feature is outdated, (you would use SOP Unload Flags now instead …in conjunction with the cache manager).

Before the only way to unload SOPs was to use the opunload hscript command. But during renders it was a pain to do this, so the Unload SOPs toggle was added.

SOP Unload Flags? Do you mean the “opflag” function?

Didn't find any help for “opunload” (I looked in the main help pages too):


/obj -> help opunload
opunload



–Mark

Each SOP has an unload flag. (You can only see the flag in List View, not node)

I think its opset -u

The unload flag tells the SOP to unload its memory after it has cooked, (and passed it to the next node.)

The opunload command is there so you can force the cached geometry to be cleared from memory on a op by op basis.

Although the more “friendly” way to do it is use the flags, cache manager and sopcache command.

I see, thanks for the clarification.


–Mark

xionmark
I see, thanks for the clarification.
–Mark

No problem,

here is some backstory while drinking coffee/tea/whiskey

Basically what happened was the data we were trying to pass from SOP to SOP was pretty big. Having a 20 node SOP network isn't a big deal if your gdp is only 100k, but if its say a 50MB gdp then 20 nodes eats up half your RAM.

So after crying and some bribing, SESI added the opunload command and the sop unload flags. A little bit later the Unload SOPs toggle on the ROPs was added to help keep the memory footprint down during IFD/RIB generation on the farm.

After the initial panic was over SESI built a better interface to the SOP/OBJ memory management. In 7.0 I think it was just the sopcache command along with SOP Cache options in the Preferences. In 8.0 they built the cache manager.

One thing to note, even though there isn't a flag to turn on unloading in the Network Node View, if unloading is turned on the Locked icon turns into a trash can.