Alembic vs Bgeo for Caching Out
2185 3 0- Wren
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At various stages of a network I will cache out geo/particles etc and sometimes those stages of caching are useful as elements down the pipe for which I just resave them as alembic. I was wondering if anyone caches out straight to an alembic instead? I know its probably not best practice but curiosity got the best of me and wanted to know peoples thoughts about alembic as a caching format and how it would compare? The idea of halving the disk caching required is tantalizing.
soho vfx
- Midasssilver
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It works, but isn't preferable, because if you have problem frames, you need to re-cache the entire thing. If you have the bgeo cached first, then you can potentially fix those problem frames, then re-cache the alembic without having to completely re-cache the bgeo sequence. You open up yourself to a world of hurt by skipping the bgeo step, but it does work.
- Wren
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- clintond
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MidasssilverThis isn't the case. Alembic can be cached as a single file (default), or written per-frame. Select the ‘Render Full Range’ checkbox (also be sure to add a number pad to the output file).
because if you have problem frames, you need to re-cache the entire thing.
There's benefits in Alembic over BGEO. The primary one for me is motion-vector data on deforming meshes being interpreted by the hair tools. BGEO as a format in this instance does not work for me (in spite of V attrs etc).
I've shifted to Alembic over BGEO and only seen positives.
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