The Bindings tab simply responsible to assign the right volume for the right functionality.

For example, Pyro Solver would output a volume named 'density', therefore the Smoke Volume set to 'density' by default to use that as the volume for smoke visualisation. Similarly you can choose what other volumes assigned for 'Scatter' or 'Fire'.

For the majority of cases, you can leave these settings on their default value.

Adriano
the new file cache is rubbish. Explicit or constructed it does not save the file while just playbacking the scene. it's horrible.

Unfortunately, the 'Automatic' file mode is indeed not included. It is simply a 'write' or 'read' tool to make the topnet integration simpler.

While not the most ideal if you used to that workflow, as mentioned by others, I would also recommend to switch back to the previous filecache version if this is a must feature for you, or please use the file sop.

I am a bit confused by the use of 'ACES 2.0'. If I am not mistaken there is no 2.0 version of ACES available at this point.

Could you please provide more details about your setup? Or if possible a simple scene file?

There are couple of things i have noticed which possible all contribute in some degree:

• your density values are super high. You source in density with ADD operation with x10 scale. On top you are also emit density from flame with a x35 scale. That's a lot! And on top you are multiplying that by x3 for the render.
  
• I adjusted some of the settings, along with reducing the expansion, which i realised was making the simulation expand too much.
  
• the rasterized source volume is rather blocky as well. I also made some adjustments there.
  
• You have enabled Velocity Blur on the geo, but you also have to enable Allow Motion Blur on the Mantra node.
  

Let me know if it works for you. (I edited the file in 19.0.445 but later i realised you are on 18.5, but that should not really matter at the end)

It is a bit hard to tell from the image.

You said you are using Mantra right?

What are your maximum volume values? Are you using scattering on the pyro bake volume? What is your Blur Downsample value?

Do you have a scene file to share?

Nikodim Fomich
Also I couldn't find any tutorial or article about how to load older caches

We have updated the docs with a great deal of info, which is worth to go through.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/filecache.html [www.sidefx.com]

Alos if you type in youtube, "houdini 19 filecache", it should bring up a pretty cool cgforge tutorial and the hive presentation that explains the node in more detail and what are the benefits using it.

Nikodim Fomich
Now I only need to learn how does one load cached file sequences into new File Cache 2.0

I believe you have a cache that is generated in earlier version? In that case, just change the "Constructed" entry to "Explicit" and you will have full control over the path as you did before.

If that does not work, please let me know.

We have changed the filecache to accommodate more involved shot workflows which would not be possible with the old style free-for-all file naming.

Nikodim Fomich
Mountain node, no seriously that node was way more authentic looking and feeling in H18. Now it's just another generic feeling Noise node Idk why would they do that.

Mountain sop is nothing more then a Noise sop that applies the noise in the direction of the normal. There was no point keeping that node around only for this feature, and even better, now you can specify any other direction using your custom attribute.
Also this move brings us a step closer to unify "noise pattern" interfaces across the sop tools.

You have to make sure to pass in vdb volumes to lops.

One way to do it: pyrosolver->Quick Setups->Optimize Exports

or just simply turn on Convert to vdb on the Export tab of the pyrosolver

You have to pass in vdb volumes to lop. Houdini volumes will not work with XPU

They are part of the Labs Tools.
Which houdini version are you in? And which Labs version are you on?

I just tested it with the latest daily build, 18.5.417 and it is there. I clicked on Windows->Sidefx Labs. In the window, I made sure the Release is the same as the houdini version number, and I also unchecked Production Builds Only.
And restarted houdini.

You should find it under the vex section:
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/vex/statement.html [www.sidefx.com]

However it is indeed missing some other possible formatting you can use.

For example your code could be written in one or two lines as well:

f@flame = f@hitnum > 0 ? 0.25 : 1;

or

if (f@hitnum>0) f@flame = 0.25;
else f@flame = 1;

Exactly as jsmack said.
There is also a doc written for this as well:

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/pyro/shading.html [www.sidefx.com]

This is what you should see with the modified scene using the ACES workflow.

The fuzziness has nothing to do with the resolution. I can even lower the resolution. The reason is your disturbance force, you basically applying a very strong disturbance all across the fluid container.

I adjusted your setup a bit to get nicer looking fire. Let me know if you need further explanation.

Also try to use ACES, which will give you a much nicer looking fire on default.

While the naming is the same the result is not. The Content Library files using couple of additional tricks to enhance the look.

Hello Hristo!

Thank you so much for the feedback, very much appreciated!

- burst and trail sources: That is great to know, is there anything additional to that you would think could be improved?

- quick setups: There are two reasons for seeing subnets generated:
In case of Pyro Scatter From Burst -> Simulated Trails, the Ballistic_Path_from_Simulation contains too much nodes that could overwhelm users seeing them right away, therefore it ended up in a subnet. It has a very specific task and it is an open question whenever it is worth to generalise and what else could it be used for?

The other case, the Pyro Bake Volume -> Sharpen Volume, that generates a subnet simply because we do not have a generic easy-to-use Volume Sharpen tool, but I still wanted to provide a basic ‘sharpening’ setup for those not familiar with setting one up. And because I wanted the users to only see the two needed parameters and again, not to overwhelm them with all the kernel values.

- pyro bake is writing out many volumes: I am not sure I understand correctly what you mean by ‘many’. Ideally it should be generating one additional volume ‘scatter’ if you decide to enable Scatter. ( + ‘Ce’ if you enable it on the last tab, but that is for a different workflow in which case you do not need ‘scatter’).

May I ask what is ‘color ramp (float)’ and ‘emissive’ volume exactly as you have described above? If we are talking about generic (but still sexy) explosion workflow, ideally you need is ‘density’, ‘scatter’ and ‘vel’, and when it comes to render the Absorption Color and Density Control Volume are essentials parms on the shader for good look.

- scatter volume is color vector: This is indeed one drawback of this shading technique. The blurriness of the scatter needs to be controlled in SOPs as this is a volume blur operation.

So you can do it two ways:

1. Remap temperature to color vector -> sop blur it -> give this to the shader.
2. Sop blur temperature -> give this float volume to shader, where you remap it to color vector.

Unfortunately the two methods do not provide the same look, we decided on the first one as this provides the nicer looking results. This brings up the possibility to support both methods, but currently this would have caused a lot more complications in the workflow. This also brings up the question whenever to add hue-shift and other color correction parameters on the shader which would help coloring, but some more into color pipeline might find this as an ‘evil’ control.

- Axiom examples: Matt made rather custom shaders for each of his example files for purely artistic controls. While it is possible to introduce secondary masks for each emission component, it will certainly introduce more complexity to the workflow and that is the reason why such additional controls were not included, unless it turns out very essential.

Do you have Limit Texture resolution enabled? If yes, try to disable that.

If you go to Viewport Display Options/Texture Tab and under 3D Textures folder, you should have a Limit Resolution checkbox.

I just looked into the Side Explosion for example. It looks like the All Frames in One Batch is not enabled on the sim_side_explosion top node's ROP Fetch tab. When this is off, each work item will run a separate/individual sim, which I suspect could cause reaching the memory limit of your machine very quickly.

So, please try that scene file with only enabling that checkbox and let me know if it worked.

We will update this and possible other scene files asap.