I'd like to have an options inside a File SOP which allow you to calculate interpolated subframes in one click.

This would be awesome.

In addition it would be great if it could read a full dataset on the first frame (uvs, groups, normals, connectivity, etc) and a point cloud for every subsequent frame and interpolate the subframe data.

Less storage space, less network overhead, it's a great deal.

Gene

ps: yes, I know one could make and otl, and I have. IMO, this type of function is used often enough to warrant an out-of-the-box solution.

Personally, I don't like the dressing up of the File SOP.

I'm already a bit miffed about the option to Write directly from a File SOP
(see rant below…)

SESI did provide the sweet, sweet node TimeBlend for this very purpose. Heh, yes it's two nodes instead of one, but just think of all the girls you'll impress with your massive networks!



(The thing is, if I send a fileset of some particles to another artist, he gets, tired/jumpy/stressed/angry/punchy/click happy and next thing you know, he accidently switches the file to Write, and BAM, my expensive file set is gone. But that's just me being nervous )

Write from File SOP is a different thing. In this case the problem could be solved using ReadFile SOP and… Well we already have ROP output drivers so why do we need WriteFile SOP? But subframes and point caches seems to be a quite logical extension to File SOP. But if we want to be minimalists we have to forget about a half of operators in Houdini because they are duplicate each other. Like Delete SOP and Blast SOP. Could TimeBlend SOP be recreated from existing operators? :wink:

I'm not a fan of the read-write-auto-optimus-prime filein sop either.

with the (sideways) rop_geometry and filein sop combo, it's really easy to see at a glance “Ah, i'm caching something to do disk here”. There's a big sideways box, and a break in the sop chain.

With the new setup, it's not quite so easy.

Gene