Hi all.
I am experimenting with CHOPS and I have a doubt about what it is Time Slice.
When I activate it no operators works correctly.
But when I deselect it my filters, lag, etc .. then work correctly.
What is Time Slice for?
I have in the Main Preferences 60 frames for the time slice parameter, what that means?
Thanks.

Time slice is great for real-time playback performance.

It helps especially when processing/manipulating heavy channel data like CD or DAT quality audio files and you want real-time performance.

Briefly it makes those CHOPs that support time slicing to only evaluate a small interval if the incoming channel to process. Each CHOP will evaluate differing ranges of the incoming channel to process. The dynamic nature of this feature may/will give you different results.

If it causes trouble, turn it off.

If you are interested in real-time perofrmance playback, develop your CHOP networks with this feature on. If you live for real-time performance visit the Derivative web site and their touch software:

http://www.derivativeinc.com/home/home.asp [derivativeinc.com]

Thanks Jeff.
So if I put 60 frames for the time slice in the main globals then the CHOP is evaluated only every 60 frames to ensure real time?
I am using CHOPs to postprocess some particle and dynamics simulations, so I think that time slice is not useful for these tasks, even more it causes problems because I need to evaluate the date every frame not in some frames only.
And I alredy know about Derivate, but have never used touch.

So if I put 60 frames for the time slice in the main globals then the CHOP is evaluated only every 60 frames to ensure real time?

This is the maximum time slice value to compute. So, if your framebar skipped by more than 60 frames, it'd only evaluate the last 60.

Time slicing only computes the data between the current frame time and the last cook's frame time. Many times this is only 1 frame. If you were to use a Lag CHOP on 1 frame of data, you would get incorrect results because the Lag CHOP needs the previous value to work correctly. This is where time slicing comes in - it tells these types of CHOPs to hold onto as much data as they need to compute the operation (these CHOPs are spring, lag, audio CHOPs, trigger, etc). Other CHOPs, like the Math CHOP or the Limit CHOP, only need the current frame's data, so their Time Slice toggle is greyed out.

Time slicing is especially good for realtime audio processing, as it significantly reduces the cook time. It's also great for situations where you just throw away the data after processing it, like in puppeteering (though you can record it with the Record CHOP).

Its main limitation is that you can't scrub or play backwards – you have to play strictly forwards, much like a particle simulation.