Any tips for iterating simulations faster in Phoenix 5

[dbakewel]

Hi All.
I'm looking for any tips on running simulations faster (who isn't?).

As an example the particular project i'm working on at the moment has had me running and re-running a modified version of the ink in water example file which has had a vortex added to spin the "ink" round in a glass container, using a maya vortex field and attempting get it to clump together towards the end of the animation (1st with a bind force which wasn't really working for what i was wanting, so i used another object to compress the particles together).

I found myself running and re-running sims to direct the effect and look, which is normal, but i'm at a bit of a loss as to what i can do to work faster.
I've also recently learned that reducing the amount of threads for simulating can have a positive effect on boosting simulation times and using just one NUMA node (i have 2 available of 56 threads each)

obviously the bigger/grander the sim is, the longer it will take, but most of what i'm doing is small scale stuff for now.
is it simply going to be down to lowering the resolution of the grid to start with and then upping it when approaching the time for final sim and render?
is the re-simulation section automatic nowadays?

if you have any tips or useful information I'd be very appreciative.
Thanks for reading
D

[georgi.zhekov]

Generally simulation speed is down to a few things:

Grid resolution - the higher it is > the higher the simulation time.

Steps per frame - more steps will make liquids look smoother and compensate for fast moving objects, but the slower the sim will be.

Number of interacting objects/High poly geometry - the more you have the slower the sim will be.

In the latest official Phoenix 5.20 we have a new Simulation Speed rollout which shows what stages of the simulation take the longest, along with tips on how to improve their speed.

Note that lowering the grid resolution too much while iterating and then bringing it back up might have a huge impact on how the final result will look like depending on the scene setup.

In order to avoid as much trouble as possible and keep the look relatively the same through the whole process - make sure to keep the grid as small as possible or maybe just work on a region until you dial your settings and then expand the grid size.

I hope this will be useful.