fast sim scrubbing Vs fast net render setup

[GrahamMac]

I have noticed that when simulation data is stored locally on my machine the result can be scrubbed in the viewport real time which is very handy. When making network/distributed renders one must however either share and map this local location to render nodes (a little impractical) or copy the sim data to a network location and change the input path accordingly in Phoenix FD. It might be better to be able to stipulate two paths for the stored simulation data in the input rollout.

A local path:
Which is written to directly during simulation and is used for scrubbing simulations in the viewport nice and fast.

A network path:
Which is optionally set and copied to with standard OS file copy functions during idle CPU time or upon a network/distributed render command or even during simulation perhaps.

This way one can have fast scrubbing in max and quickly be able to share this data with render nodes too.

[Ivaylo Katev]

the proper solution for this is to export the files as scene assets. this is scheduled to be implemented, but has lower priority due to ability to render with network visible input path.

[GrahamMac]

by this do you mean that Phoenix should package up the simulation data and export it to a network location when user starts a network or distributed render?

[Ivaylo Katev]

there is a system provided in the 3ds max that manages the scene assets (like textures, etc) when DR is used, and takes care to copy them to the render hosts. phoenix does not declare the cache files as assets and therefore the system does not provide them to the hosts.