[HOU-1659] instancing vdbs

[LeoYfver]

instanced vdbs reads in as separate vdbs in rendertime so the memory spike. Is it possible to instance vdbs? We can provide test scene if needed.

Regards Alexis

[Gosho.Genchev]

// info below is valid only for builds starting from Feb 11th until Feb 17th, we've got a bug to fix starting from Feb 19th so please either grab a working nightly or give us a few days to fix the problem.

Yes, instancing of VDBs works provided you don't change the voxel information after reading in the vdb.

We recently added support for the unexpandedfilename intrinsic attribute over a File SOP in Packed Disk Primitive mode when rendering volumes. You can offset the frame, loop, etc. Changing the material for each instance using shop_materialpath is also supported.
Example file here (export the cache before rendering): https://drive.google.com/file/d/18fl...ew?usp=sharing

Note: there are a couple of parameters on the Volume Grid Shader that you should look out for - the Fire -> Emission -> Enable toggle and the Smoke -> Volume Light Cache. Both of these generate a unique set of data for each instance to speed up rendering. If you're instancing, say, 10 or 20 volumes, you might be fine but for hundreds or more, you may run out of memory.

All the best!

[LeoYfver]

good info, will try it out thanks!

[Ambrozie]

Hi Gosho.Genchev ,

Just checking if the bug fixed at the moment?
Thanks for the example file, very useful.

[3d_department]

Hi, is it possible to render this scene with GPU? Im getting some trasparency issue?
Im trying to render clouds with GPU because is way faster and having this problem.


Thank you