Softimage 2014 cachedat files

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Here’s something I noticed when I started up Softimage 2014 SP2 for the very first time. It spent about 26 seconds writing some cachedat and cachehdr files in my User folder:
Startup_file_summary
During subsequent startups, Softimage just reads in the cachedat, which takes a lot less time (eg < 0.005 seconds).

I looked back at my previous versions of Softimage, and it seems these cache files were new in 2014. There's actually two cachedat files, each with an associated cachehdr header. You'll find them in your %XSI_USERHOME%\Cache folder:

C:\Users\xsisupport\Autodesk\Softimage_2014_SP2\Cache\{870AB238-90C2-4336-8D46-B2CDD31C8A34}.cachedat
C:\Users\xsisupport\Autodesk\Softimage_2014_SP2\Cache\{870AB238-90C2-4336-8D46-B2CDD31C8A34}.cachehdr
C:\Users\xsisupport\Autodesk\Softimage_2014_SP2\Cache\{AD8CCDD2-C275-46E3-9881-265DB5BC84BB}.cachedat
C:\Users\xsisupport\Autodesk\Softimage_2014_SP2\Cache\{AD8CCDD2-C275-46E3-9881-265DB5BC84BB}.cachehdr

One cache is read at startup. The other is updated when you first drag an ICE node into an ICE tree (and then if you start a new XSI.exe session and drag the same node into an ICE tree, Softimage will read from the cache). Running strings on these cache files showed lots of ICE node/compound names, so they seem to be strictly for some sort of ICE-node caching (eg ports, layouts, logic, …).

Friday Flashback #127

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Falling Bodies, the Softimage|3D plug-in for creating your own fall stunts.
boxpicture2
From the Animats web site:

Animats introduced ragdoll physics technology in 1997. The Animats Falling Bodies> product was for years the most advanced ragdoll dynamics system on the market. Our technology for high-quality ragdolls is patented. This broad patent covers most spring/damper character simulation systems. If it falls, it has joints, it looks right, and it works right, it’s usually covered by our patent. This technology has been licensed to a major distributor of game development middleware.

https://vimeo.com/69759819
This is the original “ragdoll falling down stairs” animation, shown at the Softimage user group meeting in 1997. This is the first ragdoll demo ever. U.S. Patent #6,067,096.

–quote from the youtube version of this video (which wouldn’t play properly in Chrome, hence the vimeo version above)

Workarounds for caching ICE attributes [and sidestepping ICE optimizations]

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Because of how ICE is optimized, it won’t bother setting data if you never use that data (see Beware of ICE Optimizations here). For example, suppose I have a point cloud where I set a per-point scalar value, but I never use that scalar data (because I just want to cache that value and use it later).

ICE_Opt_1

That scalar attribute is never used, so it is optimized away (it makes sense: you’re not using it, so why keep it?). You won’t see that attribute in the Cache Manager, and the Cache on File node won’t write it out (even if you add that attribute to the list).

One way to force ICE to evaluate the attribute so you can cache it is to create an Attribute Display property for the attribute, but disable Show Values.
ICE_Opt_AttributeDisplay

Another way is to insert a Log Values node, and disable logging.
ICE_Opt_Log

Yet another way is to use Show Values. Enable Show Values for Tagged Components Only to hide the values (if you’re going to tag components, you could set the Display % to 1).
ICE_Opt_ShowValues

And last but not least, if you have emTools from Mootzoid, you can use the Force Value Evaluation node, which uses a Show Values on a value that is never set.
emToolsForceValueEvaluation

hat tips to Stefano, Mathieu, and Vincent on the SItoA list

Softimage 2014 SP2 available

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Autodesk Softimage 2014 Service Pack 2 is available for download.

Bugs Fixed in this Release

  • SOFT-9094 Caching a Crowd FX simulation is broken
  • SOFT-9089 Very slow access to the ICE attribute arrays

To take advantage of the fix for slow attribute access, you’ll probably need to recompile your plugins.

Also of interest is this known issue:

  • SOFT-9095 Crowd scenes does not render with textures when rendered on multiple computers with skip flag set to on

The workaround: don’t use the skip flag 🙂
Instead, you’ll need to specify frame ranges.

Finding materials used by a model

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Here’s one way to get the materials used by model. Note that this will also get any materials applied to clusters.

si=Application

def get_mdl_materials( m ):
	from win32com.client import constants as c
	return m.FindObjects( c.siMaterialID )

Application.GetPresetModel("Man_Character", "Man_Character", "", "Character.Character_Designer")
for m in get_mdl_materials( si.Dictionary.GetObject( 'Man_Character' ) ):
	print m

And here’s an old-school way that uses a couple of string expressions:

si=Application
mdl = si.Dictionary.GetObject( 'Man_Character' )

import win32com.client
mats = win32com.client.Dispatch( "XSI.Collection" )
mats.Items = '{0}.{1},{0}.{2}'.format(mdl.Name, "*.cls.*.material", "*.material")

for m in mats:
	print (m)