Thanks Alan! Yep, this is all solid, non-deforming stuff (CAD data). I have rigged it all with nulls the way you mention. The problem I'm having is just updating when I scrub the timeline. Even if the object has zero animation, simply scrubbing the timeline causes Softimage to freeze for several seconds.
I'm actually testing Redshift for this one. They've got a stand-in, but it's very alpha IMHO. You either get a box or a full representation of the geometry. There's nothing in-between, yet. VRay's implementation looks somewhat nifty - I think they give you a bunch of points in the shape of your object. It sounds like the fastest solution would be to decimate the geometry and use it as a stand-in. I just wasn't sure why there's such a huge difference in performance between local and reference. It's really significant. Thanks! Paul ᐧ On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 1:05 PM, Alan Fregtman <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Is it as simple as building low res stand-ins and offloading? > > Pretty much... yeah. > > Is it a solid, (mostly if not completely) non-deforming thing like a > vehicle? If that's the case, you may wanna consider making a null hierarchy > where each null contains a selection of meshes that "move as one". > > For example, a regular solid car's rig might be: car body, left/right > front/back wheel rotation and left/right front/back wheel brakes, so 9 > nulls. Animating those 9 nulls will be way lighter than dealing with > hundreds or thousands of parts deforming or individually constrained to > whatever, plus it's less data for the Delta property to keep track of. By > the way, I like to call these nulls "segment nulls". > > If you're dealing with mentalray or Arnold, both have the standins concept > that works quite well, especially in Arnold. (Maybe XSI Vray does it too, > not sure.) > > You'll want a standin per "segment" and if you name your standins the same > as your segment nulls in a separate resolution, then it's very easy to > animate a very light rig that is high-res compatible. Also makes it a piece > of cake to republish update geo and shading by simply reexporting the > standin files. > > At work we had stupid mesh density in Pacific Rim's control pod "stilts" > and this *segmented workflow *of standin nulls constrained to a rig > worked out great. ;) > > > On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 11:09 AM, Paul Griswold < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I don't work a lot with reference models, but I am now. The mesh is >> dense and has a lot of parts to deal with. When the mesh is local, >> Softimage handles it fine. But when it's reference, just moving through >> the timeline takes 8-10 seconds per frame. Even in Bounding Box mode, >> Softimage grinds to a halt. >> >> Can anyone point me to any FAQs or guidelines on working with heavy >> reference models? >> >> Is it as simple as building low res stand-ins and offloading? >> >> Thanks & Merry Christmas! >> >> -Paul >> >> ᐧ >> > >
