Alembic and GPU cache feature comparison

The following table compares important Alembic and GPU cache features.

Features	Alembic cache	GPU cache
Load cache file with Alembic Cache > Alembic Import See Pipeline Caching Workflows.	Yes	Yes
Load cache file with GPU Cache > Import See Pipeline Caching Workflows.	Yes	Yes
Resulting object hierarchies when cache is imported	Original node hierarchy preserved. See Alembic Caches.	Original node hierarchy consolidated to a single node. See GPU Caches.
Supported renderers	Maya Software and mental ray	mental ray
Shading support	None See Merge Alembic caches with Maya objects.	Exports materials from source object. Viewable in Viewport 2.0. See Shade and render GPU caches.
Edit imported cache file	Edit as Maya geometry. See Alembic Caches.	Geometry cannot be edited.
Cache file evaluation	By Maya dependency graph.	By gpuCache node on the system graphics card See GPU Caches.
Loaded plug-ins	AbcImport.mll, AbcExport.mll	gpuCache.mll
Support for MEL commands	Yes See Use MEL Commands to Save and Load Pipeline Caches.	Yes See Use MEL Commands to Save and Load Pipeline Caches.
Can be referenced into a scene with file referencing (Create Reference).	Yes	Yes
Optimized for motion blur	No	Yes See Create or import GPU cache

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