You simulate hair by playing through the time
slider (see
Play a hair simulation).
You can create a cache file to store all the positions of the hair
curves during the simulation. This cache lets you quickly preview
the results of the hair simulation without having to render. This offers
many benefits, including scrubbing back and forth in the time slider and
re-using a cache so you don't have to solve at render time.
The main purpose of the
cache is for batch render so that you can do distributed rendering
and have the simulation match exactly.
See
Rendering using distributed render.
Specifically you can:
Create a hair cache
To create a hair cache
- Select the hair system.
- Do one of the following:
You can select from the
following options:
- Cache Time Range
-
Select a time range for the
cache. Use the time range as specified in the Render
Settings or the Time Slider,
or set a new time range with the Start/End option.
- Sampling
-
Specify either Over or Under for
sampling and then set a Rate value
for sampling. The default value for Rate is 1.
Append to a hair cache
You can use Append
to Cache to add the specified frames to the existing
cache. If the range of frames you specify occurs earlier than the
last frame in the cache, the overlapping frames are overwritten.
You may want to append to a hair cache if you decide to render more
frames than you originally had cache for.
You might use the “append
and truncate a cache” workflow if you're hand-tweaking the behavior
of your hair. For example, cache a simulation for a while, truncate
it at or before the frame where some hairs do something you don't
want, modify some attributes, cache for a while again until you
notice some behavior that you want to change. See
To truncate a hair cache.
To append to a hair cache
- Select the hair system.
- Select
Hair > Append to Cache >
. The Append
to Hair Cache Options window appears.
You can select from the
following options:
- Append Time Range
-
Select a time range to append
to the cache. Use the Current Time (applies
a single frame), Current Time to Time Slider End,
or set a new time range with the Start/End option.
- Sampling
-
Specify either Over or Under for
sampling and then set a Rate value
for sampling. The default value for Rate is 1.
- Set the append options and then click
the Append button.
Maya appends the new
cache information to the existing cache file for the hair system
according to the options you set.
Truncate a hair cache
You may want to truncate
a cache for one of the following reasons:
- If your modifications only start affecting
the behavior of your hair dynamics partway through the cache, and
you only want to re-cache form the point where it changes.
- If you don't want or need the tail end
of your simulation.
To truncate a hair cache
- Select the hair system with the cache
you want to truncate.
- In the Time Slider move to the frame
where you want to truncate the cache.
- Select
Hair > Truncate Cache.
Maya deletes the cache from the current frame forward.
Delete a hair cache
You may want to delete
your hair cache for one of the following reasons:
- If you modify a dynamic hair simulation
after caching, you must disable or delete the cache so that the
modifications appear when you play the hair simulation.
- You must re-create the cache before you
(distributed) render your hair.
- You can delete the cache to free up disk space.
To delete a hair cache
- Select
Hair > Delete Cache.
The existing hair cache is removed.
