Topic: How to re-install cloth physics frames(???) to use in a blender file?

[ACDmvmkr]

I'm getting more and more used to Blender version 257 now. But still having new user issues.

I just did 650 physics frames for a piece of clothing on one of my models in Blender 2.57. It went well. I named the cloth cache, and set it to save to disk cache, which it did fine. I can look on my HD and see the directory with all the properly named files contained within it. I then copied the whole directory like I used to do in 2.49 because accidents would usually destroy them and force me to have to re-generate all those files. This way I could just copy those back-up files into the original file directory and I was good to go again.

I then re-played my animated clothing segment several times and it all ran fine.

But now, for some reason there is a notification that says the cache is out of date and it won't run any more. I can't figure out what I did to make that happen, or even know what that means. The cache directory is still there, and all the frames are still in it, but I just can't get my blender file to play the cloth frames anymore. I still have that backup copy of the entire directory BTW.

How do I make the blender file that created those animation frames reload() and play those animation frames again? They are still there, and I still have back-up copies.


Also, as an aside, in 257 I cannot seem to either grab/move [G], or duplicate [D], or operate in any way on armature animation keyframes in the Dopesheet in any way. As soon as I try anything like that, it immediately crashes the program and I get the Windows Sorry For The Inconvenience error tile.

[kat]

If the data is generated as a result of a cache process (as opposed to being 'rendered' out) its usability, usefulness or availability will be strictly limited to the session or process that's generated it. If that's changed or modified in any way, an adjustment made to the Scene, a material or physics parameter for example, the cache will cease to be relevant and will need to be regenerated for the active session/process to accommodate, include or compensate for those changes - this is also notwithstanding the "F" ("FakeUser") button's being active for various aspect of the project which can result in a 'loss' when not active ('On').

With this in mind I'm not 100% sure you can 'load' cached output the way you're describing, only the properties, settings and options that are saved or loaded with the *.blend itself - more permanent data retention generally means having to 'render' or 'bake' it in some way.

Re: shortcut keys; that could be a bug, there were a few in those early versions.

[ACDmvmkr]

I used the BAKE button. Is there another way I should do it to get that Permanency you mention?

Otherwise it sounds like I must completely freeze everything, and not ever save or disturb anything once I do the animation.
I used to be able to do limited changes in 249, to anything not involving the item physically animated.....and if anything I did eliminated the files, I could re-copy my backups into the original directory and they would usually run. It seemed a bit more durable there.

The program crash also occurs when I attempt to use the dopesheet's click-on menu as well. Does the bug include the click-choice menu too?

thx.

[kat]

Hmm, post a screenshot of what you're looking at. Other than that, yes, cached data is temporary so tends to require rebuilding when things change. Not entirely sure how physics simulation data is made real by itself as it's usually used as part of something else, i.e. simulating cloth, the effect then being rendered out as a series of images or 'frozen' to deform a mesh in a given way for export.

As for the bug, yes that could be also an issue, especially where you've working with data originally produced in 2.49 or other older build... sometimes doing that brings data in that doesn't appear to be wholly compatible with the new changes present in Blender, so a crash is the result. With that said physics based stuff is notoriously resource hungry so you could be crashing as a result of that.