Help Needed - Unable to Turn Off "Simulating Particles" Calculations in Animation Sequence

FractalDimensia

I am attempting to create an animation sequence that contains 5 helicopters each carrying 8 missiles. Attached to each missile is a particle emitter that will be used later in the simulation. So there are 5 x 8 = 40 particle emitters in the scene.

While rendering frames in the first 12 minutes of the sequence (test renders and in Render room), Carrara goes into the "Simulating Particles" calculations, which take approximately 3-4 minutes each time. The problem is that the particle emitters are not turned on during this time.

Here is what I have attempted to do to solve this problem, but with no effect:
1) I made all of the particle emitters invisible.
2) I set the particle display to "None" for all particle emitters.
3) I checked "No calculation in 3D View" for all particle emitters.
4) I unchecked the "Emitter ON Now" in the modeller room for all particle emitters.
5) I made sure the Start Time is after the timeframe I am working with for all particle emitters.

See the attached screenshots.

Am I missing an option/button/setting that will stop Carrara from simulating particle activity?

(I would hate to have to delete the particle emitters and then add them back in later if I can at all possible not do this!)

Thanks for your help!
FD

tbwoq

The 'Emitter ON now' unchecked/checked writes a keyframe. So there might be a keyframe hiding somewhere that is turning that back on. Which "Start Time" are you referencing in number 5,...timeline keyframe range, Generate particles before start time, or Emission time range From/To(etc.).

FractalDimensia

tbwoq said:

The 'Emitter ON now' unchecked/checked writes a keyframe. So there might be a keyframe hiding somewhere that is turning that back on. Which "Start Time" are you referencing in number 5,...timeline keyframe range, Generate particles before start time, or Emission time range From/To(etc.).

Thanks for your thoughts, tbwoq.

I checked again to make sure no keyframes exist for the emitters for the first 12 minutes. See screenshot below. The emitters remain unchecked through the entire first 12 minutes. I also checked under the "Master Objects" section of the sequencer.

The "start time" was the "Emission time range:" / "From" setting, which is well beyond the time range I am currently studying.

evilproducer

12 minutes or twelve seconds?!? :gulp:

I see from the screen shot that it is indeed twelve minutes! I think that is your first mistake, without trying to be to blunt or impolite about it.

I have yet to see a film- even an older film with a twelve minute shot, unless it were some artsy-fartsy shot in an experimental film. Break it up a bit. Even if the whole scene is twelve minutes for continuity of action, break it down into segments with different camera angles and save each one as it's own iteration, then you can delete the emitters from all the scenes where they're not needed.

I'm kind of wondering if the time frame in the emitter that you posted isn't in seconds and frames? So maybe 12 seconds and 8 frames?

tbwoq

I'm using C8.1Pro and particles start and stop OK using the 'Emitter On now' as well as the emission time range. Maybe try to remove unused masters(etc.) or copy the scene file and try removing objetcs in the duplicate for testing. If a new scene with one particle emitter does the same thing, then I would guess it is a bug.

Edit to add: might also check in the sequencer graph editor to see if the emitters have other values/settings there.

FractalDimensia

evilproducer said:

I'm kind of wondering if the time frame in the emitter that you posted isn't in seconds and frames? So maybe 12 seconds and 8 frames?

I believe that I misinterpreted the ":xx:yy:zz" to be hours/minutes/seconds, and I think now it is minutes/seconds/frames. So I changed the From and To values to be +12 minutes and +13 minutes.

I got the same results - Carrara still is attempting to calculate particle animation.

FractalDimensia

tbwoq said:

I'm using C8.1Pro and particles start and stop OK using the 'Emitter On now' as well as the emission time range. Maybe try to remove unused masters(etc.) or copy the scene file and try removing objetcs in the duplicate for testing. If a new scene with one particle emitter does the same thing, then I would guess it is a bug.

Edit to add: might also check in the sequencer graph editor to see if the emitters have other values/settings there.

Thanks again.

I was able to reproduce this "effect" by:
- creating a new scene
- loaded an emitter
- loaded a replicator
- added the emitter to create 10x10 emitters
- turn the emitter off (using the 5 options shown above)
- advancing the scrubber to various times
- do test renders

I can assume now this is a special Carrara "feature" and that I'll need to come up with a work-around to the situation.

tbwoq

I tried different ways including the above steps and could not reproduce the issue. If the particle simulation is starting before the particles are set to show in animation, I would say this is major bug. Hopefully others with C8.5 can confirm or give more info using those steps.

FractalDimensia

tbwoq said:

I tried different ways including the above steps and could not reproduce the issue. If the particle simulation is starting before the particles are set to show in animation, I would say this is major bug. Hopefully others with C8.5 can confirm or give more info using those steps.

When I get a chance, I'll send DAZ a bug report and upload the scene I was using to produce the problem. I don't know how often I will be creating long animations with lots of emitters, but it is a major annoyance. =/

Thanks.

Fenric

I noticed you left the "Particles displayed in 3dView" slider at the default of 49%

Try setting that to zero.

DUDU

If that can help you (but not solve this bug), you make “esc” when it starts to calculate, but you cannot do made quick render…

DUDU

FractalDimensia said:

While rendering frames in the first 12 minutes of the sequence (test renders and in Render room), Carrara goes into the "Simulating Particles" calculations, which take approximately 3-4 minutes each time. The problem is that the particle emitters are not turned on during this time.

FD

I have C8 and this option is only for the assemble room...

FractalDimensia

Fenric said:

I noticed you left the "Particles displayed in 3dView" slider at the default of 49%

Try setting that to zero.

Thanks, Fenric, for the suggestion. I set all 40 emitters' "Particles displayed in 3dView" to zero.... Same result. It took 3 minutes to simulate particles for a test render... (Screenshot below)

I guess chasing some solutions only leads one up blind alleys. :smirk:

FractalDimensia

DUDU_00001 said:

If that can help you (but not solve this bug), you make “esc” when it starts to calculate, but you cannot do made quick render…

Oui. Merci.

It would be great to have a single toggle/checkbox that would tell Carrara to just ignore all particle emitter settings. It's either non-existent or illusive.

tbwoq

FractalDimensia said:

tbwoq said:

I tried different ways including the above steps and could not reproduce the issue. If the particle simulation is starting before the particles are set to show in animation, I would say this is major bug. Hopefully others with C8.5 can confirm or give more info using those steps.

When I get a chance, I'll send DAZ a bug report and upload the scene I was using to produce the problem. I don't know how often I will be creating long animations with lots of emitters, but it is a major annoyance. =/

Thanks.

Glad to help. Hope to see the animation when its done. :)

I read one other 8.5 particle emitter issue/bug topic, and that user reverted back to 8.0 to make it work again.