* Massive reorganization of pointcache code, things are now cleaner than ever.
* For all but smoke the cache is first written to memory when using disk cache and after that written to disk in one operation. This allows less disk operations and the possibility to compress the data before writing it to disk.
* Previously only smoke cache could be compressed, now the same options exist for other physics types too (when using disk cache). For now the default compression option is still "no compression", but if there aren't any problems this can be set to "light compression" as it's actually faster than no compression in most cases since there's less data to write to the disk. Based on quick tests heavy compression can reduce the file size down to 1/3rd of the original size, but is really slow compared to other options, so it should be used only if file size is critical!
* The pointcache code wasn't really 64bit compatible (for disk cache) until now, so this update should fix some crashes on 64bit builds too. Now all integer data that's saved to disk uses 32 bit unsigned integers, so simulations done on 64bit should load fine on 32bit machines and vice versa. (Important disk cache simulations made on 64bit builds should be converted to memory cache in a revision before this commit).
* There are also the beginnings of extradata handling code in pointcache in anticipation of adding the dynamic springs for particle fluids (the springs need to be stored as extradata into point cache).
* Particles were being read from the cache with a slightly wrong framerate. In most cases this probably wasn't noticeable, but none the less the code is now correct in every way.
* Small other fixes here and there & some cosmetic changes to cache panel, but over all there should be no functional changes other than the new disk cache compression options.
* This whole re-organization also seems to fix bug #25436 and hopefully shouldn't introduce any new ones!
* Pointcache code was quite ugly looking and complicated, so here are mostly just cosmetic adjustments, but some improved logic also.
* Slight cleanup of pointcache ui too.
* Shouldn't have any functional changes what so ever, so poke me right away if something seems off.
* Depsgraph wasn't updated properly for smoke flow collision object dependencies.
* Smoke also wasn't properly using the actual emission frame of the flow particles.
* There was a lot of bloated logic in some parts of particle code so this fix turned into a small scale cleanup operation.
** As a result particle updating and cache usage should be a bit more stable too.
* Separate caches were causing quite a lot of problems both in principle and practice.
* For example it doesn't really make sense to have different frame ranges for normal and high resolution smoke, but this was fully possible before.
* Also to fully bake the smoke you had to do a "Bake All Dynamics", which completely defeats the whole point of the feature!
* As a result of this change the smoke cache usage is much much simpler and less error prone.
* This is quite a big change, but hopefully there should be less rather than more problems as a result :)
Some other related changes:
* Changing the cache name now works for disk caches properly too, it now just renames the cache files so should be faster too!
* Smoke is now always forced to disk cache with step 1 on file load as there were some strange cases where smoke was trying to use memory cache.
* Disabled smoke debug prints from console.
* Disabled changing smoke parameters when smoke is baked.
Note to users: The unfortunate side effect of this is that old high resolution simulations have to be baked again, but in return you get much better and more logical functionality. Sorry none the less!
- removed deprecated bitmap arg from IMB_allocImBuf (plugins will need updating).
- mostly tagged UNUSED() since some of these functions look like they may need to have the arguments used later.
* The cache was reset almost constantly because smoke didn't save the first frame into cache. Although not necessary for smoke, it's vital to pointcache.
* Added info message to smoke cache panel for non saved files.
* Now smoke also only updates with a framestep of 1, so that scrubbing the timeline doesn't mess up the simulation.
* Among other things fixes report #23731.
[#22310] Duplicate Does Not Propogate SimpleDeform's VGroup
[#22321] duplicating object with smoke settings doesnt duplicate smoke settings
^ Genscher, you may want to check that but I thought it was pretty straightforward.
* Bugfix for missing high res calculation when low res cache was already there
* Bugfix for loading file with smoke but tfor the first "round" of alt-a nothing happened. Now the smoke gets calculated on file load, too.
* Better (and windows enabled) OpenMP handling (> 2x-5x speed)
* More Volumetric Texture mapping options (heat, etc) <-- Matt if that's not to your liking, just revert that part, it's separate anyway
* Initial velocity taken from particle settings (no more slow starting)
* Option to select compression method (there seem to be a bug in my high compression usage, at least it's been reported to result in exploding smoke - better use low compression for the time being)
It's been tested since a while but as usual please report any (new!) bugs. ;-)
* Convert all code to use new functions.
* Branch maintainers may want to skip this commit, and run this
conversion script instead, if they use a lot of math functions
in new code:
http://www.pasteall.org/9052/python
* Fix loading issue of blend files with smoke collision objects (was disabled on purpose since it will be subject of change, but can be solved using do_versions() later)
* Unified scene wide gravity (currently in scene buttons)
instead of each simulation having it's own gravity.
* Weight parameters for all effectors and an effector group
setting.
* Every effector can use noise.
* Most effectors have "shapes" point, plane, surface, every point.
- "Point" is most like the old effectors and uses the
effector location as the effector point.
- "Plane" uses the closest point on effectors local xy-plane
as the effector point.
- "Surface" uses the closest point on an effector object's
surface as the effector point.
- "Every Point" uses every point in a mesh effector object
as an effector point.
- The falloff is calculated from this point, so for example
with "surface" shape and "use only negative z axis" it's
possible to apply force only "inside" the effector object.
* Spherical effector is now renamed as "force" as it's no longer
just spherical.
* New effector parameter "flow", which makes the effector act as
surrounding air velocity, so the resulting force is
proportional to the velocity difference of the point and "air
velocity". For example a wind field with flow=1.0 results in
proper non-accelerating wind.
* New effector fields "turbulence", which creates nice random
flow paths, and "drag", which slows the points down.
* Much improved vortex field.
* Effectors can now effect particle rotation as well as location.
* Use full, or only positive/negative z-axis to apply force
(note. the z-axis is the surface normal in the case of
effector shape "surface")
* New "force field" submenu in add menu, which adds an empty
with the chosen effector (curve object for corve guides).
* Other dynamics should be quite easy to add to the effector
system too if wanted.
* "Unified" doesn't mean that force fields give the exact same results for
particles, softbody & cloth, since their final effect depends on many external
factors, like for example the surface area of the effected faces.
Code changes
* Subversion bump for correct handling of global gravity.
* Separate ui py file for common dynamics stuff.
* Particle settings updating is flushed with it's id through
DAG_id_flush_update(..).
Known issues
* Curve guides don't yet have all ui buttons in place, but they
should work none the less.
* Hair dynamics don't yet respect force fields.
Other changes
* Particle emission defaults now to frames 1-200 with life of 50
frames to fill the whole default timeline.
* Many particles drawing related crashes fixed.
* Sometimes particles didn't update on first frame properly.
* Hair with object/group visualization didn't work properly.
* Memory leaks with PointCacheID lists (Genscher, remember to
free pidlists after use :).
