Sometimes it is necessary to exclude a scene element from a simulation temporarily. This is often the case with helper objects, emitters, or daemons. RealFlow provides an one-click method for changing between different simulation states. Of course, these state can be animated and this way it is possible to activate a node at any time during simulation.
The Rocket Icon
- A node's simulation state is represented by a rocket icon. This icon can be found in the icon bar, but also in the “Nodes” panel, where every entry has its own rocket symbol.
- Click on the icon to switch between “Active” (green), “Inactive” (red), and “Cache” (yellow).
- “Cache” requires an already existing simulation. When enabled RealFlow will read the simulated data from disk. → Cached nodes are able to influence other active nodes/particles, but they cannot be influenced themselves.
- Multi-node selections are allowed and you can change the state of several nodes at once.
The “Simulation” Parameter
- This parameter is located here: Node Params > Node > Simulation
- “Simulation” represents the states of the rocket icon: when the rocket is red “Simulation” will be set to “Inactive”, for example.
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