The “Input/Output Settings” are closely connected to RealFlow's → “Export Central” dialogue, and this is the place where you specify which simulation nodes you want to save, and where. “Retime Simulation” reads these files (the so-called cache files) and uses the contained information. As a simple rule we can say:”No cache files, no retiming!”. These are the layout elements:
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Filter (A)
The “Filter” field allows you to work with wildcards to display only certain nodes. RealFlow's wildcard filter is not case sensitive – you can use small case and capitals for your search. An example:
- If you want to display only node names starting with “Sphere”, you can enter “Sphere*”.
- If the name only includes “sphere” at unspecific positions, then you can search for “*sphere*.
- The "?" wildcard is used to replace only a single character.
- With this symbol it is possible to substitute a single character when you want to search for all nodes with a common prefix, e.g. “Cube1?”
- This operation will display “Cube10”, “Cube11” and so on, but not “Cube20”, “Cube100” etc.
Export Tree (B)
This is a list with the scene's simulation nodes and its available export formats. By default, “Retime Simulation” will consider all nodes, but it is possible to exclude certain elements:
- Exclude or include a scene node by disabling/enabling its checkbox.
- For included nodes make sure that at least one export resource is active, e.g. “Particle cache (.bin)” for SPH-PBF emitters, or “Particles cache (.rpc)” for Hybrido fluids.
- In some cases you also get warnings, for example when a resource does not exist.
In scenes with objects you have to be careful, because there are two fundamental ways to save the information:
- The entire information for all objects is saved in a single file, called “animation.sd”.
- The information is saved individually for each object in separate files. These files wear the object's name plus an extension, e.g. Cube01.sd or Torus02.abc
- Both methods can coexist.
- As long as the global “animation.sd” file exists – which is the case by default – you do not have to worry, and you can create object-specific retimed files as well by enabling the appropriate resource here in the “Input/Output Settings”.
Output Preferences (C)
In the tab's lower section there are options for customizing the output files:
Alternative location
Lets you specify a folder outside the project's home directory.
Subfolder
This field is used to create a folder (here: retimed) under the export resource's directory, e.g. particles/retimed or objects/retimed.
File prefix
A text string that is added to the file name's beginning.
File suffix
A text string that is added to the file name's ending.