← All ideas
  • Published 10 Jun 2020

Clear Mantaflow Cache

Mantaflow caches can’t be cleared in the UI and aren’t responding to changes very well; if nothing else helps (like making the cache react to changes) a button that clears the current cache would be useful. In fact it would be nice to have rename/move, clear, copy...

100%

Development Status: Open

Upvote 9 Downvote 0
gogo
10 Jun 2020

5 Comments

dubCUT

This Button commonly referred to as "Reset Simulation" still does not exist in Blender 3.3.1, though i think it's essential when simulating... It should be a safe option that the sim is recalculating after making any changes. Remembering the good old Softimage days, there was even a "Reset at change Value" Option, which is crashy, or "Reset Manually" (the Button)

turing.ross

I quite agree. Don't get me wrong, I think Blender is amazing, but the cache system is, and I think always has been, a completely unintuitive, unreliable mess. A true cache should be an invisible background optimisation system, perhaps with a few performance options and a master reset, not some user control you have to prod and poke every minute to get it working (or more likely, not). The whole concept of "Bake" seems unintuitive, both here and in the other sims, and is one of the many things that puts off new users. Frames in memory? Bake? Cache to Bake? Calculate? Update All? It wouldn't be so bad if it actually worked reliably, but it doesn't. The Rigid Body cache gets screwed up at the drop of a hat if you dare to try animating after a change without baking it first. As for the Mantaflow cache, it drives me mad. Sometimes it works, sometimes it glitches halfway through, sometimes baking works, sometimes the replay does (or gives different results). Oh, and is it me, but the fluid cache status line never shows in the dopesheet - is that still expecting the pre-Mantaflow cache or something? As you say, it generally fails to notice changes in effectors or the domain, so you can spend ages tweaking things wondering why they're not having an effect until you realise the cache has stuck. I've taken to turning the effectors on or off to make sure I know whether the cache has refreshed. I really wish the devs would fix the long-standing cache system bugs, and unify them across all the sims rather than the current cobbled together arrangement, in preference to adding new features, however nice those are. Anyway, rant over, I still think Blender is wonderful, warts and all.

As for a cache reset, one "button" that seems to work for me is the "Is Resumable" checkbox. Unchecking then re-checking that seems to reliably reset the cache, at least for a replay, and likewise when baking an "All" cache. I sometimes keep a small properties panel open pinned on the domain with just that area visible, so I can quickly reset the cache after every change before re-baking or replaying.

I just came across the same issue. If there is no way to impement a one click solution. Ther should at least be a small warning, or description how to delet the cache.

gogo Author

Blender 2.91 was released and there's a BUTTON!

1
clankill3r

* @Georg Bernhard * I am using blender 2.91 but I can't find the button anywhere, where is it?