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Overview ¶
In Houdini, cooking refers to evaluating the nodes in the networks to compute the state of the scene in the current frame. Whenever you wire in a new node or change a parameter, Houdini re-evaluates the networks to compute the new outputs.
For many scenes, this is very fast, but for extremely large scenes or complex simulations, the time to cook a frame can be quite noticeable, disrupting the flow of interactive changes. In this case, you may want to set Houdini to not update interactively.
Debugging slow cooks ¶
Use the Performance Monitor to record and view cook timings to help track down and optimize problematic nodes.
Cooking controls ¶
For long cooks, Houdini prints updates and time estimates in the status line at the bottom of the main window. You can press ⎋ Esc to cancel the current cook. This is often useful when a simulation frame is taking too long, or you accidentally typed an insane value into a parameter.
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Cancel cooking the current frame |
Press ⎋ Esc. |
The bottom right corner of the main window has options for controlling cooking.
Simulation menu
Click this button to temporarily turn simulation off.
click this icon to get a menu of simulation-related items.
Create New Simulation
Creates a new DOP network subnet at the object level and sets it as the “current” simulation.
Enable Simulation
Turns the cooking of simulation networks on/off. This is the same as clicking the simulation icon.
Current Simulation
Choose the “current” simulation network from a submenu. The shelf tools will modify this network.
Reset Simulation
Re-cooks the simulations shown in the view, if necessary.
Force Update
When the update menu is set to Manual, click Force Update to cause the networks to cook and update the view.
Update menu
Specifies when parameter changes will cause the networks to recook and update the view.
Normally, Houdini dynamically updates as you change parameters. For example, you can see the scene change as you drag a slider. For extremely complex scenes, this can be slow, and you may want to change how often Houdini cooks.
The On Mouse Up or Manual options can be useful when you are working with a complex scene that takes a long time to update after a change.
Auto Update
Recook and update the view continuously as you change values, move sliders, etc.
On Mouse Up
Recook and update the view only after each discrete parameter change. For example, only update when you release a slider.
Manual
Only recook and update the view when you explicitly click the Force Update button.