I have tried all new 18.5 explosions in the content library. Ubuntu 20.10 with 18.5.351 build.
I go into the TOP. make sure that the caching and rendering tops cover frame range. Most of them seem to incorrectly only execute one frame. Then I run the output top. Tops seem to run. Dots show on cachin and rendering node. Render kicks in and then everything just dies after 10-20 frames. I don’t see any errors. Nothing just stops working. This is on Apprentice edition.

Hi Luke! Is it the same behaviour with all explosions in the CL?
Are the first 10-20 frame caches/renders seem ok?
What if you run the top cooking node by node?
Have you tried to cache the explosion through sops?

Hi Ati. If I cache the explosions directly in the sops and then render using normal mantra node then yes no problems. I haven't tried cooking top nodes first in TOPS. Yes so far this behaviour is seen in 3 out of the 3 explosions from content library when I use tops.

I just looked into the Side Explosion for example. It looks like the All Frames in One Batch is not enabled on the sim_side_explosion top node's ROP Fetch tab. When this is off, each work item will run a separate/individual sim, which I suspect could cause reaching the memory limit of your machine very quickly.

So, please try that scene file with only enabling that checkbox and let me know if it worked.

We will update this and possible other scene files asap.

Ah yes. Changing this seems to correct the issues.