Syntax:

use_saved_geometry = <scalar>;

Range

0 (false) to not 0 (TRUE)

Option

-G# Turn saved geometry on (non-zero ‘#’) or off(0).

Default:

FALSE

Purpose

Saved geometry is useful for animations with complicated geometries that take a long time to subdivide, such as trimmed surfaces, displacement mapped geometry, or anything with a high subdivision. If use_saved_geometry is TRUE, these surfaces are tesselated (subdivided into triangles) only once, and then these triangles will be kept in memory and re-used next frame. Since the triangles are saved, animation of some surface properties necessarily disallows the saving of geometry. Metamorphosis is a prime example; since the geometry changes from frame to frame, there is no point storing the geometry from frame to frame. (See below for a complete list of operations that will invalidate saved geometry.)

Saved geometry will NOT be applied on:

• objects that have metamorphosis
• objects that have subdivision levels which are not literal
• objects with curvature shaders on them

You MAY save geometry for an object with a displacement map shader on it, however, if the user animates the displacement map, the saved geometry will not change, and neither will the appearance of the object in the image.

You cannot stop and start a render process that uses Saved Geometry and retain the saved geometry.

Saved Geometry uses a significant amount of memory. You should have at least 100 megabytes of swap space available before attempting to use it.