Blender School: Titbits

Blender 5.2 is coming with a really important new feature: Texture Caching.

 Christopher3D provides a concise explanation clarifying that using the texture cache feature incurs a small performance cost due to additional calculations, but it's worth it for the massive efficiency gains.

How to Use the Texture Cache

1. Navigate to the Render Properties tab.
2. Scroll down to the Performance panel.
3. Enable Texture Cache and select Auto-Generate. 

When enabled, Blender automatically generates optimised .tx (tiled and mipmapped) files in a blender_tx/ folder next to your original images. These are regenerated from the source image whenever changes are made. 

Key Features and Options

• On-Demand Loading: Cycles only loads the precise texture tiles and resolutions needed for a given render bucket/tile. 
• Cache Eviction: An optional cache eviction mechanism unloads old, unnecessary textures from memory during rendering, significantly reducing peak RAM and VRAM usage. 
• Simplify Panel: In addition to existing Texture Limits, the Simplify panel includes a Texture Resolution percentage (e.g., 50% or 25%) to further limit the max resolution.

Surface Blend

I looked at blending object materials with ground textures a few weeks ago. This free addon handles the work rather nicely.

https://superhivemarket.com/products/surface-blend

Camera Rigging with CableCam, the cinematic camera rig for Blender.

To add a camera, open the N-tab and Import Cablecam.

A cable camera is installed on a rig that usually hangs on a cable, like a tiny cable car. The camera can then follow a path through the air and can turn and gimble while it travels down the cable.

The rig consists of the following components:

CableCambase:  A spring-loaded base from which the rest of the rig hangs off the cable. The Cablecambase comes with Child of and Clamp to constraints.

Librahead: A three-part carrier that holds the camera and provides an axis for movement: Pan left or right, Tilt up or down and a ring axis that allows limited roll.

Camera: By default, a Red Epic Camera.

Create/Connect cable

Use this tool to reset the camera to the origin with an included path. You can then edit the path in your scene. Once you set a keyframe, you can then move the CableCambase along the path.