--- title: "Input" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/PHX4MAYA/125995816/Input" format: markdown --- ## **Overview** --- The Input rollout determines the path of the input cache files for rendering and previewing, as well as provides controls for playback effects. Note that some playback settings require a fractional input frame, in which case, the frame is blended between the previous and the next one. > Macro (ui-text-box) > > To set up rendering and simulation cache paths manually, see [Changing the Default Phoenix Paths](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/126028463/Tips+and+Tricks#SimPaths) in the Tips and Tricks page. > Macro (ui-text-box) > > UI Path: ||Select [PhoenixFDSim](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125895496)|| **> Attribute Editor > Input rollout** ## **Parameters** --- ![image](media://a356ba98-9085-44f6-9752-15dbb7ab6f98) **Cached Frames** – Shows information about the cached frame range. ** **> Macro (anchor) **Preview and Render Path **|* inPath, inPathResolved* – This is the path to the cache sequence to shown in the preview and rendered. The default is **$(same_as_output)**, meaning the preview and render would show the caches created by the simulation, reading them from the path specified in the [Output rollout](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/126029700). Use the button to select the path or type it manually. Phoenix has some keywords that can be used for more flexibility: > Macro (rw-ui-expands-macro) > > > Macro (rw-expand) > > **$(same_as_output)** – Uses the [output path](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/126029700/Output#CachePath) as input. The [resimulation output path](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125866496/Resimulation#ResimulationCache) will get used if the **Resimulate** option is enabled in the [Resimulation rollout](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125866496). > **$(same_as_output)[nodeName]** – Use the output path of "nodeName" as input. > **$(simoutput)** – Same as $(same_as_output). > > **$(same_as_resimoutput)** – Uses the [resimulation output path](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125866496/Resimulation#ResimulationCache) as input. > **$(same_as_resimoutput)[nodeName] **– Uses the output path of "nodeName" as input. > **$(resimoutput)** – Same as $(same_as_resimoutput). > > **$(work_path) **– $(data_dir)/$(scene)_Phoenix_frames/$(nodename)_####.aur > **$(data_path)** – $(data_dir)/$(scene)_Phoenix2_frames/$(nodename)_####.aur > **$(scene_path)** – $(dir)/$(scene)_Phoenix_frames/$(nodename)_####.aur > **$(scene_dir)** – $(dir)/$(scene)_Phoenix2_frames/$(nodename)_####.aur > **$(implicit)** – Same as $(data_path). > **$(dir)** – The scene directory. > **$(data_dir)** – The current workspace data directory. > **$(scene)** – The scene file name. > **$(nodename)** – The name of the node. > **$(fullname)** – The full name of the node. > **$(workspace)** – The current workspace directory. > **$env(******)** – An environment variable. See [Using Environment Variables](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/126029700/Output#environmentVariables). > > If you are transferring your scene and assets between Windows and Linux, prefixing your path with the **$(workspace)** or **$env(******)** macros can make it possible to use the same scene without any manual modifications to the cache path. > > Pound signs can be used to specify the cache frame number with at least as many digits as the pound signs. If the number of frame digits is less than the number of pound signs, the number is padded with zeroes to the left. For example: > > > > Macro (iframe) > Macro (rw-ui-expands-macro) > > > Macro (rw-expand) > > > Macro (legacy-content) > Macro (rw-ui-expands-macro) > > > Macro (rw-expand) > > > Macro (legacy-content) ### > Macro (anchor) Grid Channel Smoothing --- > Macro (ui-text-box) > > Grid Smoothing is performed after the cache file is loaded for the current frame, so for large grids it could cause significant lag after changing frames. To prevent this from occurring, switch it off during the design process and re-enable it again before rendering. The controls in this section allow you to smooth the grid channels loaded from cache files for preview and rendering. You can use this to prevent grid artifacts on meshed grid channels such as the Smoke or Temperature surface, to remove unwanted noise in these channels, or to get smooth motion blur by smoothing the Velocity grid channel. ![image](media://76af9aec-2175-45ab-adc0-ab0cd8833519) **Threshold** | *inSmoothTemp[0], inSmoothSmoke[0], inSmoothUVW[0], inSmoothFuel[0], inSmoothVel[0]* – If this value is 0, the entire grid will be smoothed evenly. The higher the threshold is raised, the less voxels will be affected and only the sharpest gradients will be smoothed. The highest value you could use here depends on the [range of the values of the smoothed channel](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125895763) - for **Smoke** and **Liquid** it's usually in the [0,1] range, while for **Velocity** it could go as high as several hundred and for **Temperature** it could be over a thousand. If you set this value too high, no voxels will be smoothed at all. **Similarity **|** *****inSmoothTemp[1], inSmoothSmoke[1], inSmoothUVW[1], inSmoothFuel[1], inSmoothVel[1]***** **–  Increasing this value will allow you to smooth only the finer small-scale noise without changing the areas of the fluid which are already smooth. Note that just like the **Threshold** option, this value also depends on the [range of the selected channel](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125895763). If you want to remove only some sharp fine disturbances from the simulation without blurring other areas, set the Threshold to 0, increase the Similarity to the highest values the selected channel can take and then start reducing it until the small-scale noise is removed, while the larger fluid shapes are retained. This option won't take effect if the **Threshold** parameter is raised to the maximum.  **Random Variation **|** *****inSmoothTemp[2], inSmoothSmoke[2], inSmoothUVW[2], inSmoothFuel[2], inSmoothVel[2]***** **– This parameter introduces noise of uniform scale in the channel before smoothing is applied. This can be useful if you want to give the fluid a more homogeneous pattern and this way it can also help hide grid artifacts. Note that just like the **Threshold** option, this value also depends on the [range of the selected channel](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125895763). You can use this option to only add noise to the channel without smoothing it - in order to do this, set both **Threshold** and **Similarity** to the highest values of the selected channel and this way they will not take effect. **Enable** | *inSmoothTempEnbl, inSmoothSmokeEnbl, inSmoothUVWEnbl, inSmoothFuelEnbl, inSmoothVelEnbl* – This checkbox enables frame smoothing for the specified input channel. ## **3rd Party Channels Mapping** --- Different applications use different channels and might have different names for them. When loading f3d/vdb files, Phoenix tries to automatically make the conversion to the supported channels. If a channel is not mapped by default, a channel can be manually set from the drop-down menu.