Inputs

Color

Here you can link a node chain’s output that is beset with complex calculations. This result will be cached and only has to be calculated once at the beginning of the rendering. All subsequent samples can be taken from this saved structure. The complex new calculation of the linked node will not be required. Note, however, that this method can only ba used to calculate nodes that do not need sampling, i.e., only 2D data. Effects such as with Fresnel calculation that rely on the angle of view of the camera or created via sampling (e.g., Ambient Occlusion or Subsurface Scattering) can not be calculated correctly using the Cache node.

Width [1..8192]
Height [1..8192]

These settings are used to define the resolution for the input Color structure. A higher resolution will produce correspondingly more details from the sdneing node will be taken into consideration. However, this calculation must only be done once, for the first sample, for this material. For larger render resolutions the longer render times will therefore be quickly relativized for the node.

Interpolation

When pre-calculating the Cache node, colors must be interpolated since the resolution’s Width and Height differ as a rule from the native resolution of the node calculations at the Color input. Two different methods for interpolating colors are available:

• Nearest: The color of the baked pixels depends exclusively on the color of the nearest texels from the input Color structure. This calculation is done very fast but can also lead to color jumps and stepping in the baked texture.
• Bilinear: This calculation produces soft transitions in the baked texture since not only the color of the nearest texels (see Interpolation Nearest) is used but also all colors in the U and V directions of neighboring texels.