looks like im not going to find a satisfactory answer, based on the time node in mash only really working to its fullest potential when you are outputting a mesh (not instances)
however, im stuck
trying to do a simple crowd, have a walk-cycle sequence saved out as a 1000 frame proxy (there is visible breath in the cold, so it needs to be that long)
seems like mash won't load the random cycled proxy frames when outputting to instances... a very major oversight imo!
so what would people suggest as a solution, in the next 30 minutes before i am supposed to hit render!
the breath is an embedded open vdb sequence, which loops over 500 or so frames...
the only way i can imagine is loading multiple instances, with random offsets in their time control locally, then using ID cycling to instance them into the crowd?
