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This page provides information on the Phoenix FD Standalone Previewer tool.

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The Standalone Previewer tool is intended as a supplement to Chaos Phoenix, allowing you to preview *.aur, *.vdb, *.f3d and *.prt cache files without loading them into a DCC application such as 3ds Max or Maya.

The Previewer also has the ability to save a sequence of images for the voxel and GPU preview of an entire cache sequence. 

Note that Mesh Preview mode is not supported yet.

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For information on utilizing the command line interface of the tool visit Standalone Previewer CLI.

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The Standalone Previewer requires a Phoenix FD GUI license.

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Default Paths:

  • Windows: C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\Phoenix FD\Maya 20xx for x64\bin\phoenix_previewer.exe
  • Linux: /usr/ChaosGroup/Phoenix FD/Maya 20xx-x64/bin/phoenix_previewer
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Open New Sequence – Loads a new cache file or sequence of files for preview.

Timeline – Changes the current frame of the cached sequence.

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The Standalone Previewer allows copying the full path to the loaded cache or just the file name by right-clicking over the cache path.

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Detail Reduction – Decreases the grid and particle detail in the preview. A value of 0 means no reduction. Increase this value if the interface starts to lag due to the simulation being very large.

Auto Reduction – Enables automatic adjustment of the Detail Reduction parameter to improve display performance. The preview detail will be reduced up to a point where the preview will display fast without blocking the interface. Note that the detail will only decrease automatically, but will not increase. This option works only for the Voxel and Particle previews.

Show Box – When enabled, displays the bounding box of the cache file in the Viewport.

Graph Cells – When enabled and Show Box is enabled, displays a lattice with the cell sizes on the sides of the cache's box.

 

Reset Camera – Resets the position of the Viewport camera to default.

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Camera Controls:

  • Left Mouse Click + Drag for Camera Rotation.
  • Middle Mouse Click + Drag for Camera Pan.
  • Mouse Wheel for Camera Zoom.
  • Hold Left Alt + Left Mouse Click + Drag for Smoother Zoom.

Orthographic Projection - When enabled, the Preview is in Orthographic Mode. If this option is disabled, the Preview is in Perspective Mode.

Camera Near Clip Distance – When the camera goes inside the cache box, it might skip some of the GPU Preview information at the moment it crosses the grid border, so in this case you can reduce this option.


Background Color – Allows you to change the color of the viewport window's background. This will also be the background color for images saved by the Voxel or GPU Preview.

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Draw Just a Slice – When enabled, only a voxel-thick cross-section of the grid becomes visible. This allows for a better view of occluded details and can help when previewing very rich data such as velocity fields.

Slice Level – Specifies the offset of the slice from the grid origin, in voxels.

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Previewing Particle Displacement from Texture Maps is not currently supported.

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