New Voxel and Particle Tuners
Change each voxel and particle's properties during simulation, and use customizable conditions to delete particles.
thinkingParticles Integration
We’ve added Phoenix operators for thinkingParticles and you can now emit fluid via Phoenix sources from thinkingParticles geometries.
Active Bodies
Float your objects over pools or wash them away in floods with basic rigid body simulation for Phoenix liquids.
Tex UVW
Transport texture coordinates along fluids during simulation and use them for advanced render-time effects.
Standalone Cache Preview tool
Load AUR, VDB and F3D cache files, preview them and save image sequences.
Combined changelog since Phoenix FD 3:
New rigid body solver node, interacting with the Liquid Simulator. No mutual interaction between rigid bodies yet
New TexUVW channel for fire/smoke and liquid simulations, moving with the fluid and allowing for render-time texture mapping of surfaces and volume color and opacity, as well as for adding displaced detail moving with the fluid in all render modes
New Voxel Tuner node allowing to change any grid channel during simulation depending on conditions based on grid channel values, textures or distance to meshes
New Particle Tuner node allowing to change any particle channel or delete particles during simulation depending on conditions based on particle channel values
Phoenix FD Birth, Sample and Force operators for thinkingParticles
New Standalone Previewer tool for AUR, VDB and F3D cache files, much faster than the 3ds Max and Maya viewports and currently showing voxels and a new velocity streamline preview
Simulate the RGB channel for Drag particles
Register the PRT Reader path into the 3ds Max Asset Tracker for repathing, archiving, and asset transfer for distributed rendering with V-Ray Next
New <node>.getFrameInfo MAXScript function that retrieves the currently loaded frame info string
Now Phoenix for V-Ray 3 and for V-Ray Next can load in 3ds Max and simulate without V-Ray installed, and can render with Scanline, Corona, Octane, etc. so Phoenix installers for Scanline are no longer needed
Ship the Visual C++ redistributable with the Phoenix installer and install it silently in the end, if needed
Ability to animate the Phoenix per-node properties
Make the Foam Falling Speed vary depending on the bubble sizes
Apply the Initial Vel. Rand. option not just to newborn Splash, but to splitting splash particles as well
Optimized Birth Volumes
Improve the CPU core usage of the Initial Fill Up phase in FLIP simulation
Represent all drag particles in the scene using the keyword "Drag" in the Clear Channels field and Affect fields of forces
Emit from instanced thinkingParticles meshes when Prt Shape is set to Use Particle Shape
Emit from thinkingParticles meshes which are different per each particle when Prt Shape is set to Use Particle Shape
Read Data Channels from thinkingParticles using the Particle Texture
Optimized rendering of tens or hundreds of Simulators in Volumetric render mode
Renamed 'Fade Out' to 'Border Fade' and changed it from voxels to world units
Speed up and improve CPU utilization for Optimizing Particle Congestion with large cache files
Copy-paste support for render gradients and curves
Sped up Grid RGB channel saving to compressed AUR cache files up to 8 times
Save and load Grid Viscosity from VDBs created by Phoenix
Sped up loading of VDB caches by reading their min-max channel ranges from metadata instead of calculating them
Added cache info to VDB caches describing which version of Phoenix FD was used during simulation
Hidden script option to disable the preset popup when loading Field3D or OpenVDB caches - inDontOfferPresets
Sped up export of PRT files up to 5 times
Allowed use of # in the PRT Reader for specifying sequences just like cache paths in the Simulator work
Option to color the particle preview according not just to Speed, but to Age, Size and Viscosity as well
Better viewport performance with many particle systems in a single Simulator
Don't reset the preview Detail Reduction on loading a new cache sequence in 3ds Max
Option to save images from the classic GPU Preview at the render resolution
Multithreaded the data gathering pre-process of the GPU Preview
GPU Preview for smoke in the Standalone Preview
Added new toolbar icons for the Phoenix nodes
Display the total number of particles in the Cache File Content list in the Simulation rollout
Enabled Motion Velocity in Sources by default for new scenes
Changed Mapper's Initializer option to off by default for new scenes
Renamed "Use Light Cache" to "Volume Light Cache" so it's not confused with V-Ray's Light Cache
Added new toolbar icons for the Phoenix nodes
Renamed aura_ver.h to phoenix_ver.h, and aurinterface.h to phx_cache_interface.h
Removed grid and particle channel defines from phx_cache_interface.h, and renamed GridChannels::ChU/V/W to ChRed/Green/Blue, and ParticleChannels::ChR to ChSize in phx_cache_interface.h
Removed the frameTime2contentTime() member of PhoenixSimInterface. Now only PhoenixFrameDataInterface::frameTime2contentTime() should be used
Dropped support for 3ds Max 2014
Hang during simulation if interacting with geometries with zero-area triangles
Random hang when stopping a fire/smoke simulation affected by a force and starting it again
Some voxels lose velocity and freeze using Massive Vorticity
Exporting Viscosity channel affected the simulation even when the Viscosity was set to 0
Some FLIP particles could have a slightly negative Age when born from Surface Force sources
The FLIP simulation took increasingly longer time and was quick again after restore
Creating Discharge Modifiers or changing their curves did not support undo/redo
Crash with caches over 2.1 billion voxels with Phoenix Light Cache, since Phoenix FD 3.12
Wrong render of a frame different than the current timeline frame with enabled GPU Preview
Crash on render stop with Particle Shader and Liquid simulator using the same geometry as render Cutter and Motion Blur enabled
Crash during distributed rendering with Particle Shader using Backburner, since Phoenix FD 3.14
Reflections of excluded area lights still showed up on a Particle Shader's Bubbles/Splashes
Crash when rendering many overlapped particles, since Phoenix FD 3.14
Memory leak with render elements enabled in Volumetric mode
The Simulator's Velocity Render Element was not rendered in some frames in any of the Mesh modes with Render Cutter
Black triangles near the container border with motion blur in Mesh Mode
Crash with high Ocean Subdivs and Mesh Smoothing with enabled Use Liquid Particles
Mesh mode with a 2D scalar Displacement map rendered with artifacts
Enabling the Underwater Goggles option had no effect since Phoenix FD 3.12
Orthographic viewport did not render Ocean Mesh correctly with Phoenix for Scanline
Simulating the Fire/Smoke Temperature channel to VDB incorrectly showed the minimum data range as 0, instead of 300
Drag particles exported to VDB could not render with motion blur even with exported grid velocity
Differences in velocity length between AUR and VDB caches of the same simulation exported from Phoenix
The Export PRT Particles dialog exported the entire simulation cache range instead of the Timeline range when the Timeline checkbox is enabled
Jittering Preview with Detail reduction and Adaptive grid
Voxels and velocities in the voxel preview of a rotated simulator were not billboarded towards the camera
Simulations with particles sometimes show the frames from the previous run in the viewport
Crash when simulating using a Body Force node without an object, since Phoenix FD 3.13
Modifier-Based Space Warps over a Spline caused the Path Follow force to work incorrectly
Mapper's Initializer option was not working with Liquid simulators
Using a Grid Texture without a Simulator as displacement rendered slower than using a Grid Texture with a Simulator
Grid Texture applied to thinkingParticles did not get updated correctly when rendering a sequence
Crash when selecting a thinkingParticles system with the Particle Texture
Crash when simulating using a Mapper with a Particle Texture, while the same Particle Texture was also used in a material
Fixed differences between 3ds Max and Maya's Phoenix oceans
Displaced Cap Mesh using Ocean Texture was offset from the Simulator box if using offset for the Ocean Texture
Opening a scene containing Phoenix Ocean Texture connected a VRayDisplacementMod prompted for adjusting the settings of the texture
Wrong Mapping of the Foam Texture when the Ocean texture used tiling other than 1.0 in World XYZ with 'Use the original non-displaced vertices'
Crash when simulating with Cascade Simulator enabled but no Simulator chosen
Adding an X-Ref Scene or X-Ref Object broke the Output path of existing Simulators in the current scene if it contained a macro
The message asking for creating a Particle Shader popped up again after disabling Foam/Splash and enabling them again
Merging a Simulator from a scene with different scale changed its grid resolution
Simulation remaining time was wrong after pausing or restoring
Empty grids filled with density using the opacity curve rendered with different density between 3ds Max and exporting to VRscene
Complete changelog since Phoenix FD 3.99.00 Beta:
Ability to animate the Phoenix per-node properties
Set the original objects' visibility of the Active Bodies to Bounding Box
Do not inherit the positions of Active Body originals in the hierarchy, so animated Active Bodies won't move faster than the originals
Represent all drag particles in the scene using the keyword "Drag" in the Clear Channels field and Affect fields of forces
Make the Foam Falling Speed vary depending on the bubble sizes
Improve the CPU core usage of the Initial Fill Up phase in FLIP simulation
Emit TexUVW from emitters with mapped textures, and emit changing TexUVW values over time from Sources
Now the Particle Tuner can affect the particle scalar speed and the separate X/Y/Z components of the particle velocity, as well as the R/G/B components of the particle RGB
Value expression items can now read the particle scalar Speed channel, as well as the Velocity along X, Y and Z
Now the Voxel Tuner can affect the separate X/Y/Z components of the voxel velocity, as well as the R/G/B components of the voxel RGB
Renamed 'Fade Out' to 'Border Fade' and changed it from voxels to world units
Ship the Visual C++ redistributable with the Phoenix installer and install it silently in the end, if needed
Read Data Channels from thinkingParticles using the Particle Texture
Option to color the particle preview according not just to Speed, but to Age, Size and Viscosity as well
Better viewport performance with many particle systems in a single Simulator
Option to save images from the classic GPU Preview at the render resolution
Multithreaded the data gathering pre-process of the GPU Preview
GPU Preview for smoke in the Standalone Preview
Option to change the background color
Display the total number of particles in the Cache File Content list in the Simulation rollout
Renamed Active Bodies Solver "Auto-create dummies" option to "Auto-Create Center of Mass Gizmo"
Added new toolbar icons for the Phoenix nodes
Renamed aurinterface.h to phx_cache_interface.h
Renamed GridChannels::ChU/V/W to ChRed/Green/Blue, and ParticleChannels::ChR to ChSize in phx_cache_interface.h
Removed the frameTime2contentTime() member of PhoenixSimInterface. Now only PhoenixFrameDataInterface::frameTime2contentTime() should be used
Some installations of Phoenix could not load in 3ds Max
Exporting Viscosity channel affected the simulation even when the Viscosity was set to 0
Some FLIP particles could have a slightly negative Age when born from Surface Force sources
The FLIP simulation took increasingly longer time and was quick again after restore
Active Bodies could not work in Include list mode of the Simulator
'Create Center of Mass' button worked on any type of nodes, including the Active Body solver itself or the already created centers of mass
Active Bodies with Ground Elasticity set to 1 were accelerating during rotation
Friction with the Fluid parameter causes unstable behavior of Active Bodies
Active Bodies were not moving correctly with Phoenix simulator linked to an animated object
Active Bodies affected the Phoenix simulation even when disabled from the Dynamics roll-out
Wrong render of a frame different than the current timeline frame with enabled GPU Preview
Crash during distributed rendering with Particle Shader using Backburner, since Phoenix FD 3.14
Crash on render stop with Particle Shader and Liquid simulator using the same geometry as render Cutter and Motion Blur enabled
Crash when rendering many overlapped particles, since Phoenix FD 3.14
Memory leak with render elements enabled in Volumetric mode
Possible crash when Tex UVW Interpolation Step is set to 0
Crash if switching a Value expression to Distance To during simulation
Texture maps created from the Expression Edit window were not immediately shown in the Material Editor if it was already open
Clicking the navigation button that should select the second expression item child, selected the first one instead
The voxel tuner could not affect the scalar Speed using the Buildup Time option
Black triangles near the container border with motion blur in Mesh Mode
Crash with high Ocean Subdivs and Mesh Smoothing with enabled Use Liquid Particles
TP Force Operator with Affect Orientation enabled scaled particles incorrectly
Crash when creating Thinking Particles using Phoenix Birth operator referencing an empty particle system
Using a Grid Texture without a Simulator as displacement rendered slower than using a Grid Texture with a Simulator
Crash when selecting a thinkingParticles system with the Particle Texture
Fixed differences between 3ds Max and Maya's Phoenix oceans
Displaced Cap Mesh using Ocean Texture was offset from the Simulator box if using offset for the Ocean Texture
Opening a scene containing Phoenix Ocean Texture connected a VRayDisplacementMod prompted for adjusting the settings of the texture
Changing the Timeline frame did reset the Flip YZ orientation of the cache
Vector velocity preview was not correctly billboarded
Voxels and velocities in the voxel preview of a rotated simulator were not billboarded towards the camera
Simulations with particles sometimes show the frames from the previous run in the viewport
Differences in velocity length between AUR and VDB caches of the same simulation exported from Phoenix
The Export PRT Particles dialog exported the entire simulation cache range instead of the Timeline range when the Timeline checkbox is enabled
The message asking for creating a Particle Shader popped up again after disabling Foam/Splash and enabling them again
Merging a Simulator from a scene with different scale changed its grid resolution
Simulation remaining time was wrong after pausing or restoring