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Most simulations require long time to calculate and it's very convenient to let them run during the night. However, you still have to render the result in the morning and this also consumes a lot of time. The Phoenix FD scripting system allows you to execute any action at the end of the simulation, and that includes the rendering as well. You just have to enable the scripting from the Simulation rollout and open the script text. For more information, see the Nightly Simulation and Rendering section on the Tips and Tricks page.

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UI Path: ||Select Fire Smoke Simulator | FireSmokeSim|| > Modify panel > Simulation rollout

 

Actions

 

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Start, Pause, Stop, Resume | A_StartSim, A_StopSim – Starts, pauses and stops the simulation. Once the simulation has been paused, the option to Resume becomes available. Note that you can stop a running simulation using the Shift+Escape key combination, or with the Escape key, if the option to do so is enabled in the PhoenixFD Global Preferences.

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Restore Restore

Restore | A_StartSim – Continues a simulation from the currently viewed frame on the timeline. This way a Phoenix simulation that has been stopped previously can be resumed from the point you left off, even after the software was closed and re-opened.

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Restoring does not work for cache sequences imported from 3rd party software. It is only possible when the full internal state of a Phoenix simulation is exported (controlled by the Backup Interval parameter in the Output rollout). Frames with the full state are called Backup frames. When a Backup frame is currently viewed, the text "Can Restore From Here" appears in the Cache File Content list. The Restore command finds the latest Backup frame up to the current timeline frame and continues the simulation from there.

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Simulation Presets... | A_LoadRenderPreset – Displays a drop-down menu to either load or save .tpr or .slog files, which hold settings for this simulation.

 

Parameters

 

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StartFrame StartFrame

Start Frame | startframe – Explicitly sets the Start frame of the Simulation. This can also be a negative number. Only available when Timeline (Start Frame) is disabled.

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Render On Each Sim Frame | rend_sim_frame – During simulation, after each new frame is simulated, this option will start a render with your currently assigned production renderer and with the render settings you have dialed in your Render Setup 3ds Max dialog. You need to have set a Render Output File in the 3ds Max Render Settings in advance. Phoenix will automatically append the frame number to the file name. You can use Render On Each Sim Frame when you leave a long simulation overnight, so you will have a ready rendered sequence when you come back to check on it, even if the entire simulation did not have time to finish. If you are doing test iterations and you don't need your fire/smoke to be rendered with production quality, you could enable the GPU Preview extended viewport and use the Save Images During Sim option instead.

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When doing test iterations on your simulation setup, you can also speed up the simulation by enabling Cacheless Simulation from the Output rollout.

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An alternative approach to Render On Each Sim Frame is to automatically start a sequence render after the entire simulation has finished by adding a 'max quick render' command under the OnSimulationEnd() callback of the Use Script option below.

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NUMA Nodes– Specifies which nodes will be used if the simulation is executed by a NUMA machine. Phoenix FD is very sensitive to the memory transfer and if all the nodes are used, performance might decrease due to low bandwidth between the different nodes.

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NUMA stands for Non-Uniform Memory Access. It can be used to restrict the threads used for simulation based on the physical CPUs available on the system (in a multiprocessor system). In this way, better memory access can be achieved when multiple simulations are run on the same machine.

 

Cache File Content

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This area displays information on the current simulation. Any data from channels that have been loaded into the simulator are shown. This includes the minimum and maximum ranges for each channel. Check the Grid Channel Ranges and Particle Channel Ranges pages for more information.

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ContainerDimensions ContainerDimensions

Note that the Container Dimensions show the loaded cache size as seen in the scene, in the currently selected units. This size is not multiplied by the Scene Scale parameter from the Grid rollout. If you want to see how big the container is as seen by the Phoenix simulator when the Scene Scale parameter is used, check the X, Y, Z info in the Grid rollout.