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Expand – Opens a floating dialog that contains the selected rollout and automatically folds the command panel rollout.

? – Opens up the help documents for the Fire/Smoke Preview rollout.

Read Cache for Preview | prv_read_cache – Allows to completely disable reading of cache files in order to speed up the viewport and the simulation. When cache files are not read, neither voxels and particles, nor the grid bounding box or the Cache File Content under the Simulation rollout will be shown. This way scrolling the timeline would be quick as there will be no access to hard disk or the network. If you still need to see the grid bounding box and the Cache File Content info, you could leave this option to Always, and instead disable all voxel preview options, the Mesh Preview, GPU Preview and all particle previews. The intended use for this parameter is as a last step performance optimization - once you're done tweaking your setup and you're ready to commit to a high-resolution, overnight simulation, disable the preview of cache files.

Always – Cache files are always read by the preview.
Disable During Sim – Cache files are read only when the simulation is stopped. This would speed up the simulation and is good for overnight simulations where you don't need to watch the simulation constantly.
Don't Preview Caches – Cache files are never read for the preview. They will only be read during rendering, or in case any of the Phoenix tools requires them - e.g. the Particle Shader, the Grid Texture, etc. 

Detail Reduction | prv_dwnsmp – 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. Note that this parameter does not affect the Mesh preview.

Auto Reduction | prv_autoreduct – 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.

Only if Selected | show_only_sel – When enabled, the viewport preview is only drawn if the Simulator is selected.

Active View Only | prv_avonly – When enabled, only the selected viewport shows the content of the Simulator.

Show Box | showgrid – Shows the bounding box of the Simulator. The green outline is drawn based on the settings in the Grid rollout while the red outline displays the bounds of the currently loaded cache file.

Graph Cells | gridcells – Shows a lattice with the cell sizes on the sides of the Simulator's box or the Slice Preview.

Show Mesh | showmesh – When enabled, shows the Isosurface as a mesh. The Isosurface  is defined in the Surface section of the Rendering rollout. This mode overrides the Voxel Preview mode. Note that if Mode is set to Ocean Mesh in the FireSmoke Rendering settings, the surface is generated in the viewport with low mesh resolution in order not to slow down the user interface significantly.

Show | prv_particles, prv_prt_name – Enables the preview of particles. The controls below affect the visualization of the currently selected particle group.

Particle Size | viewPartSize – Sets the size of the particles in the viewport. Note that all particles are drawn with the same size.

Show System | show_prt_face – When enabled, the particle system will be visible in the Simulator preview. You can choose the Particle System to edit from the dropdown menu.

Preview Color | prv_prt_color_face – Specifies the default color of the particles. Moving particles are displayed as a blend between their default color and white, based on the selected Scale Color By channel. Note that if the particle system has an RGB channel exported, it will be used in place of the Preview Color.

Scale Color By | prv_prt_colscale_chan_face – Specifies the particle channel used for adjusting the particle preview color.

• No Scaling – All particles will be the same color - the one specified by Preview Color.
• Speed – The faster the particles move, the whiter they will appear.  The preview is only affected by the Scale Max option if the particle system has the Velocity channel export enabled.
• Size – The larger the particles are, the whiter they will appear.  The preview is only affected by the Scale Max option if the particle system has the Size channel export enabled.
• Age – The older the particles are, the whiter they will appear.  The preview is only affected by the Scale Max option if the particle system has the Age channel export enabled.
• Viscosity – The higher the viscosity the particles, the whiter they will appear.  The preview is only affected by the Scale Max option if the particle system has the Viscosity channel export enabled.

Auto Scale Color | prv_prt_awspeed_face – When enabled, automatically calculates Scale Max based on the Min/Max range of the selected Scale Color By particle channel, assuming the respective channel export has been enabled in the Output rollout for the selected particle system.

Scale Max | prv_prt_wspeed_face – When Auto is disabled, allows you to specify a constant value at which the particle preview color becomes pure white. Particles with a Scale Color By channel value higher than the specified Scale Max are also pure white. You can also find more info about the usual particle channel maximum values on the Particle Channel Ranges page.

Only the Overlap Of: | prv_and – When enabled, shows only the cells where the following selected channels overlap.

Temperature | prv_temperature,   prv_t_threshold,  prvprv_t_threshold2,  prvprv_t_color,  prvprv_t_color2 – – Enables the representation of the temperature. 

As Fire

|

prv_plank_t

– When the temperature is in Kelvins, e.g. when coming from a Phoenix simulation, the voxel colors come from a physically correct black body radiation model. In this mode the custom color for the temperature are disabled. Check

the Grid Channel Ranges

for more info.

Smoke  |  prv_smoke,  prvprv_smoke_threshold,  prvprv_smoke_threshold2,  prvprv_smoke_color,  prvprv_smoke_color2  –  – Enables the representation of the smoke. 

Fuel  |  prv_fuel, prv_fuel_threshold, prv_fuel_threshold2,  prvprv_fuel_color, prv_fuel_color2 – – Enables the representation of the fuel. 

Velocity  |  prv_velocity, prv_v_threshold, prv_v_threshold2,  prvprv_v_color,  prvprv_v_color2 – color2 – Enables the representation of the velocity.

Velocity Streamlines  |  viewVelStreamlines, viewVelStreamlinesThreshold, viewVelStreamlinesThreshold2, viewVelStreamlinesColor, viewVelStreamlinesColor2 – Traces – Traces the velocity field of the cache files to generate a streamline a streamline preview.

As Rainbow

|

viewVelStreamlinesColorCurve – Represents the Velocity Streamlines in rainbow colors, where red is the fastest, green is medium speed and blue is the slowest.

Lines Length

|

viewVelStreamlinesMaxIterations – Signifies the maximum length of each streamline in the preview.

Adjusting the value will provide you with a guide/preview of the velocity field's motion.

The Streamline's length is measured in voxels and at the lowest setting, the Streamlines will be no larger than a voxel.

Forces  |  prv_forces,   prv_f_threshold,   prv_f_threshold2,   prv_f_color,   prv_f_color2,  prvprv_force_list – – Enables preview of how Phoenix forces or standard 3ds Max forces will affect the simulation. This preview can be shown even without any loaded simulation.

Force Streamlines  |  viewForceStreamlines, viewForceStreamlinesThreshold, viewForceStreamlinesThreshold2, viewForceStreamlinesColor, viewForceStreamlinesColor2 – Enables – Enables a streamline streamline preview of how Phoenix forces or standard 3ds Max forces will affect the simulation. This preview can be shown even without any loaded simulation.

As Rainbow

|

viewForceStreamlinesColorCurve – Represents the Force Streamlines in rainbow colors, where red is the fastest, green is medium speed and blue is the slowest.

Lines Length

|

viewForceStreamlinesMaxIterations – Signifies the maximum length of each streamline in the preview.

Adjusting the value will provide you with a guide/preview of the force field's motion.

The Streamline's length is measured in voxels and at the lowest setting, the Streamlines will be no larger than a voxel.

RGB  |  prv_uvw, prv_uvw_threshold, prv_uvw_threshold2 – – Enables the representation of the RGB channel.

Auto Range  |  prv_autorange – – When enabled, automatically adjusts the preview ranges of visible channels for the current frame so that important data is always visible and the preview is always quick.

Bake Streamlines to Splines – Button for converting the currently shown Streamline preview (either Velocity Streamlines or Force Streamlines) into native 3ds Max splines. The baked splines can be rendered like any regular 3ds Max spline - through enabling the rendering in the Rendering rollout of the spline settings or via applying a Hair and Fur modifier over the spline.

Auto Bake | autoBakeStreamlineCurvesOnPreviewChange – Enables automatic Streamlines to Splines baking on any change in the Streamlines Preview. While the Auto Bake option is enabled you don't have to press the Bake Streamlines button in order for scene changes to be applied to the splines and changing the timeline frame will update the baked splines. This allows for rendering animations when using the Hair and Fur modifier over the spline.