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Overview
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The parameters in this rollout control the representation of the
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fluid’s caches in the viewport
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UI Path: ||Select Fire Smoke Simulator | FireSmokeSim object|| > Modify panel > Preview rollout |
Parameters
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Voxel Preview
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Phoenix can only preview the channels present in the cache file for the current frame. To see the list of available channels and their ranges, go to the Cache File Content section of the Simulation rollout. You can also find more info on the Grid Channel Ranges page. |
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Particle Preview
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Draw Just a Slice
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GPU Preview
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title | GPU Preview as 3ds Max Extended Viewport |
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Here is how the GPU Preview looks next to the voxel preview of a Phoenix Simulator:
In 3ds Max 2015 and later, the real-time GPU preview of fire and smoke can be directly shown inside the viewport next to all other objects by just turning on the Enable In Viewport option.
Alternatively, GPU preview can also be enabled in an extended viewport. The Phoenix FD GPU Preview extended viewport shows only the selected Simulator node and uses the parameters of the selected viewport. To enable it, right-click the viewport type and select Extended Viewports > Phoenix FD GPU Preview:
, showing a preview of what the fluid is doing. These preview controls can give you a sense of what is going on with your simulation, and whether it needs tweaking, before you decide to start rendering.
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The Viewport Preview is almost completely independent from rendering, and allows you to control the visibility of specific Grid Channels and Particle Types, in order to customize the preview. Depending on the Read Cache for Preview mode used, all enabled parameters in this rollout will be displayed in the viewport, provided that the cache file’s content is within a parameter’s specified value range for that frame. |
The viewport will typically display Fire/Smoke simulations as a Voxel Preview, which uses 2D triangles to emulate the shape of the volume. You can choose to preview specific Grid Channels, for example, only the Temperature or Smoke. You can also preview the simulation’s Velocity, to see how Phoenix forces or standard 3ds Max forces affect the simulation.
Meanwhile, the Particle Preview section lets you to control the visibility of different Particle Types, such as Drag particles emitted from a Fire Source, and manage their preview color.
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Keep in mind that the Voxel and Particle preview parameters are all independent from rendering. They do not affect the render settings or Volumetric shading. |
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Fire/Smoke simulations can also be shaded using the real-time GPU Preview mode, so you can quickly preview how changing the volumetric rendering options and curves affects the look of the simulation. You can learn more in the GPU Preview section below on this page. |
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UI Path: ||Select Fire Smoke Simulator object|| > Modify panel > Preview rollout |
Parameters
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The Phoenix GPU Preview shows a detailed Viewport Preview for Fire/Smoke simulations, by shading the Simulator directly inside the viewport, using the current Volumetric Options. The preview works in real time, so you can use it to quickly preview how changing volumetric options and curves affects the look of the simulation. You can analyze their effect on the simulation’s appearance and make further iterations, without having to render. The GPU Preview can also be used as an extremely basic renderer, since it can automatically save out images during simulation. This can be a useful and fast way to do a previsualization of your sequence, and review your simulation in motion. |
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Note that the GPU Preview is not a replacement for rendering. In order to display in real time, the preview ignores Displacement, as well as any volumetric texture mapping of the Fire or Smoke. There are also some limitations as to how it displays volumes when geometries intersect the sim, or are inside the grid. Finally, all lights are treated as directional, so using dome lights, area lights or global illumination would produce different render results than the GPU Preview. If you need to iterate on the final look of the simulation with complex lighting setups, you should use V-Ray GPU IPR, or another interactive rendering solution. |
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Particle Preview
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The parameters here control the visualization of Particle Types generated by the Simulator. Phoenix can only preview the Particle Types present in the cache file for the current frame, such as Drag particles emitted using a Fire Source. |
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You can specify a Particle Channel to use as a basis for adjusting the particle preview color, using the Scale Color By option. If you export the Velocity particle channel when emitting Drag particles, you could then set the Scale Color By option to Speed, so that the faster the particles move, the whiter they appear in the preview. You can find more info on Particle Channels from the Particle Channel Ranges page. |
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Voxel Preview
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The Voxel Preview displays the Grid Channel content of each cell. Phoenix can only preview the channels present in the cache file for the current frame. All enabled channels are drawn if their content is between the corresponding thresholds. To see the list of available channels and their ranges for an input sim cache, go to the Cache File Content section of the Simulation rollout. You can also find more info on the Grid Channel Ranges page. |
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Note that you can also specify the Voxel Preview value range for any Grid Channel, if you disable the Auto Range option. For example, you could enable only Smoke, and specify the range to be between 0.7 and 1.0, so that you can see where the smoke is getting thicker. Grid Smoke Channel values that are below 0.7, or above 1.0, would not appear in the preview at all. |
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Bake Streamlines
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Slice Preview
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The Slice preview displays only a single slice of voxels which can be convenient for debugging and fine-tuning a simulation. |
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