Page History
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| Processor | Intel® 64-bit or compatible processor with SSE 4.2 support |
| RAM | 8 GB RAM and 8 GB swap minimum – recommended 32 GB or more RAM, 32 GB or more swap file |
| Operating system | Windows ® 7 SP1, Windows ® 8.1 Professional, or Windows ® 10 Professional operating system |
| 3ds Max | 3ds Max ® 2015 / 3ds Max Design ® 2015 or later, 64-bit versions only |
| USB port | Required for dongle licensing, USB 2.0 or newer |
| TCP/IP | Only IPv4 is supported. IPv6 is currently not supported. |
| Chaos License Server | 4.5.1 or later |
Hardware Advice for Faster Simulating
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| Hardware | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Bus speed | Phoenix transfers huge amounts of data between memory and the CPU. The entire simulation grid gets processed tens to hundred times per simulation step, so the bus speed is the bottleneck in most simulations. |
| CPU speed | Processor speed is more important than core count. Also, NUMA and multiprocessor architectures do not perform well with Phoenix. Simulating on one NUMA node is often faster than waiting for multiple nodes to synchronize. |
| Fast Storage | Both large and small simulations take significant time just to write the cache files from the simulation and to read them back for the preview, so good storage speed can help decrease simulation times up to 30%. Turning off the preview for all grid and particle channels during large simulations could also help speed up the simulation. |
| GPU | GPUs are currently only used for the GPU preview of fire/smoke simulations. |
Software Advice for Faster Simulating
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Here is a short step by step guide by Microsoft on Adding an Exclusion for Windows Defender.
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The Phoenix FD installer will automatically remove any previous installations. This will allow you to seamlessly upgrade from older versions of Phoenix FD. If you experience problems, you can manually uninstall the previous versions to perform a clean install. For more information, please refer to the Uninstalling Phoenix FD page.
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2. You will be presented with the Phoenix FD licensing agreements. Please take a moment to review the agreements. Click the I Agree button to proceed:.
3. During the next step, you can choose the installation type. The available installation types are:
Workstation (full) – – This is a full installation and includes all components necessary to use Phoenix FD. It includes Phoenix FD for 3ds Max, V-Ray Standalone render plugin, and an update to the Chaos License Server.
Simulation and V-Ray Standalone Render Slave – – This installation includes Phoenix FD for 3ds Max and V-Ray Standalone render plugin. Select this option if you intend to use the machine for network simulations or for distributed rendering of your Phoenix FD cache files. Note: Phoenix FD does not support distributed simulations yet.
V-Ray Standalone Render Slave – This will install the V-Ray Standalone render plugin.
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4. After you choose the installation type, you can click the Customize button and adjust the corresponding installation settings. If you have selected the Workstation installation, you will see the full list of customizable settings:
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Specify installation paths – Please check if the default folders are correct. Common settings for Workstation installation for 3ds Max 2018 with default paths should look like the screenshot below:
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5. When ready, click the Install Now button.
Completing the installation
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Please skip the steps that are not relevant for your installation type.
1. After you click the Install Now button, the installer will proceed to uninstall any previous versions and install Phoenix FD on your machine:.
2. If the installation was successful, you will get this screen.:
Visit our online documentation site will open a new browser window/tab to the Phoenix FD for 3ds Max Docs.
Open the changelog file after the installation will open the text file with changes broken down by releases (also available through the Version Change Logs).
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To make sure that your license server is up and running and you have the necessary licenses, please proceed to the Set Up Your Phoenix FD License page.