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

Re-Center – Resets the position of the floating rollout.

? – Opens up the help documents for the Rendering rollout.

Render Presets... – Opens a menu for loading and saving different presets. The following options are available:

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  • Load from File...
  • Save to File...
  • Fire/Smoke from Phoenix FD
  • Fire/Smoke from FumeFX
  • Fire/Smoke .vdb from Houdini
  • Liquid .vdb from Houdini
  • Fire/Smoke .vdb from Maya Fluids

Mode | rendmode – Specifies the method for visualizing the grid content. For fire/smoke, select a Volumetric method. For liquids, select a geometry method.

Volumetric – Visualizes the content as a standard 3ds Max atmospheric. This method is used mostly for fire and smoke.
Volumetric Geometry – This method requires V-Ray. Used to export deep images and render elements such as normals, velocity, multi matte, etc. It produces the same result as the Volumetric option by using procedural geometry made up from multiple transparent layers. 

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Approximate and Approximate+Shadows options for the Scattering parameter in the Smoke Color window are not supported in Volumetric Geometry mode.

For a complete list of the supported Render Elements in both Volumetric and Volumetric Geometry mode, please check the V-Ray Render Elements Support page.

Volumetric Heat Haze – Produces the same result as the Volumetric Geometry option, and also adds a heat haze effect when used with the Heat Haze parameter. Note that you might need to increase the Max depth of a VRayMtl with refraction in case it intersects with the Heat Haze shader. For more information, see the Heat Haze example below.
Isosurface – Produces a procedural isosurface without polygons at render time using the Surface section options. Compared to the Mesh mode, the result is always smooth but takes longer to render.
Mesh – The content is converted into a standard 3ds Max mesh using the Surface section options. This mode is mostly used for liquids, but can be applied to thick smoke using a scatter material or to plumes of smoke to create effects such as large underwater bubbles.
Ocean Mesh – The grid content is extended to a flat area, fitting the camera's view. In most cases, this mode is used with a displacement texture such as the Phoenix FD Ocean Texture.
Cap Mesh – Only the upper liquid surface is rendered. This mode can be used for swimming pools and other placid liquid surfaces.

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The ocean surface can be generated only when the liquid touches the sides and the bottom of the grid, which act as a container for the liquid. The detail of the mesh extension around the simulator depends on the camera resolution - for each pixel of the viewport or the rendered image, one or several polygons are generated, depending on the Ocean Subdivisions option.

Volumetric Options – Opens the Volumetric Render settings window which contains the following rollouts:

  • Fire – Controls the emissive (fire) color of the volumetric shader, and the light emitted by the Simulator.
  • Smoke Color – Controls the diffuse color of the volumetric shader.
  • Smoke Opacity – Controls the transparency part of the volumetric shader.
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When the Pin icon is enabled, the Volumetric Render Settings window will remain open even after deselecting the Simulator, Voxel Shader, or V-Ray Volume Grid.

The option's default state is set to "Pinned", but if you need to change its behavior, you can do so from the Phoenix FD Global Preferences menu.

Step % | rendstep – Specifies the ray marching step of the camera rays as a percentage of the cell size. As the renderer traces rays through the Volume Grid, this value controls how often to get information from the grid. If the this value is more than 100, some cells start getting skipped and artifacts may appear. If rendering volumetrics with a specific transparency curve, a lower percentage might be necessary so that fine details are not lost. On the other hand, increasing the this value increases the rendering speed. This parameter is used when Mode is set to VolumetricVolumetric GeometryVolumetric Heat Haze and Isosurface modes.  For more information, see the Step % example below.

Shadow Step % rendshadstep  – Specifies the ray marching step of the rays used to evaluate the lighting (shadow rays) as a percentage of the cell size. Usually, this value can be higher than Step %, as generally shadows do not need so much detail. Increasing the Shadow Step % also speeds up rendering performance, particularly with dome and area lights.  

Border Fade | borderFade – Makes the content near the grid's boundaries more transparent to prevent sharp edges from being rendered. This parameter controls how far from the boundaries the transparent effect should start, in voxels.

Heat Haze | heathazehhfactor – Traces the ray changing direction according to the gradient of the Surface channel. A value of 1 corresponds approximately to the normal heat haze in the air caused by the temperature. If smoke or another channel is selected as the source, a larger value might be necessary to achieve a visible result. A value of 0 produces no heat haze. This parameter is available only when Mode is set to Volumetric Heat Haze. For more information, see the Heat Haze example below.

Sampler Type | sampler – Determines the blending method between adjacent grid cells.

Box – Displays cells as cubes. There is no blending between neighbor cells. This is the fastest mode.
Linear –  Linear blending occurs between neighbor cells to smooth out the fluid's look. Sometimes this mode may unveil the grid-like structure of the fluid. Up to 20-30% faster than the Spherical option.
Spherical  – Uses special weight-based sampling for the smoothest looking fluid. With increasing resolution, the visual advantage of this method over the Linear method becomes less noticeable.

Cutter Geom | usegizmogizmo – When enabled, rendering occurs only inside the selected geometric object's volume. If Fire Lights are enabled, only those inside the cutter are rendered. Note that the Cutter Geom does not work when the render Mode is set to Volumetric Geometry.

Invert Cutter | invgizmo – When enabled, rendering occurs only outside of the render cutter. This is not the same as a cutter with inverted geometry because any rays that do not intersect the cutter are shaded as well.

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If using a Cutter Geom for a liquid pouring into a glass or otherwise contained into another refractive object, you may need to set the Mode to Isosurface.  By default, the mode is set to Mesh which may produce artifacts in the rendered image.

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