Official release
Date – May 31, 2018
Download – Build 3.11.00
New Features
Phoenix FD
- Support for 3ds Max 2019
- Support for V-Ray Next
FLIP Solver
RGB channel simulation for Foam, Splash and Mist particles - now secondary particles can be born from Sources mapped with colored textures and can change color during simulation using the Mapper
GPU Volumetrics
Rendering of Phoenix Simulators with V-Ray Next GPU. Support for render elements, texture maps and displacement is yet to be added
Cache I/O
- Direct loading of huge sparse OpenVDB caches without downsampling
Particle Texture
- Particle Texture color based on Particle Channels - the Particle Texture can be plugged into the Particle Shader and can shade particles based on their Age, Speed, Size, Position, etc.
Mapper
- Added Affected Particle Systems list to the Mapper so it can separately affect Foam, Splash and Mist
Improvements
Preview
Sped up the Preview Auto Range algorithm
Scene Body Interaction
- Sped up the scene interaction with complex or moving geometries
Cache I/O
- Optimized loading of caches containing Velocity channel
- Allowed grid Channel Smoothing to be applied over imported channels with any value range
- Apply the Smoothing Random Variation over all voxels regardless of the Smooth Threshold
Volumetric Shader
- Sped up velocity sampling during volumetric motion blur
Particle Shader
- Sped up rendering in Bubble, Cellular and Splash mode using the Phoenix Light Cache up to 2x
Ocean Mesher
- Sped up the Displacement Fade Volume algorithm with complex or moving geometries
Body Force
- Sped up the Body Force with complex or moving geometries
Forces
- Allowed all parameters of the Phoenix forces to be animated
VRScenes
- Support for relative cache paths in VRScenes and the -remapPath option in V-Ray Next StandAlone
Grid Texture
- Box, Linear and Spherical Sampler Type for the Grid Texture
3ds Max Integration
Duplicate Particle Group nodes when cloning a Simulator if Foam or Splash simulation is enabled
SDK
- Exposed the pre- and post-render 3ds Max callbacks through the SDK so Phoenix can be prepared for rendering manually
Removed Features
Cache I/O
- Dropped support for the AUR1 cache format. Caches simulated with Phoenix builds before 13 Mar 2015 will not open anymore
Bug Fixes
FLIP Solver
Viscosity calculations used extra memory and processing time even without Variable Viscosity
- Foam Pattern forces pushed particles vertically which makes them less effective
- Crash when the Mapper affects a FLIP particle channel which was not enabled in the Simulator Output
- Liquid and Foam particles sometimes get shot away on collision with Confine Geometry
- Fillup for Ocean did not clear the volume of Solid bodies with Clear Inside
- Voxels under the Fillup For Ocean level and cut by Confine Geometry were not included in the ocean mesh
- The Time Scale parameter did not take any effect if animated or changed during FLIP liquid simulation
- Could not start FLIP liquid resimulation if the first frame had 0 liquid particles
- Liquid Source Motion Velocity did not work for emitted Foam and Splash particles
Scene Body Interaction
Voxelization became increasingly slower until Maya was closed and re-opened
- Random crash when FLIP liquid particles interact with the 0th face index of a geometry, since Phoenix FD 3.10
Sources
Source Polygon ID affects the discharge even if not in Surface Force mode
Volumetric Shader
The V-Ray Velocity render element was not rendered in Volumetric Geometry mode if Motion Blur was off since Phoenix FD 3.05
Particle Shader
The V-Ray Velocity render element was not rendered with Render as Geometry enabled if Motion Blur was off
- Bubbles and Splashes were rendered differently on a different number of threads with Phoenix Light Cache enabled
- The cache data leaked when rendering a Particle Shader with Liquid Simulator and Render as Geometry
V-Ray RT and IPR
Fire Opacity Multiplier was always exported as 1 with V-Ray RT
- Master Multiplier from the Smoke Color rollout wasn't exported correctly
Ocean Mesher
The Displacement Fade Volume caused grid artifacts on the ocean mesh
- Incorrect ocean mesh if V-Ray's 'Get resolution from MAX' option was off and the VFB resolution differed from 3ds Max's
Ocean Texture
Ocean Texture with Control by Wind Speed enabled did not render with the correct scale with V-Ray RT
Grid Texture
No Motion Blur with Grid Texture connected to a meshed Simulator's material
- Crash when rendering a Grid Texture that uses a deleted simulator
Wave Force
- Boiling effect on the open grid borders when using Wave Force with Fillup for Ocean
VRScenes
Particle Shader was not exported to VRscene files when Render as Geometry was enabled
- Crash when the transforms of the PhxShaderSim plugin and the Node plugin in Volumetric Geometry mode were mismatched in a VRScene
Cache I/O
The grid RGB channel was missing when saving the cache files in OpenVDB format since Phoenix FD 3.10
- Wrong velocity direction and motion blur when importing OpenVDB files from FumeFX
- Wrong velocity scale when importing OpenVDB files from Maya Fluids
- Couldn't load OpenVDB files whose "file_voxel_count" metadata is 0, though they contain active voxels
- Crash when writing cache files at the exact moment while the same or another simulator is reading them
- Cache saving became increasingly slower until Maya was closed and re-opened, since Phoenix FD 3.10
Preview
Body Force force preview did not update when the simulator was moving
Render Curves
Adding a new spline point to a straight sloped section in the render diagrams produced curvature
PRT I/O
The Export PRT dialogue showed the particle systems only when the timeline frame was on a loaded cache
3ds Max Integration
Couldn't simulate after undoing the deletion of a Simulator connected to a Particle Shader since Phoenix FD 3.10
- The Simulator did not release the loaded cache frame memory when hidden or deleted, but only after scene reset
Crash when reading cached voxel data via MaxScript if the coordinate system is set to World or Object