This page provides general information about the Mesh sub-section of the Rendering rollout of Phoenix FD.

Overview

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The options for this rollout are accessible when the Render Mode is set to Mesh, Ocean Mesh, or Cap Mesh.

 

Mesh Type | rendMeshType – Specifies the type of mesh to render.

Static Mesh (V-Ray) - this mode will generate a V-Ray Static mesh type at render time. Static geometry is generated at the beginning of the rendering and remains in memory until the frame is rendered. This can speed up the rendering but will increase the memory usage.
Dynamic Mesh (V-Ray) - this mode will generate a V-Ray Dynamic mesh type at render time. Dynamic geometry is generated 'on the fly' which can potentially save memory. Not recommended when Render Mode is set to Ocean Mesh.
Maya Mesh (not suitable for Ocean) - this mode will generate a standard Maya mesh that can be rendered with renderers other than V-Ray. When you enable Show Mesh from the Preview rollout, this mesh is also available in the viewport for processing as any other Maya geometry. This way it can be exported to Alembic for example, from Maya's Cache → Alembic Cache menu. If the Render Mode is Ocean Mesh or Cap Mesh, the generated mesh will have low detail because the Phoenix ocean mesh is deliberately low-res in the viewport preview for performance reasons. In Maya Mesh mode, you can use the Velocity Color Set field to control the name of the color set with vertex velocities that will be needed for rendering the mesh with motion blur. The vertex velocity is in Units/Second.

Ocean Level | rendOcean – Used with the Ocean Mesh and Cap Mesh rendering modes. Specifies the water level as a percentage of the total grid height.

Ocean Subdivisions | rendMeshSubdiv – Used with the Ocean Mesh and Cap Mesh rendering modes. When generating the far areas of the surface, this determines how many vertices will be generated for each pixel of the image. Like with V-Ray subdivisions, the square of the parameter value is used. For example, if you increase the subdivisions twice, the vertices count will grow four times. For more information, see the Ocean Subdivisions example below.

Horizon Roughness | rendOceanHorizRough – Controls the roughness of the distant ocean surface near the horizon. Adds more detail to the waves, which is especially helpful when using a highly reflective material for the ocean surface. Increasing this value can potentially produce visible noise when rendering an animation. To counter this effect, increase the Ocean Subdivisions parameter.

Off-Screen Margin (%) | rendOceanExtraMargin – The ocean is generated only in the camera view, which can lead to problems when using camera motion blur, using reflections, or when the ocean casts shadows on objects underwater. This option allows you to extend the ocean further from the borders of the camera view in order to solve such issues. The value is a percentage of the image size.

Pure Ocean | rendPureOcean – Creates a flat ocean surface up to the Ocean Level height. It does not need loaded caches and if there are any, it ignores their content, so no simulation details will show. Thus changing frames and generating the ocean surface is very quick. This allows you to preview the behavior of the Phoenix FD Ocean Texture when Displacement is enabled or if you want to set up your texture for the Wave force. The option is available for both preview and rendering in Ocean Mesh or Cap Mesh modes. During preview, it requires the Show Mesh option to be enabled in the Preview roll-out.

Mesh Smoothness | rendSmoothMesh – Specifies the number of smoothing passes. The higher the value, the smoother the result, but the mesh will require more time to calculate. Used when Render Mode is set to Mesh, Ocean Mesh, or Cap Mesh to reduce the roughness of the mesh. 

Use Liquid Particles for Smoothing | rendSmothUsePrt – Enables particle-based smoothing of the mesh. It requires Liquid particles to be simulated and exported to the cache files. This method overcomes the limitations of the basic smoothing without particles, which can flicker in animation and cause small formations in the mesh to shrink.

Smoothing Particle Size | rendSmoothPrtSz – Used to make the liquid thicker or thinner. Works only when Use Liquid Particles is enabled. This parameter specifies the distance from the mesh surface to the particle centers.

Velocity Color Set | rendMayaMeshVelSet – Available only in Maya Mesh mode. You can use this field to control the name of the color set with vertex velocities that will be needed for rendering the mesh with motion blur. For example, VRayProxy in 3ds Max and Maya looks for a color set named 'v' or 'velocity'. Phoenix automatically transfers this name to the standard Maya motion vector color set under Mesh Shape → Mesh Controls → Motion Vector Color Set field, so you'd get motion blur in Maya Mesh mode. In order to export the mesh as Alembic with included Phoenix velocity, make sure to enable Write Color Sets in the Advanced Options of the Alembic Export window. This workflow is covered in the How to export a Phoenix FD cache to Alembic video.

Note that the Phoenix velocity color set keeps the velocity in scene units per second. This way Alembic caches exported from it can be loaded via a V-Ray Proxy in 3ds Max or Maya, and also via the built-in 3ds Max Alembic importer. However, rendering the Maya Mesh directly or importing it via Maya's built-in Alembic importer would read the velocity in units per frame, so you might have to adjust Phoenix's Motion Blur Multiplier in the Rendering rollout prior to rendering or export, in order to reduce the length of the motion blur.

Example: Ocean Subdivisions

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