Best particle plugin ??

[stevesideas]

I use particle flow more and more these days and realise you can expand its capabilities by purchasing the orbaz packs but Im still thinking that Cebas thinking particles R4 looks amazing. I have rayfire too but have not been able to use it successfully in any production so far because of constant crashes - seriously thinking about asking for a refund !

So, does anyone have any first hand experience with thinking particles ? Is it robust ? Is it good for production ? Any info or advice would be appreciated.

[joconnell]

Yep - TP is really, really solid. The caching and the rigid body stuff is great so if you want to do FX type bits it's highly recommended. I'll still fall back to Pflow for quick concept stuff or simpler systems but the actual engine of tp seems a lot more solid to me. With pflow if you sneeze it goes into an update cycle and can get really frustrating. Also of note is that Oleg who wrote pflow has been rehired by autodesk on a three year contract so I'd imagine he's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve. I could be wrong but I think his contract was up with autodesk immediately after the first release of pflow in max 5 which was a bit dumb on their part!

[AJ Jefferies]

With pflow if you sneeze it goes into an update cycle and can get really frustrating.

So true it actually makes me cry a little bit. Really, really looking forward to seeing what Oleg comes up with now he's 'back'.