phoenixFD demo ocean

[Svetlozar Draganov]

Version 2.30.02 came out for a few days but there are some issues with 2.4 version which need to be fixed in order to release it officially.

[ivaylo.ivanov]

Yes, sadly the two releases are connected, since we may have issues on Linux. Also, a new SP for 3ds Max is expected, the Maya version must include these fixes also.

[waaazoo]

ok, understood, thanks. PLease keep us updated when a Maya demo version is available to test the ocean/foam features.

regards,

[waaazoo]

Hi all,

Any news on the Phoenix FD maya demo ? I just went to the download section but it's still PhoenixFD 2.0
I would really want to test the sea + foam features...

regards,

Olivier

[ivaylo.ivanov]

We are still clearing bugs. I think you can get an evaluation license. The demo has limits on the grid size, and you will not be able to get good result with the mesher.

[waaazoo]

Hi Ivaylo,

Thanks, I will ask for an evaluation license. I suppose I have to send a mail. Would be great to have some testing on this.

regards,

olivier

[Svetlozar Draganov]

For evaluation license please contact our Sales Team at sales.software@chaosgroup.com

[waaazoo]

Hi Ivaylo,

I finally have the evaluation license with a nightly build (Maya).

1-What units are you using for your simulations ?
2-from your earlier description, in point 4, I cannot find "enable ocean option" in rendering panel. Did that change ?

best regards,

Olivier

A very short description how to setup ocean scene:
1. create a simulator (be sure that it has proper physical size, check your scene units!)
2. open the liquid panel and enable the liquids
3. enable the initial fill up (by default is set to fill at level 50%)
4. open the rendering panel and enable the ocean option
-------Checkpoint: If you press simulate, and render the result afterwards, you will obtain a flat infinite surface
5. in the render panel there is an option displacement, enable it
6. put a PhoenixFDOceanTex in the displacement map
-------Checkpoint: You should have infinite ocean with waves, adjust the texture to have good locking waves. If your physical scale is correct, the best way is to use the wind option to control the waves
7. Create the interacting geometry
8. from the liquid panel, enable the foam simulation and set the birth rate to 0, b2b interaction to 200, foam pattern to 1. The patterns are important for the good locking sea foam
9 enable the splash simulation and set the foam on hit option to 1. This is the best way for good locking sea foam, the direct foam birth is better for pouring beer or soap foam
10 simulate, see the result, simulate again...
once the liquid is good simulated (with exported velocity), you can use particle resimulation to adjust the foam and splash, it is faster.
11 create two PHXFoam objects
12 select the foam group in the first one, and the splash group in the second one
13 adjust the rendering. in mu opinion the sea foam is best rendered with point shader, the splash may be rendered with point shader or with splash shader but with high subdivs on the image sampler

[Ivaylo Katev]

phoenix uses the units of the scene, choose what you prefer, and the simulations will take it in account.
we reworked the UI to be more compact, some options were replaced by more general "mode", that internally sets the switches to the needed state. one of the modes is the ocean.

[waaazoo]

Thanks Ivaylo. I found "Mesh" section, but I'm trying different parameters since a few moments, and I never get an infinite ocean. Ocean is checked at 50.00 smoothing at 5 skyline subd. at 2.00.
I'm using latest nightly build (20140220) with Maya 2013 (X64).

I had also one crash (2 times): Made a simulation over 10frames, then decided to make longer simulation and wanted first to change animation of my interaction object. When I went to frame 50, crashed maya... Will try to reproduce again to be sure....

[waaazoo]

I experience a lot of blue screens while trying to simulate. Not much memory is used (1 or 2Gb announced in phoenix / 7Gb used in total) and I have 32GB on my system.
I tried to update Nvidia driver (quadro 4000 here). I uninstalled Wacom Tablet, I tried Phoenix on Maya 2013, Maya 2014, different nightlies.... I then thought it might come from my dual screen setup, deactivated the second screen. First Simulation was ok (100frames) but then again blue screen on second simulation.
i7-3930K, 32GB, Win7 64X. No blue screens since months before.....

Any ideas ???

regards,

Olivier

[ivaylo.ivanov]

Can you send the scene to the phoenix email?

It's very difficult for a program to cause a blue screen on win7 though. I've seen it only because of hardware issues.

[waaazoo]

Hi Ivaylo,

Yes, I suspected also hardware issues, but I cannot find anything. I just sent to the phoenix address two test scenes.
I have run Memtest86 over night for 13hours and it couldn't find any error on my RAM.

best regards,

Olivier

[waaazoo]

I just tested on another system with a Geforce 8400GS :-/
It ran for 48 frames without problem.
I will test now again on my first system with the Autodesk certified driver for Maya2014.

[ivaylo.ivanov]

You are not seeing the ocean because you have set the rendering mode to "Solid geometry". Ocean works only with Static/Dynamic mesh. Will make a note to grey out these atributes so it's less confusing.