Some problems getting foam and point rendering to work with particle flow

[Deflaminis]

It's not a bad question... not sure how I can be sure. I can do fire/smoke effects... just no point rendering. I'll try to reinstall.

[Deflaminis]

Reinstalled a couple times... seems to be installed correctly. But it does install a bit fast compared to say Vray.

Still no ability to render that point systems. Am I just unlucky?

[Ivaylo Katev]

ok, show us the log now, after a clear installation

[3dwolf]

Sometimes you have to explicit run the installer via right-click "Run as Administrator" (or something like that). Had that problem couple of times when coworkers "installed" a new version, but didn't.

[Deflaminis]

Awesome, will try. Thank you!

[Deflaminis]

Ok so I did try to run as administrator and had no luck. The error was 1923 this time.

Figured maybe I should try a different search program to see if there is an elusive phoenix_maxver18.log somewhere, and only came up with the one in Documents in the PhoenixFD folder.

It shows that the file was updated today, presumably during my failed tests. So, I think that since it was saved to by phoenixfd that this must be the current version of the file. The entire contents are as follows:

Installed VRay 32003
Windows ver: 6 S
max ver: 18
target renderer: VRay 3.x
platform: 64
revision:24510
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:71e7f560 pobjx:71e7f5c0
particles to collect:133
build tree 325ecce0
point mode spec. n:133 step:13.007579 compact:1
~beginframe PHXFoam001 ^^^^^^^^^
shader325ecce0 stats
steps:13816113/8479991 collected prt:0/0
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:71e7f560 pobjx:71e7f5c0
particles to collect:133
build tree 325ecce0
point mode spec. n:133 step:13.007579 compact:1
~beginframe PHXFoam001 ^^^^^^^^^
shader325ecce0 stats
steps:879217/578054 collected prt:0/6117
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
shader325ecce0 stats
steps:879217/578054 collected prt:0/6117


Error screenshots:

Rendering with Vray


Rendering with Scanline


So far I've tried reinstalling max and phoenix both. Fails with max 2014, 2016, official 2.2 release, and nightly 2.2 release.

Could a firewall interfere somehow here? Maybe Phoenix expects to be installed on C: and it's causing problems?

[Ivaylo Katev]

see the sixth row:
revision:24510
this is the build index of the official release, it's not a nightly build.
can you share an image of the UI? the official build and the nightly build have some UI differences that make possible to distinguish them.

[Deflaminis]

Interesting. I installed the nightly for 2016, but my 2014 version is using the official release. Any chance that's part of it? Here's the UI.


Thanks a lot for all your help!
AJ

[Ivaylo Katev]

yes, as the log shows, this is not a nightly build. i wold suggest to remove phoenix before the installation, even start once max to be sure that no phoenix is existing anymore, and then start the new setup. can you show the name of the installation file (the rar file)? sometimes the users download a wrong build, let be sure this is not the case
i'm 90% sure your problem is resolved in the nightlies, just have to do successful installation

[Deflaminis]

Hmm.. I see. I did what you said and the menus do look different now. Here's a screen. The splash menu now says 'Splash/Mist'.



Still the same problem however. I did notice something weird. It doesn't matter if I've associated the particle flow with the phx foam, it'll crash anyway. So these two objects don't even know to see one another, but somehow it causes a problem.

So I did more testing:
PFSource.max sample file (might be from phoenix fd 1), works fine. Uses pflow but not the foam/point method

Beer.max renders ok, but with no foam. One time I cancelled the render and got the error, but not other times. When it didn't crash, it wouldn't see the license server on the next scene open. Restarting max fixed this.


candle.max simulated but rendered no flame. Eventually it would crash max or lose the license. Usually right after the spf integer adjustment warning.

The other weird thing is I can only simulate in one scene, after that if I open another scene it loses the license and I have to restart max.

Weird. Trying to think of any plugins that might cause the conflict. Thanks again for your help.

AJ

[Ivaylo Katev]

yes, this now is the nightly build.
i think there is something else, can you try to delete all phoenix objects in the scene and render?

[Deflaminis]

With no phoenix objects in the scene, it renders fine. If I put the foamphx into the scene, it'll crash no matter what, UNLESS those particles are covered over by shape geo.

EDIT: Should be noted that the simulation box works. I can simulate fire, smoke, etc. Just rendering can be a problem as noted above. I have the vray versions installed, but scanline also crashes when I use it. (maybe that's normal for that version)

Since plugins can affect things, I have the following installed:

Solidrocks (don't use it much anymore but it's there)
PSDManager
iToo Forest pack
Vray 3.x
Finalrender (Toon)
VMMP - Siger

That's about it. The others are simple scripts that probably wouldn't have an effect. I guess I don't need the final render installed, I'll try to uninstall it and see if somehow it helps.

[Ivaylo Katev]

ok, because we can't reproduce the problem with your scene, have to continue with the remote debugging, can i see the log after a crash now?

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Could you try something - I see in the scene you sent us that in the Environment and Effects dialogue you have both PhoenixFD and VRayVolumeGrid atmospheres.

If you delete all phoenix objects, including the foam shader, then delete both atmospheres, and then place the foam shader back into the scene, does the crash still occur?

If not, will the crash occur if you delete only the volume grid atmosphere and leave just the phoenix atmosphere?

[Deflaminis]

I really appreciate your help, thanks for hanging in there.

I did some testing. If the render crashes for any reason, if I don't restart max it'll never work.

In the scene if I delete the 2 environment effects and make a new foam it'll still crash. Deleting anything in any order does create a crash. If I delete the VolumeGrid and press render, it's automatically added back in at render time. Same for the Phoenix FD node.

But if I delete the volume grid, save the scene, restart max, and render, it does work. And, that Volumegrid is no longer added to the environment tab automatically when I render if I delete it, save and reopen.

I can get it to work 100% of the time now using this process. I really appreciate your help nailing this down. Any adverse effects for not having the volumegrid?

Step by step fix for me:
1) create particles and phxfoam, link them up.
2) when you create the foam it automatically adds the VolumeGrid and PhoenixFD environment effects
3) Delete the VolumeGrid
4) Save the scene and restart max
5) Works, and volumegrid is no longer added at rendertime.

Log:
Error 1692 instead of 1623 during this process.
Installed VRay 32003
Windows ver: 6 S
max ver: 18
target renderer: VRay 3.x
platform: 64
revision:24510
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:6ff484d0 pobjx:6ff48530
particles to collect:40
build tree 39b6e9c0
point mode spec. n:40 step:6.169563 compact:1
~beginframe PHXFoam001 ^^^^^^^^^
shader39b6e9c0 stats
steps:0/10093 collected prt:0/47
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:6ff47c60 pobjx:6ff47cc0
skip foam
shader39b7bc30 stats
steps:0/0 collected prt:0/0
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:6ff47c60 pobjx:6ff47cc0
skip foam
shader39b7bc30 stats
steps:0/0 collected prt:0/0
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:6ff47c60 pobjx:6ff47cc0
skip foam
shader39b7bc30 stats
steps:0/0 collected prt:0/0
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:6ff47c60 pobjx:6ff47cc0
skip foam
shader39b7bc30 stats
steps:0/0 collected prt:0/0
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:6ff47c60 pobjx:6ff47cc0
skip foam
shader39b7bc30 stats
steps:0/0 collected prt:0/0
Post render--------------------------------------Post render
Pre render-------------------------------------- Pre render
BeginFrame of PHXFoam001
interfaces: Sp:0 pg:6ff47c60 pobjx:6ff47cc0
skip foam
shader39b7bc30 stats
steps:0/0 collected prt:0/0
Post render--------------------------------------Post render

Thanks again for your time,
AJ