Phoenix FD for Maya beta 3

[ivaylo.ivanov]

Hello everybody,

The new beta is on the site. Here is the changelog:

Phoenix FD 2.0 beta 3 (April 6, 2012)
============================

[bug] Crash with PhoenixFD force without a simulator during the simulation
[bug] Simulators with preview turned off not rendered properly during the simulation
[bug] Double emission contribution with additional lights and GI
[bug] Transforms for PhoenixFD nodes must be named accordingly
[bug] Error saving scenes in binary format with Phoenix nodes in Maya 2011 and prior
[bug] Visible seams with wrapped containers
[bug] Intermediate objects interact with the simulation
[bug] Crash with foam simulation in some rare cases
[bug] Instance rendering is not working immediately after duplicating
[new feature] Solid mode rendering to work with the RT engine
[new feature] Fire/Smoke rendering to work with the RT engine
[new feature] Custom gravity vector
[new feature] PhoenixFD menu in Dynamics
[new feature] Ability to "reset" the simulation (stop/clear cache/revert)
[new feature] Auto mapping option for PhoenixFD 3D texture


Phoenix FD 2.0 beta 2 (March 14, 2012)
============================

[bug] Crash when saving a preview in solid geometry mode
[bug] Crash with additional lights and transparency/emission that use a texture
[bug] Emission texture modulation checkbox is not working
[bug] Emission component do not render with the stand-alone and DR
[bug] Crash with Turbulence preview when tweaked while simulation is running
[bug] Crash in animation mode
[bug] Phoenix utility nodes can be selected only when clicked on the wireframe
[bug] Wrong shading color of the Phoenix source in the viewport under VMWare Player
[bug] Crash when closing Maya after rendering a scene with foam
[modified feature] Support more then one light in the GPU preview
[modified feature] Boundary conditions must show X/Y/Z related to the Maya viewport, not the simulator core
[modified feature] DAG processing optimization when the interaction set is inclusive
[modified feature] Phoenix textures - detect circular references
[modified feature] Native Python scripting
[modified feature] Stopping the simulation must revert the frame to the last simulated result
[new feature] Support for vray lights with the gpu shading
[new feature] Support for flipping Y and Z axis when reading a cache file
[feature request] PhoenixFD installation must not change the PYTHONPATH environment variable
[feature request] PhoenixFD must delete its shelf when the plugin is unloaded

Here are some known issues:

• RT is only partially supported in the official versions of V-Ray for Maya. To get the full featured RT support, you need a recent nightly build, but it's not obligatory. Soon, there will be a stable version of V-Ray for Maya that fully supports Phoenix FD. The known limitations of the current official V-Ray for Maya are:
  - can't update when the simulator parameters or time is changed (camera changing is working though)
  - works only in geometry mode (this is in Rendering/V-Ray section in AE). Geometry mode for fire/smoke is not recomended for the production render though, unless heat haze must be used.
• While simulating, DR is working currently at random. If you are experiencing such problems, try pausing the simulation.
• Some antivirus programs (like Microsoft Security Essentials) that have real time protection may cause the simulation to run a couple of times slower. They seem to check the files generated by Phoenix FD.
• For simulation it's better to have a processor with a higher clock speed, then with more cores.

[flat]

When the multi-byte character is being used for the scene name of Maya, or output path of Phoenix FD, simulation data is not loaded at the time of RT session.

-----vray.exe message----------
warning: [PhoenixSimPlugin] Error loading simulation data for time 24
---------------------------------

tests in nightly 22501 + Phoenix FD 2.0 beta 3 (April 6)