Vray rendering VDB files from Phoenix

[cum. m+d]

Hi guys,

I've got an issue with rendering VDB files with Maya Vray.
The situation is that our company had this project where we hired a freelancer to help us with a simulation, and he uses 3ds max and Phoenix.
So while doing the project, we provided him with the necessary files to create a mask for the simulation, He rendered the project on his side, then sent us the rendered images.

Now when we're trying to do "behind the scenes" for this project, We wanted to render the simulation here on our side using the VDB files that we got from him, but we're having issues with getting the smoke to render.

When we were loading the VDB file in to maya (vray volume grid), maya was giving options for fumeFX preset and houdini presets. But there weren't any presets for Phoenix so we went for "no preset" when we were loading them into maya.
Do you guys know what are the usual preset/ settings in maya for phoenix VDB files?


What I did in maya was to create a vray volume grid, load the cache files and piped in the smoke,temperature to their relative channels.
I've tried playing around with the settings in the smoke color, as well as the luminance of the fire but I just couldn't get to look right.

I've included some screenshots that I took : https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...HpCWnN5WUZ1VFE

& I'm using Maya 2016 Extension 2 SP1, Vray 3.40.04

Any help appreciated!
Thanks guys

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey,

No-preset goes for Phoenix since the defaults are suited for Phoenix caches. However, note that the cache files contain just the data and don't transfer any settings, so if you weren't rendering with all default settings, you are still going to have to manually equalize the render settings and curves with the original simulator that was used for rendering. In Max currently you can export a render settings preset from Phoenix and load it in the VolumeGrid, but for Maya this is still not implemented.

[cum. m+d]

Thanks for the swift reply! I've been trying out with the settings that I got from our freelancer, but i'm still pretty stucked.

I've been matching the same exact settings as the ones in 3ds max, but the simulation doesn't seem to be rendering correctly. the fire seems to be illuminating the entire bounding box which isn't exactly what I wanted.

sorry i'm really new to phoenix, I'm not sure if there's anything that I'm doing wrong here.

attached more screenshots in the link below:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...Wc?usp=sharing

thanks again!

[Svetlozar Draganov]

Have you got the original 3dsMax scene from the freelancer?
If yes, would it be possible to send it along the caches files and the Maya scene you are working on?

[cum. m+d]

Hi Svetlozar,

We will send the files to support@chaosgroup.com and include 10 frames as it would be extremely large. We'd like to avoid sharing our freelancers working files.

We still would like to know if we could take a file setup in 3dsmax phoenix and simulate it in maya phoenix so that in future, we don't have to pass VDB files around.

[georgi.zhekov]

Hello,

For the scene you can try and increase the Input Offset option under the Fire Settings - try with like 800 or 1000 and adjust it from there. This should fix the filled with temperature bounding box.