Hide/Kill instancer objects in a volume

[ricoholmes]

Working on a series of "how it works" type videos and tasked with a set of internal fluids animations. GPU rendering has REALLY saved the day on deadline constraints, until now.

Without being able to render particles on GPU I use Phoenix>Nparticles>Instancer and it works tremendously for the job. Lack of motion blur acceptible in this case.

However.. In a few of the sequences a cut-through is required. PhoneixCutter works fine for the water, as with CPU Particles but not instancer particles. So I'm left with GPU instancer particles flowing quite pretty into open air.


luckily the particle instances I need to kill/make invisible are from one side of the cut plane, not in a shaped volume.


Failed attempts so far:

1) Clipper (inclusive set, only instancer) The machinery is from the clients CAD source. Far too many polys occupying same space ie. Clipper panics and draws random lego

2) Projected Opacity I can't get GPU to play nicely with Mayas Projection mode.

3) Instancer > deInstanced cloud > Alembic > Bool > crying in a corner This was just reaching too far.


Are the any clever GPU render boffins that have any suggestions?
Rico

[vlado]

The GPU should be able to render particles coming in from Alembic or .vrmesh files. In any case if you just need to clip against a plane, the VRayClipper should work on the GPU - have you tried it?

Best regards,
Vlado

[ricoholmes]

This is the point where I admit I don't know the procedure to get Phoenix foam Particles into a GPU renderable VRMesh
(I usually go PhoenixParticle>NParticle>Instancer which renders fine with GPU)

Did try Clipper, but as I mention the CAD source of the rest if the scene causes Clipper chaos (way too many intersecting /coplanar geometry and clipper panics there (even hidden geomtery causes glitches).


And for gods sakes Vlado, please don't reply to my posts. It weirds me out. My problems are far too menial - go and be a godlike guru to someone more deserving.