By default, V-Ray renders Maya fluid effects using an internal VRayEnvironmentFog object, so it will cast GI and so on, but it might be a bit on the slow side. If you have Phoenix FD for Maya, then V-Ray for Maya can use the Phoenix FD volume shader to render Maya fluids.
Best regards,
Vlado
Hi,
Is the release date scheduled for this month ?
Thanks.
This is still the plan, yes.
Best regards,
Vlado
Thank you.
Heya
So I’m fighting with the smoke again hih…
In any case can I plug in the PFD shader in to fluidshape - and how to? I’m very new to this 
Also I have to install PFD on my slaves too to get shader to DBR?
OK my DBG with phoenix FD demo now renders randomly buckets black 
What do I doo? its like 50% of DBR buckets are black
Edit: Gotta say PFD IS EPIC. The render speed up is just insane!
Yes, you must install the Phoenix FD plugin for VRay on all machines. You can choose the installation type in the installator. It’s a single file (called vray_phoenix.dll on Windows), so if it’s easier for you, you can just copy only this file.
Heya
Yap got it to work, but it does not work in distributed. If I render using 1 slave excluding local rendering. I get around 50% buckets black 50% buckets rendered…Any suggestions?
Hi,
Do you have set your “Input” and “Output” paths for the Phoenix simulation correct?
The cache files need to be accessible from all render slaves.
Can you check the log of the slave? It should give some information.
Another issue may be that you have diferent VRay version on the slave (nightly), which is not compatible with Phoenix.
Regarding input and output paths, is it just project folder being on network HDD or is there some other setting?
Te CMD render slave log out put this info
Warning: Failed to create object of type “PhoenixFDCache”
Warning: Failed to create object of type “PhoenixFDSim”
Warning: Failed to create object of type “PhoenixFDTexAlpha”
its worth mentioning those slaves run on older hadware non embee compatible and on windows XP 64 as oposed to other ones that run win 7x64 pro.
Thanks, bye.
Also update
It looks like using DBR evey bucket is different. Attaching image. NO GI, just raw render and 2 lights.
It doens’t matter for Phoenix. Like I sad - the Phoenix plugin for VRay is not there, or it’s not compatible with the VRay version installed on that slave. Since you use the demo, you must use official VRay, or use the one installed on the master machine. The nightly builds of VRay may be not compatible with the official Phoenix builds.
I reinstalled yesterday all my Vray plugins and PFD from scratch. 1 version for all nodes and workstation. Same installation, wokstation mode on all of them(no slaves) or should I install slaves only?
on 4 nodes it works but with different result per bucket
on 6 nodes it does not work.
Just realized I only have 4x maya installed on 4 of them the 4 that works. The rest dont have maya installed so maybe that is the problem ? :s
The workstation option installs all files, so it can’t be this. It seems the installation didn’t do it’s job for some reason. Check manually if vray_phoenix.dll is in vrayplugins. This is the only file you need.
You don’t need Maya, only vray_phoenix.dll must be inside the vray plugins directory.
Humh, where in vray plugins? Program Files>Chaos Group>PhoenixFD?
I dont have Program Files> Autodesk>Maya 2013 as its not installed. Should I just create a directory maya 2013/plugins/vray_phoenix.dll ?
Also any hints why DBR render slightly different per bucket?
Thanks, bye.
Depends on where you’ve installed the VRay plugins - the “VRay plugins destionation folder” in the installator must be the same for VRay and Phoenix. About the different colors - is this happening only with the phoenix shader? Can you try with the VRayEnvironmentFog shader?
