With Phoenix FD 4.40 we added support for 3ds Max 2022 (note that the GPU preview and velocity streamline preview are disabled temporarily due to changes in the 3ds Max viewports).
We implemented mutual collisions between Active Bodies so now you can create complex rigid body dynamics with Phoenix. In order to aid scenes with many interacting objects, we added a new Property Lister window, allowing you quick access to the per-node properties of the scene nodes.
Simulations of large scale stormy oceans or tunnel waves are now possible with the new Massive Wave Force.
A new colored absorption option allows for more interesting volume rendering effects, and can also be mapped via a texture. We added support for motion blur of Bubbles and Splashes in V-Ray GPU (requires a latest V-Ray 5).
The Phoenix standalone previewer can now be fully controlled via the command line, allowing you to change options and save image sequences of cache files in all different preview modes.
In this version of Phoenix, we multithreaded all remaining parts of the simulation, and also sped up the simulation, previews and rendering significantly.
We improved our toolbar presets, added more options to the cache converter tool, and as always, fixed many issues.
NEWPHOENIXSupport for 3ds Max 2022 (GPU preview and velocity streamline preview are temporarily disabled)
NEWACTIVE BODIESMutual interaction between Active Bodies, using the Bullet Solver option
NEWSIMULATION GENERALPhoenix Property Lister window for quickly editing many obstacles or Active Bodies in the scenе
NEWVOLUME SHADERAbsorption color for volume rendering which can also be mapped by a texture
NEWVOLUME SHADERRender the Fully Visible Fire Opacity Mode together with the Use Probabilistic Shading option
NEWPARTICLE SHADERRender the Particle Shader in Bubbles/Splashes mode with motion blur on V-Ray GPU, requiresV-Ray 5, update 1.2
NEWSTANDALONE PREVIEWCommand line interface allowing to script image saving using different preview modes and options
NEWWAVE FORCEMassive Wave Force allowing to exactly replicate the Ocean waves, to affect any Phoenix channel, even without Fillup for Ocean, and use any Level Of Detail of the Ocean Texture
NEW3DS MAX INTEGRATIONOption to start a render after each simulation frame is completed - 'Render On Each Sim Frame' in the Simulation rollout, to go together with Cacheless Simulation
IMPROVEDSIMULATION GENERALSped up low res simulations (below 10 million voxels) with up to 15%
IMPROVEDSIMULATION GENERALEnabled Grid Velocity for all Simulators and presets by default
IMPROVEDFLIP SOLVEREmit pressure from Liquid Sources In Volume Inject mode without emitting liquid
IMPROVEDFLIP SOLVERAllow Birth Volumes to interact with the simulation even if they are hidden
IMPROVEDFLIP SOLVERSped up FLIP simulations with up to 25%
IMPROVEDACTIVE BODIESA new 'Collision Margin' parameter which you can lower in order to keep groups of bodies in contact
IMPROVEDSOURCESAffect Motion Velocity of Sources emitting from geometries and particles, using Discharge Modifiers
IMPROVEDSOURCESSped up texture mapped emitters by improving their multithreading
IMPROVEDPARTICLE SHADERSped up frame begin and frame end of the Particle Shader in Bubbles/Splashes/Cellular and Points Mode, especially with huge numbers of particles
IMPROVEDOCEAN MESHERHidden "oceanpriority" option for controlling which is the primary ocean contained when several ones are merged
IMPROVEDCACHE I/OSped up particle compression when writing AUR files. Older Phoenix versions will not be able to read the new AUR files
IMPROVEDCACHE I/ORead VDB particle channels named 'point_velocity', 'point_size' and 'point_age'
IMPROVEDPRESETSImproved the Gasoline Explosion toolbar Quick Setup preset
IMPROVEDPRESETSImproved the Burning Fuel toolbar Quick Setup preset
IMPROVEDPREVIEWSped up viewport performance of many Simulator copies
IMPROVEDSTANDALONE PREVIEWOptions for specifying the resolution of the saved images
IMPROVEDSTANDALONE PREVIEWOption for enabling orthographic projection
IMPROVEDCACHE CONVERTER-exportchannels option allowing you to write only specific channels to the output cache files
IMPROVEDCACHE CONVERTER-removegridch and -removeprt options allowing stripping of grid and particle channels from the cache files
IMPROVEDSCRIPTINGAllowed adding, removing and getting the Phoenix Node Properties on an object via MaxScript - new phxAddNodeProps, phxRemoveNodeProps, and phxGetNodeProps functions
IMPROVEDSCRIPTINGEqualized all MaxScript names for the Phoenix Node Properties options with the names in Maya
IMPROVEDSCRIPTINGNew IPhoenix interface, with getVersionString(), getTargetString() and getCopyrightsString() methods
IMPROVEDTOOLBARDelete caches from the Phoenix toolbar without a selected Simulator
IMPROVED3DS MAX INTEGRATIONAllowed animating all float and world unit Simulator options
IMPROVED3DS MAX INTEGRATIONAllowed animating of the Solid, Wetting and Voxel Mode Override node properties
IMPROVEDUSER INTERFACEAdded a new 'Credits and Copyrights' window, accessible via the 'Phoenix FD' menu
IMPROVEDUSER INTERFACEMoved the 'Preferences' and 'About' dialog from the Simulator to the 'Phoenix FD' menu
REMOVEDPHOENIXDropped support for 3ds Max 2016 and 2017
REMOVEDUSER INTERFACEHidden the Particle TexUVW export option from the Output rollout
FIXEDFLIP SOLVEREmitting Foam/Splash from rigged geometry via a Source in Surface Force mode with Motion Velocity did not set the initial velocity of the particles
FIXEDFLIP SOLVERThe Foam Birth Volume did not prevent foam to be born by the Splash's Foam On Hit
FIXEDFLIP SOLVERLower Sticky Liquid multiplier values in scenes with overall low Sticky strength resulted in stronger Sticky interaction
FIXEDFLIP SOLVERFoam and Splash particles could be born by a Source one voxel further outside the grid's positive sides
FIXEDFLIP SOLVERLiquid Particles flew to infinity when animated Time Scale reached value of 0
FIXEDFLIP SOLVERUsing Foam Patterns caused some foam particles to get stuck at the liquid surface near geometries
FIXEDFLIP SOLVERLiquid was creeping up the walls of Confine Geometry, and Liquid and Foam particles sometimes got shot away on collision with Confine Geometry
FIXEDACTIVE BODIESIf an Active Body was made See-Through, starting the simulation created a clone with See-Through OFF
FIXEDACTIVE BODIESThe Active Bodies Ground plane elasticity affected the elasticity of the collision objects as well
FIXEDCACHELESS SIMULATIONSSometimes more than 1 frame remained in RAM
FIXEDCACHELESS SIMULATIONSThe Grid RGB channel was not visible in Cacheless frames
FIXEDSOURCESTurning off Phoenix Source's Motion Velocity checkbox did not disable the velocity effect in Surface Force mode
FIXEDVOLUME SHADERVolumes were not affected by the V-Ray GI engine multipliers
FIXEDVOLUME SHADERSetting the Self-Shadowing of the Fire lights to None fell back to the Ray-Traced mode using V-Ray, since Phoenix 3.13
FIXEDVOLUME SHADERRare random crash or memory leak when starting and stopping V-Ray GPU rendering
FIXEDVOLUME SHADERWrong sampling of smoke opacity maps by the Volume Shader when TexUVW was enabled
FIXEDVOLUME SHADERVolumetrics which used any texture maps rendered slowly and did't utilize the CPU fully with Corona 6
FIXEDVOLUMETRIC ILLUMINATIONFire Lights were visible in surfaces with Reflection Glossiness below 1
FIXEDVOLUMETRIC ILLUMINATIONCreate Lights Even If Not Renderable created the lights in the wrong positions with V-Ray 5
FIXEDPARTICLE SHADERIncorrect motion blur rendering particles in Bubbles/Splashes/Cellular Mode from a Simulator, moving together with an animated camera
FIXEDPARTICLE SHADERDisable Liquid Shadows was not working in Points mode with Volume Light Cache enabled, or Bubbles and Cellular mode, since Phoenix 4.10
FIXEDV-RAY IPRCrash during IPR of a Particle Shader in Bubbles mode with Render as Geometry ON
FIXEDV-RAY IPRMoving the timeline in did not update the Particle Shader when rendering in IPR with V-Ray GPU if the Simulator was hidden
FIXEDOCEAN MESHERRendering in Mesh Mode with Smoothing and Motion Blur enabled lost the smoothed normals
FIXEDTEXUVWCrash when simulating TexUVW interpolation with certain Time Scale values
FIXEDCACHE I/OCrash when exporting the ID channel of a particle system with more than 536'870'911 particles. Older Phoenix versions will not be able to read the new AUR files
FIXEDBODY FORCEBody Force's Spread Speed could create huge velocities if the affected channel had negative values
FIXEDWAVE FORCELowering the Rate of Change of the Ocean Texture reduced the effect of the Wave Force
FIXEDPREVIEWMissing frames in the viewport right after simulation restore
FIXEDPREVIEWCrash when previewing particles and simulating the same frame with less particles since Phoenix 4.30
FIXEDPREVIEWAuto Reduction didn't raise the Detail Reduction correctly with many Simulators in the scene
FIXEDPREVIEWCrash with particle preview of certain numbers of particles with Detail Reduction
FIXEDPREVIEWCrash when turning on Velocity Streamlines preview while having Force preview turned on
FIXEDPREVIEWGraph Cells did not work when there wasn't a loaded cache
FIXEDPRESETSToolbar Quick Setup presets could be created over the Active Body Solver icon
FIXEDGPU PREVIEWGPU preview was stretched and skewed in ortho mode
FIXEDGPU PREVIEWParticle System nodes were shown as Simulators in the Classic GPU Preview
FIXEDGPU PREVIEWGPU Preview was drawn incorrectly in inactive viewports, when "Active View Only" is deselected
FIXEDGRID TEXTUREGrid Texture was not updated correctly when used by multiple Simulators in fire/smoke rendering based on a Texture
FIXEDPARTICLE TEXTUREParticle Texture was not working in Corona when Render-time Only was enabled
FIXED3DS MAX INTEGRATIONMerging a scene with a Simulator named the same as an existing one renamed the caches of the existing Simulator
FIXED3DS MAX INTEGRATIONPhoenix textures lost any custom names when saved to a scene
FIXED3DS MAX INTEGRATIONCrash when using a Phoenix Simulator as a particle source for a V-Ray Instancer using V-Ray CPU (the fix requires both latest Phoenix and V-Ray)
FIXED3DS MAX INTEGRATIONSplashes Foam on Hit Amount was named 'Size Distribution' in Track View
FIXED3DS MAX INTEGRATIONRepeating Undo in the Phoenix MAXScript editor window ultimately erased all the script
FIXEDUSER INTERFACEStopping the simulation using Esc/Shift+Esc sometimes worked even when the 3ds Max window was not focused
FIXEDUSER INTERFACEAborting a Simulation where the Output cache path didn't exist was not working, since Phoenix 4.30
FIXEDSUBMITTERSubmitting $(scene_path).vdb from 3ds Max for Backburner simulation wrote AUR caches
