I’m sort of confused about writing to .fxd files and how to use them regarding Fume. I setup a basic stoke field and pumped pflow particles through it. I then exported the separate Stoke sim as .fxd files. Now, this is where I’m confused. I loaded them inside Fume, there was no problem there, but there is no visual feedback (Smoke). I’m not sure if I’m just using incorrectly or missed a step. I guess my main question is if Fume is supposed to load them as voxel data that can be rendered with say Scanline or Vray?
You need to make sure that you write out a density channel that contains the “smoke”, did you do that? Everything works great here on my end.
Ah, I have not. That’s the missing piece! Thanks! 
for a second I thought I was crazy.
I am so glad to see this implemented! Agh flip my beta license just expired! (Thanks Bobo that was quick!)
Yeah this really is an amazing feature and I am very happy it made it in. On my personal wish list is support for fluid-mapping (not sure if this is already implemented?) and Wavelet support. Not sure if this is doable but if it is I would love to see it in Stoke 2.x.
There’s so many uses for this but one case is if I need proper reflections/refractions/mattes I will save my PRT sequences out to FXDs. From my early tests it’s faster than Stoke’s/Krakatoa’s environment renderer. Plus I also really like FFX’s multiple scattering.
Btw, I’ve been using this for a couple of weeks and I just wanted to give you some tips. Sometimes it’s better to write out velocities to an FXD sequence and use an FFX Source in a new FFX and grab the velocities from that (freeflow enabled). Experience will ultimately decide in what scenarios which one works better (FFX Source vs FieldMagma/FieldForce combo). Also, for speed’s sake, in FIeld Magma try to always only use Pvelocitysplat, ParticleSplat and Levelset. Set everything else up on your PRT Loader (assuming you have Krakatoa). And once you run your FFX Simulation, make sure you either delete the Field Magma’s (unless you are using them in a Field Force) or mute them completely because when FFX steps through each frame it will also evaluate Field Magma even if it’s not included in the FFX which in turn slows down your simulations.
Okay, I just came back to this. Where are you guys exporting the density from? I’m using a vanilla Pflow with the Field Magma that is fed into the Stoke Field Follow.
In my example, are you guys Running the Stoke sim, and then Exporting it to .fxd AFTER the sim. Or are you just simply exporting to .fxd? I attached my scene file.
Stoke_FXD.max (272 KB)
There might be a misunderstanding here (I have not written the docs/tuts on this yet, planned for tomorrow).
FXD export is meant for FIELDS. You create a Stoke Field Sim, or Stoke Magma, and output the field data to FXDs to render in Fume, or to use as initial state for simulation etc. No particles involved.
In both Magmas, you have Density and Velocity outputs by default. If you simulate the Density advected by Velocity like in this example
thinkboxsoftware.com/stk2-simple-plume-sim/
you can then export the Field Sim to FumeFX instead of advecting particles, and render the Density field directly in FumeFX as Smoke.
You can also create Outputs for Temperature, Fuel, Fire etc., create your own data (using meshes/LevelSets, Textures, particles, whatever) and save to FXD, then load in FumeFX and use there.
My first test was making a Sphere inside a Field Magma, converting it to LevelSet and filling all inside voxels with a lot of Fuel. Then I made another smaller sphere intersecting it and filled with a very high Temperature. I then saved that field to a single FXD file, loaded as initial state in Fume, hit simulate and it ignited and exploded (violently, I had the Fuel too high!), proving that I can design FumeFX setups using pure Stoke Field means…
You can of course save FXDs containing Velocity fields to use inside of FumeFX etc.
I uploaded a preview of what the Density Field (Smoke) looks like when exported from the Stoke Field Sim as FXDs and rendered using FumeFX in Default Scanline renderer. See the bottom of this page:
thinkboxsoftware.com/stk2-simple-plume-sim
Bobo, I took a look at the link and got it rendering in Fume. Thanks! This is super useful!
You create a Stoke Field Sim, or Stoke Magma, and output the field data to FXDs to render in Fume, or to use as initial state for simulation etc.
Quick question…How exactly does one write an .fxd file out of the field simulator? It looks like it goes straight to .vdb without any option to change. I can load fxd files into a field loader no problem, but I’m missing the step on how to write them out.
cheers,
CZ
It’s in the Stoke drop down menu.
Now that you mention it, I have to change the text in the menu to include VDB, too
Oh awesome. Thank you very much…and yes, it is present in the latest build.