Is there a a way to basically pass FumeFX caches through Stoke, just to convert them to the OpenVDB Format for other applications/renderers that take advantage of it?
In simple terms, you have a Fume Grid, Export out to different format?
The general workflow is:
- Open the Field Data Exporter dialog from the Stoke menu.
- Select the FumeFX object from the list of Stoke Field scene objects.
- If the source data is in Field3D format and you want to convert it to FXD or VDB, or if it is in OpenVDB format but you want FXD or F3D, you need to make a Stoke Field Loader object to input the data, then select it in the Field Data Exporter.
- Define the range, output path, and output format in the dialog.
- Press the EXPORT… button.
Since the Field Data Exporter is a scripted dialog, you could extract its main code to produce a simpler one-click solution or function without a UI.
For example, you could write a script that asks for the input file via a file open dialog, then creates a Stoke Field Loader from that path, figures out the frame range in the file sequence, asks for the output file name to determine location and extension, and exports the temporary Stoke Field Loader to it, then deletes the Loader.
This is so helpful. Thanks Bobo. Fume is just infuriatingly slow. I’m currently playing around with other renderers with their own atmospheric importers. Vray renders quickly, but I’m curious about 3Delight. Going to give this a try right away.
The only problem I am getting is with density? I keep getting a density error popping up.
Could you be a little more vague? 
Can you post exact details (best with steps) WHERE and HOW you get the Density errors? With screenshots, if possible? Is that during export, during rendering in VRay, or somewhere else?
Stoke assumes that the Smoke channel is equivalent to Density. So when reading FumeFX data, it is converted to Density automatically.
When saving OpenVDB, you should thus get a Density channel saved.
Similarly, when converting a field to FXD files, the Density channel goes into Smoke, positive Fire goes into Fire, negative Fire goes into Fuel, Temperature remains Temperature, Velocity stays Velocity.
See “Notes About FumeFX Export” in thinkboxsoftware.com/stoke-m … -exporter/
I’m kicking off a render now, but I will post screenshots for you once it’s done 
So here are the steps I took in order from left to right.
-I have my FumeFX Grid, that has a Smoke channel.
-I held shift and added the Field Loader - then chose my .field3d sequence.
-In the Stoke Field Data Exporter I chose the Field Loader
-The Stoke log window popped up saying “Couldn’t read DenseField data”
I am almost certain I missed a step, when it comes to the atmospherics in Stoke I get so confused because of the bouncing around between flows.
I hope that helps a bit.
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Ok, so you are trying to READ Field3D data saved from FumeFX? You cannot do that, Field3D files saved by FumeFX use a custom compression which we don’t (as in “cannot”) support. We support only uncompressed Field3D files, native FumeFX FXD files, or OpenVDB files as input.
So your steps should be:
- Create a Stoke Filed Loader object.
- Pick a FumeFX FXD sequence.
- Open the Stoke Field Data Exporter…
(The only pre-requisite here is a valid FumeFX installation, since reading FXD files uses the FumeFX DLL).
Alternatively, you can use a Stoke Field Magma that reads the FumeFX Grid data using an InputField node and outputs whatever channels you want to save. There you can use either the FumeFX Grid as the source of the InputField, or the FXD file sequence from disk without a FumeFX Grid in the scene. This approach is probably more flexible, as you can define the exact names of the channels your output OpenVDB sequence will store. Thus, if you want to name your channels something specific to the target platform, you can simply rename them in the Output nodes in the Magma Editor.
Thanks! The one time I choose to use .field3d export for Vray. Honestly, I can’t wait for Fume 4 to come out so I can upgrade. At least then you can load VDB easy enough. I’ll re-export my sim and give this a try. Thanks Bobo!
In FumeFx preferences there are two options for Field3D Compression, “Proprietary FumeFX” and gzip. The default is “Proprietary FumeFX”. In order to import Field3D files into a VrayVolumeGrid you have to choose gzip compression.
In my initial test of a Field3D file from FumeFX using gzip compression as opposed to the “Proprietary FumeFX” compression I still got the error “Couldn’t read DenseField data”. Is it possible for you guys to support gzip compressed Field3D files?
Cheers,
Jason
We don’t support ANY compression of F3D right now.
I will add the gzip request to the Wishlist, but cannot promise anything - we really would prefer if everybody would just go OpenVDB
Jason, at this point I wouldn’t worry too much about field3d. OpenVDB is pretty much the new standard for atmospherics and will be an export option in Fume 4.