v6.0 Sitni Sati FumeFX for 3ds Max
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One of the Fastest and Most Flexible CG Fluid Dynamics Simulation Systems Available
FumeFX is a high-end, professional fluid dynamics system for 3ds Max. Artists can create incredibly realistic and breathtaking effects with fire, smoke, explosions, particle system, cloth, soft body dynamics, rigid body dynamics, geometry fracturing, and more.
FumeFX 6 is multiphysics plug-in for 3ds max that integrates fluid dynamics with a node-based system that includes particles, rope, rigid body dynamics, cloth, soft body dynamics, inflatable soft body, voxel grid manipulation, node based access to FumeFX simulation and sources, character animation control and other.
With over 140 ready-to-use nodes, artists can create a completely new range of visual effects directly inside the FumeFX package more efficiently and cost-effective than ever before. Controlling FumeFX simulation or modifying existing caches by using a modern node based workflow opens up endless possibilities.
Artists will benefit from direct support of Arnold points, splines, instances, volumes, custom channels, and procedurals.
FumeFX 6.0 new features
Sitni Sati expanded FumeFX capabilities with NodeWorks, a node-based multiphysics solution that includes particles, rope, rigid body dynamics, cloth, soft body dynamics, inflatable softbody, voronoi fracture, flock simulation, character animation control, voxel grid manipulation, node based access to FumeFX simulation and sources and many other tools.
NodeWorks provides direct support for Arnold points, splines, instances, custom channels and procedurals which significantly boost productivity and flexibility.
The new Pyro Vorticty model adds fine detail to fire and smoke channels with minimal flow disruption. Also, users can now add pressure to the simulation directly from sources and have more control over the adaptive grid boundaries.
Feature film and games reel
Over the past 17 years of development and innovations, FumeFX has become an integral part of major studio production pipelines. It has been used to create visual effects for many blockbuster films such as Dr. Strange, Thor, Roland Emmerich’s 2012, Hugo, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Priest, Skyline, Suckerpunch, Spiderman 3, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Superman Returns, Iron Man and more. Computer game cinematics like Blizzard’s StarCraft II, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, The Warhammer Series, and many others have relied on FumeFX software to achieve stunning visuals.
Fluid Dynamics
The FumeFX simulation core has been constantly improved and refined to deliver high level of realism with minimal simulation times. With over 17 years of successful usage in film production, video games, the advertisement industry and other areas that require realistic fire and smoke have helped in shaping the fluid simulation package that users can rely on. Whether making a candle dancing on the wind or destroying a whole city block in 2012 movie style, FumeFX can help you deliver the shot on time and within budget.
 The Solver |  Combustion with Oxygen |  Vorticity |
 Render Warps |  Effectors |  Post Processing |
 N-Sim |  Wavelet Turbulence |  GPU Viewport |
NodeWorks
NodeWorks is a completely new node based multiphysics developed for FumeFX 6 release. It includes over 140 ready to use nodes arranged into 15 functional groups like Dynamics, FumeFX and Voxels, Fibers, PhysX, Splines, Shapes, Math to name a few.
Particles
NodeWorks particles are organized into groups and clusters and they’re the very foundation for the cloth, soft body dynamics, rigid body dynamics, fractures and other simulations within the NodeWorks. Particle custom channels can be used with Arnold renderer’s user data textures which makes it easy to use particle attributes for shading.
 Face Shatter |  Voronoi Fracture |  Swarm |
 Splines |  Rigid Body Dynamics |  ISurf |
 Voxelize |  Animation |  Rendering |
Voxels
Voxel related nodes allow integration with FumeFX simulation, cache manipulation and custom voxel field creation. The content of each voxel can be directly accessed and modified which opens up endless possibilities.
 Custom Force Fields | FumeFX Sources and Collisions |  Particle Advection |
Cloth and Soft Body
NodeWorks’ particle based cloth and soft body dynamics can create a vast range of visual effects that interact with FumeFX fluid simulations. Effects such as tear and plasticity are fully supported.
 FumeFX Interaction |  Cloth |  Soft Body |
 Inflatable Soft Body |  Plasticity |  Tear |
Rendering
FumeFX for 3ds Max has various levels of support for 3ds Max Scanline, Arnold , Redshift, Corona render and FStorm. Other renderers like Octane and VRay can render FumeFX caches by using the OpenVDB file format.
 Arnold |  Redshift and Corona |  FStorm |
Description
System Requirements
Autodesk 3ds Max 2019 – 2023
FumeFX has been developed and tested on Windows 8 64-bit and Windows 10 64-bit. Computers with a minimum of 8Gb memory are recommended. Processors with at least SSE 4.1 are required.
Reviews & Comments
Customer Reviews
Unbelievable realism!
This is one of the few plug-ins you really need to have for 3dsMax if you are serious about VFX. The level of detail and realism is unmatched! I tried Phoneix FD before but wasn't really happy with the results. The fire and smoke never looked the way I wanted them to look. But with Fume you can make the simulatiosn exactly look like you want them to look. The only bad thing you could think about is that the simulation times can take a while, or an hour, or three. But quality needs its time. And if you come back after a long simulation and you see the final results you'll be more than happy. The finished simulations really look photo realistic! And as far as I know it's the only affordable solution that can do photo real simulations. 5 Stars!!!!!
Would you recommend this product to a colleague? Yes
By: Moritz Lüdtke
Date: April 09, 2012
Change Log
FumeFX 6.0
Released March 8, 2023
- Node based system with more than 140 ready to use nodes, including:
- Particles with groups, clusters and custom channels.
- Easy post processing of particle caches including retiming, particle attribute change, geometry replacement and more.
- Progressive geometry fragmentation at face/polygon level.
- Voronoi fragmentation.
- Rope simulation.
- Cloth dynamics with plastic deformations and tear.
- Soft body dynamics with plastic deformations.
- Inflatable soft body.
- Rigid body dynamics (PhysX).
- Swarm – Collective behavior simulation.
- Character animation control. Event driven animation playback with smooth animation blending.
- Voxel grids – loading, per-voxel manipulation, caching and direct rendering.
- Custom Voxel grid forces.
- FumeFX caches loading, processing and re-caching.
- Node based access to FumeFX simulation process and voxels.
- Direct node-based addition of sources and collision objects to FumeFX simulation.
- Direct pressure addition to FumeFX simulation for better explosion control.
- Extensive integration with the Arnold renderer supporting point rendering, procedural rendering of splines via Arnold curves, geometry instances, volumes and custom channels.
- ISurf particle mesher with direct Arnold motion blur support. Available meshing algorithms: Union of Spheres, Metaballs, Zhu-Bridson and Anisotropic.
- New FumeFX Pyro Vorticity.
- FumeFX sources can add pressure to the system.
- New FumeFX adaptive grid control.
FumeFX 5.1.2
- Adds support for 3ds max 2023 and Arnold renderer 7.1.1.0 (max 2020 to max 2023).
- DreamScape for 3ds max 2023 is now available as well.
FumeFX™ v5.1 for 3ds Max
Simulation
- Object Source< is renamed to Geometry Source and it can emit from tyFlow and Particle Flow particle shape geometry.
- Fixed crash during the NSim simulation if grid spacing was very large.
Rendering
- Added support for Arnold renderer 6.2.0.1.
UI
- Fixed tyPreview causing crash with GPU viewport enabled.
- FumeFX .systemscale less than one results in wrong GPU viewport display.
Misc
- Added installation for 3ds max 2022.
FumeFX™ 5.0.7 for 3ds Max® release
August 12, 2020
With this update FumeFX adds support for the latest Arnold renderer 6.0.4.0 as well as bug fixes and improvements.
Simulation
- Added support for 3rd party .vdb files for Initial State simulation.
- Fixed Particle Source that didn’t work with the color channel controller.
- Fixed particle system picking that could crash Particle Source with tyFlow float as vector controller.
- Fixed FumeFX-TP birth operators that caused crash with TP 6.7+ and 3ds max 2019.
Rendering
- Added FumeFX Tex3D colors extraction without shading applied.
- Added support for Arnold render 6.0.4.0.
- Fixed FumeFX-Redshift shader and cache sharpening.
I/O Subsystem
- Fixed .vdb crashes if velocities were present in input caches.
- Fixed issue where 3rd party .vdb cache velocities were not properly loaded.
- Fixed Initial state didn’t work if Color was present inside the .fdc cache.
- Fixed error when using .fxd as initial state could throw the file version mismatch message.
UI
- Added Initial State filename display in the FumeFX menu.
Misc
- Fixed installer for 3ds max 2021 that didn’t properly install FumeFX Arnold shader.
FumeFX™ 5.0.6 for 3ds Max® release
March 18, 2020
Sitni Sati releases FumeFX™ 5.0.6 update for 3ds Max®. With this update FumeFX adds support for the Redshift® renderer (3.0.17 and up) as well as the latest Arnold 6.0.2.1.
FumeFX™ 5.0.5 for 3ds Max® release
December 3, 2019 – Sitni Sati releases FumeFX™ 5.0.5 update for Autodesk® 3ds Max®. This update includes bug fixes and compatibility with Arnold 5.4.0.2.
Viewport
- GPU Viewport Quality 5 now supports much higher resolution.
Simulation
- Fixed FumeFX4 solver with the Conservative advection crash.
- Fixed Deferred caches didn’t work with Wavelet Turbulence or Post Processing.
- Fixed Backburner simulation mode was not working.
- Fixed Wind force that was able to set velocities inside collision geometry.
- Fixed N-Sim crash when overlapping area was one voxel thick.
- Fixed Freeflow source option that was still blocking the flow in some cases.
I/O Subsystem
- Fixed IO error on .fdc files that are larger than 32Gb.
Rendering
- FumeFX 5.0.5 is built with Arnold® 5.4.0.2
- Added Smoke and Fuel receive/cast shadows are now enabled by default.
FumeFX™ 5.0.4 for 3ds Max® release
July 22, 2019 – Sitni Sati releases FumeFX™ 5.0.4 update for Autodesk® 3ds Max®. In addition to bug fixes, this update includes GPU Viewport support for 3ds Max 2020.1 detachable viewports that allows artists to use detached view as they were using the old FumeFX preview window. FumeFX 5.0.4 adds more controls and updated preview for Turbulence Noise as well as new Affect Velocity Magnitude Mode. Another great addition is the Parameter Check dialog that allows users to quicky determine which simulation parameters were changed from their default values.
Viewport
- Added compatibility with 3ds max 2020.1 undockable viewport. You can now use it in the same fashion as the old FumeFX Preview Window.
- Fixed when GPU viewport is in maximized ortho/persp/cam view and then changed to another persp/cam view it will stop displaying.
- Fixed FumeFX Wind display bug with Spherical type and Linear falloff.
- Fixed VRay lights that didn’t work inside the GPU Viewport.
User Interface
- Added Turbulence Noise rasterized view.
- Changed Turbulence noise parameter Offset renamed to Time Offset.
- Changed Simulation rollout layout.
- Changed FumeFX Wind Scale parameter is now in world units, like it is for the Turbulence Noise inside the FumeFX dialog.
- Added FumeFX Wind to the list of objects to create from obj/sources dialog.
- Added Parameter Check option to the FumeFX menu.
Simulation
- Fixed tyFlow particle velocities that were too large.
- Added Affect Velocity Magnitude Mode to Turbulence Noise.
- Added Small Detail Scale parameter to Turbulence Noise.
- Added Small Detail Amount parameter to Turbulence Noise.
- Added Small Detail Scale parameter to FumeFX Wind.
- Added Small Detail Amount parameter to FumeFX Wind.
- Added noise preview to FumeFX Wind.
Rendering
- FumeFX 5.0.4 is built with Arnold® 5.3.1.1.
- Fixed not working Falloff with Arnold® render.
- Fixed FumeFX for 3ds max 2020 that didn’t show FumeFX and FusionWorks Render Elements.
FumeFX™ 5.0.3 for 3ds Max® release
May 05, 2019 – Sitni Sati releases FumeFX™ 5.0.3 update for Autodesk® 3ds Max®. In addition to bug fixes, this update includes new FumeFX 4 Solver option, tyFlow support, GPU Viewport Multiview, 3ds Max® 2020 support and more. With FumeFX 5 release there were many changes and improvements throughout the simulation core which inevitably led to quite different simulation results when compared to previous FumeFX version. The newly added option to use the FumeFX 4 Solver will allow users to achieve similar results compared to FumeFX 4 with benefits of FumeFX’s 5 features.
- 3ds Max® 2020 support.
GPU Viewport
- Added Multiview option.
- Added Arnold light approximation to the FumeFX GPU Viewport.
- Changed default option for Show Fire and Smoke in viewport which is now enabled by default.
- Fixed Playback From/To parameter change didn’t trigger viewport refresh.
- Fixed viewport update bug when switching cache files.
- Fixed viewport update bug. In a newly created scene create a grid and run the simulation. Perspective viewport point display didn’t work until the viewport was rotated.
- Fixed 3ds max crash if you pick Arnold Light from FumeFX Light pick dialog.
Simulation
- Added option to use the FFX4 Solver.
- Added ability to select tyFlow particles from Particle Source.
- Added support of tyFlow’s float and vector particle channels for the Interpolation controllers.
- Fixed FumeFX Wind didn’t show parameters inside the Track View
- Fixed bug where VDB files with conservative advection and sub-steps didn’t retime properly.
- Fixed MXS that was broken pre 3ds max 2019
- Changed Default Vorticity II values. New default for Strength is 0.9 and for Vortices Scale is 0.01.
- Changed MXS GetPath() that will now return extension as well.
Rendering
- Fixed bug that caused Arnold renderer to hang if two or more FumeFX grids were in the scene.
What’s new in FumeFX 5.0.2
GPU Viewport
- Fixed FumeFX GPU display offset when grid spacing was very low.
- Fixed non-functional FumeFX GPU display on certain combination of graphic cards and drivers.
Simulation
- Fixed crash when trying to continue simulation from current frame.
I/O Subsystem
- Added vdb support for Wavelet Turbulence simulation.
- Fixed presets saving error for 3ds max 2014.
Rendering
- Added VRay® 4 support.
- Added Arnold® 5.2 support.
- Added 3rd party vdb caches support for FumeFX Standard Shader and Arnold.
- Fixed Arnold renderer could render fuel instead of smoke bug.
- Added Standard Shader support for Arnold AOV’s – normal, motionvector and depth.
What’s new in FumeFX 5.0.1
Workflow
- Fixed FumeFX Sources created from the FumeFX toolbar had random colors.
- Fixed Effector’s influence display in viewport.
Simulation
- Speed improvements for the QCG solver. Updated solver is now able to use nearly 100% CPUs even on machines with 20+ cores. This optimization has resulted with up to 20% faster QCG compared to FumeFX 5.0.
- New FumeFX Wind force with artist friendly options. In addition to 3ds max Wind, the FumeFX Wind has the falloff applied to the turbulent force. It also has additional options such as falloff ranges, various falloff types and probably the most important – visualization of the Wind force field direction and strength.
- Significant speed improvements of the 3ds max Wind force.
- Fixed color channel bleeding during the simulation.
- Fixed Turbulence Noise Scale Effector crash.
I/O Subsystem
- Fixed I/O crash on machines with 48 and more threads.
- Fixed deferred caches so they wait for large caches to be completely written to disk.
Rendering
- Added Arnold renderer support for the FumeFX Standard Shader (requires FumeFX shader license).
- New built in FumeFX-Arnold Volume that supports Arnold’s Standard Volume shader (does not require FumeFX shader license).
- Shader license supports FumeFX Standard Shader for mental ray and for Arnold. Old FumeFX-mr shader licenses for 3ds Max will work with Arnold as well.
What’s new in FumeFX 5.0
Workflow
- FumeFX GPU* accelerated display has been integrated within the 3ds Max viewport. The new display includes volumetric shadows, proper geometry occlusion and instant shader feedback.
- The Data preview has been changed and allows user to choose voxel display size.
- New FumeFX toolbar that provides access to FumeFX and source creation as well as simulation control.
(*) supports 3ds Max 2016 and newer
Simulation
- With the new advection type in the arsenal, FumeFX can easily create fluid flows that minimize numerical losses even after 900 frames of animation.
- Simulation core redesign allows usage of complex geometry instead of using proxies without breaking the solver or causing instabilities.
- Smooth retiming regardless of simulation sub-steps and retiming scale factor.
- Depending on the scene setup, the latest version of FumeFX delivers up to 20% faster simulation.
- Ability to retime simulation during the Wavelet Turbulence pass.
- Vorticity II optimizations include faster calculations and lower memory requirements.
- Improved simulation scaling. Grids of different spacing will result in similar simulations. FumeFX 5 also improves scaling with CPU cores used in simulation.
I/O Subsystem
- The new lossy .fxd compression allows per-channel compression quality and mixing of lossless and lossy channels inside the same cache file.
- State of the art multithreaded .fxd I/O for ultra fast caches saving and loading.
- Load caches at user-defined reduced resolution allows artist easier viewport manipulation and rendering setup.
- Minimize grid during the cache saving produces smaller files that save faster and render faster.
- FumeFX 5 writes OpenVDB caches in a form that makes them easily readable inside the Arnold Volume Grid, Redshift grid and even Houdini. The FumeFX vdb cache will be correctly positioned which makes any OpenVDB workflow straightforward.
- Various OpenVDB caches optimizations and fixes.
Rendering
- Gridless Advection allows usage of exported velocities or 3D texture to create additional detail.
- Direct rendering support with Corona renderer.
FAQs
Tutorials
Create a Flamethrower with FumeFX for 3ds Max
Create a realistic flamethrower simulation with FumeFX in 3ds Maxm complete with a realistic blast with rolling fireballs and billowing smoke.
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Learn to create realistic glass fractures with 3 different types of glass with SitniSati FumeFX 6 and 3ds Max. Try the FumeFX 6 beta!
More...Sitni Sati FumeFX Billowing Smoke and Fire
Learn how to setup a realistic billowing smoke in FumeFX. This is the type of billowing smoke that can be used for effects like pyroclastic clouds.
More...FumeFX and tyFlow Fluid Force
In this new tutorial from SitniSati, learn how to use tyFlow Fluid Force to blow some maple leaves across the desert. Watch it now!
More...FumeFX Thanos Portal for 3ds Max
This tutorial for the Thanos Portal comes from SitniSati, and is, of course, inspired by the Avengers Infinity War. Watch it now!
More...Rendering FumeFX in 3ds Max
Check out this great Tutorial from Sam Wickert on rendering FumeFX in Autodesk 3ds Max for Adobe After Effects. Well, thats a doozy…. better just watch the tutorial!
More...FumeFX Pyro Explosion Shader
Carlos Parmentier has a nice tutorial on using the Pyro explosion shader in FumeFX to get exactly the look you want.
More...Creating a Tornado with RealFlow and FumeFx
Using Next Limit RealFlow and SitniSati FumeFx for Autodesk 3ds Max you can create a twister of this very nature! Watch this tutorial to see how!
More...Create a Fireball with Autodesk 3Ds Max and Sitni Sati FumeFX
Vikrant Dalai explains how to make a fireball with a smoke trail for use in your space war film, video game or dinosaur extinction recreation documentary.Vikrant says: "In this tutorial, I'll show you how I created this fireball with the help of 3ds Max and the FumeFX Plugin. There are different types of techniques we can use to make this effect in FumeFX - e.g. Simple Sources, Object Sources, Particle Sources, etc. But this time we will use a Simple Source. And for this purpose we are going to use three different Simple Sources, some standard lights (Target Spot & Omni), and the default Scanline Renderer."
More...Create a Smoke Man with 3ds Max Using FumeFX & Krakatoa
Post by Vikrant Dalal at CGtuts+ - Create an smoky ghostlike character or object using Sitni Sati FumeFX for 3ds Max and Krakatoa. He finishes in After Effects. Project file with a sample character is included.
More...Simulating A Campfire With 3D Studio Max, Thinking Particles & FumeFX
Madhan at CGTuts+ shows you how to create a campfire with 3ds Max,Thinking Particles,FumeFX, and Adobe After Effects. Who brought the marshmallows?
More...
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