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Phoenix saves each simulated frame in a cache file with an *.aur extension, numbered using the frame index. By default, the cache files are stored under the data folder of the Maya project folder. They are put in a folder with the same name as the scene and with "_Phoenix_frames" appended:
Inside the cache folder, the default names use the simulator's name. For example, a simulator named "PhoenixFDSimulator1" outputs these cache files:
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Changing the Default Phoenix Paths for Resimulation
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Phoenix simulates linearly, frame after frame so the calculation of each frame depends on the previous one. That is why the simulation licenses for Phoenix cannot be used to distribute (and speed up) a simulation over the network. Instead, several simulations with varying parameters can be simulated, each on a separate computer. This process can be done using a render manager such as Backburner or Deadline, and it does not require a GUI license for Phoenix. However, this can be done with scripting only – currently there is no user friendly GUI for this.
Simulation in 2D
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The Simulator has the ability to perform a 2D simulation if one of the grid sizes is set to 1. To keep features like the embedded gravity and pressure decay, it is recommended to leave the Z direction active and set the X or Y size to 1. The main application of this feature is to create very wide fires that would otherwise be difficult with 3d simulation, like the image below.
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However, this option is not applicable in fire/smoke simulations, because it's not clear what exactly the object must be filled with. For example, you may need smoke, or fuel, or hot/cold air. For fire/smoke simulations, the volume fill must be arranged manually using Volume Brush mode for the Phoenix Source with Brush Effect set to 100%.
Create a Phoenix Source, and select Volume Brush for Emit Mode. Select the channels that must be filled.
Create a geometry covering the volume that should be filled with the desired channel, and add it to the Source Objects set in the PhoenixSource rollout.
Animate the Brush Effect parameter from 100 in the first frame to 0 in the second frame.
Disable the Velocity checkbox of the PhoenixSource, or the fluid may refuse to leave the volume of the emitter.
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For smoke/fire, the ability to put a Phoenix Simulator as a source for another one is used. When a Phoenix object is used as a source, the implicit surface is determined by the Surface channel in the Rendering rollout, the Isosurface Level defines the geometry surface, and the newly born fluid will appear over it. You have to set the Isosurface Level to a very small value, thus making the source surface a box. To avoid the additional speed added by the discharge parameter, in the Fire Source rollout, use either the Volume Brush for the Emit Mode with Brush Effect set to 100%, or use Volume Inject mode with a very low Outgoing Velocity (e.g. 0.001). Do not make it zero, because the system will decide that this is not a source and will skip it. To transfer the parameters of the gas from the first simulator to the second one, import the used channels of the first simulator into the map slots of the source helper using a Grid Texture | PhoenixFDTexture. Since the simulation will usually run multiple times, add the second simulator in the exclude list of the source simulator to avoid backward interference.
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Shading particles by Age, Speed, Position, or by their particle color channel
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A single Particle Shader, by default, shades all selected particle systems using the same color.
In Phoenix 3.10, we added a Color Map slot you can use to color the particles differently, but it can do so much as a texture allows it to - e.g. a checker won't be too much of a interesting shading, and furthermore, it won't change with time, and even if you animate it, it still won't fit the particle movement. However, you can plug a Phoenix Grid Texture in the Color Map slot - this way the particles from a Phoenix simulation can read voxel data from the grid channels, such as Speed or RGB.
In Phoenix 3.11, we extended the Phoenix Particle Texture so particles can be shaded using their own channels. Before, what the Particle Texture could do was to take the particle positions and create white areas around each particle in 3D space on a black background. Since Phoenix 3.11, the Particle Texture can color the areas around each particle using a color from a particle channel - e.g. the Age, Position, Speed, or even just the particle RGB. This way you can plug the Particle Texture into the Particle Shader's Color Map slot and shade the particles that way.
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Phoenix is able to export its content as a texture (see Grid Texture | PhoenixFDTexture). This makes it possible to use an external volumetric shader for the rendering, such as the VRayEnvironmentFog.
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To resolve this problem, you could switch the volumetric rendering mode to Volumetric Geometry for Fire / Smoke, and respectively for particles you could enable Render as Geometry in the Phoenix Particle Shader. This will allow V-Ray CPU to properly blend your Phoenix simulation with the rest of the volumetric effects in your scene. Note that in these modes you might have to increase the V-Ray Max Transparency Levels option under the Materials rollout of V-Ray's Overrides tab.
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The procedure is as follows:
Create a PhoenixSimulator object in your scene. The grid size is not important because the imported cache files will override it.
From the Input rollout specify the Cached Frames path and pick any file of your sequence and the entire sequence will be loaded. You can also manually type in the format of the sequence using format specifiers for the frame number. Phoenix supports the following frame number formats types:Code Block #: frame 1 becomes "1", frame 10 becomes "10", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; ##: frame 1 becomes "01", frame 10 becomes "10", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; ####: frame 1 becomes "0001", frame 10 becomes "0010", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; etc. %d: frame 1 becomes "1", frame 10 becomes "10", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; %4d: frame 1 becomes "⋅⋅⋅1", frame 10 becomes "⋅⋅10", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; %04d: frame 1 becomes "0001", frame 10 becomes "0010", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; etc. <frame>: frame 1 becomes "1", frame 10 becomes "10", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; <frame4>: frame 1 becomes "⋅⋅⋅1", frame 10 becomes "⋅⋅10", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; <frame04>: frame 1 becomes "0001", frame 10 becomes "0010", frame 1000 becomes "1000"; etc.
- Phoenix will ask you if you'd like to load a predefined render preset. The presets Phoenix comes with are to be used as starting points when importing a foreign cache.
- By that time you will be able to see a preview of the cache in the viewport, and you will also be able to check which grid channels are loaded under the Simulation rollout, in the Cache File Content list.
- In case you want to render using motion blur, or resimulate over the imported cache, you must have the velocity channel exported as well. You can scale the motion blur velocities if needed, by adjusting the Motion Blur Multiplier parameter in the Rendering rollout.
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Different applications use different channels and names for them. When loading f3d/ vdb files, Phoenix tries to automatically make the conversion to the supported channels. If a channel is not mapped by default, you can manually set it in the 3rd Party Channel Mappings sub-rollout in the Input rollout:
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