Novedge RealFlow Webinar: Q&A with Gustavo Sanchez

January 16, 2013 4 min read

Did you enjoy last week's webinar on RealFlow? We ran out of time to answer all your questions, so the team behind RealFlow answered all the remaining questions by email.

Q: Will there be a plugin for Luxology modo 601? Or will it be Alembic interchange?

A: We will be using Alembic as the interchange data format between Modo and RealFlow from now on.

Q: Will RF2013 Learning Edition support the use of external plugins?

A:The limitations for the 2013 Learning Edition will be pretty much the same as with the existing Learning Edition license for RealFlow 2012, which already allows the use of external plug-ins. Please contact us if you are having any issues with your current LE license and the external plug-ins.

Q: What about GPU?

A:The Hybrido 2 base solver, hy-flip, will have the ability to make use of the GPU, as long as it is openCL 1.1 compatible. To find out more about what are we doing on the GPU, here is a link to the presentation that Angel Tena gave at the nVidia booth last Siggraph.

Q: Is it possible to develop a plugin for RF?

A:If the question is whether anyone can develop 3rd party plugins, the answer is yes. There is a C++ SDK that allows for that.

Q: Will the 3rd party plugins (e.g the ones from WET WORK) work for 2013? The Plugins are expensive compared to their size..:)

A:The makers of any third party plugins will simply have to recompile those in order to be able to load them in the RF2013 version. We do not set the prices for these plugins.

Q: I have a one year student license for RealFlow 2012 (from the cgsociety workshop), can I upgrade the license to use 2013 instead?

A:Yes, we’ll have an upgrade available for $170. All RealFlow Learning Edition licenses bought within 2 months of the release of v2013 will be upgraded to v2013 for free. By the way, your RealFlow Learning Edition license is permanent – we removed the time restrictions!  

Q: Can we beta test the new RealFlow 2013?

A: We haven't hit beta yet. We’ll be getting there in the next few weeks (Jan 2013). At the moment, there are no plans to have a public beta period, but do feel free to get in touch to make your case and we will see what can be done 

Q: How do you tile RealWave with Hybrido – in Maya or inside RealFlow itself?

A:What RealWave and Hybrido share are the Statistical Spectrum waves, and the ability to export tileable displacement maps. One can use RealWave to get a faster look&feel, and then copy the parameters to the Hybrido displacement. In Maya, you will simply need to make sure that the area you want to cover is made of tiles, and use the displacement texture from Hybrido to displace the Hybrido mesh, as well as the surrounding areas.

Q: How does Realflow 2013 Hybrido compare to the standard of Naiad sims?

A:That will be for users of both products to decide. We believe that our hy-flip, the implementation of the flip solver for Hybrido 2 base simulations, is really good.

Q: Is the simulation flow multithreaded? If so, and Python also comes with 2013 I can definitely see the benefit of using the flow instead of Python. If Python does also come with 2013, has there been any work done to improve Python's speed and various bugs?

A:Regarding multithreading and nodes in the simulation graphs, any node that performs RealFlow internal operations that are multithreaded is multithreaded by definition.
Most of the nodes that perform array operations are multithreaded internally, and you will also be able to create multithreaded heterogeneous compounds using the Kernel node inside them.

Python itself is not getting any updates on this RealFlow version. Although Python will certainly still have its place inside RF, we believe that simulation and batch graphs will allow for greater flexibility with less effort.

Q: Please show step by step how to render a realistic Hybrido water material.

A:This will be pretty straightforward once you start using Maxwell Render inside RealFlow 2013. With Maxwell, the artist really does have the control.

Q: Any plans for a python base job manager/ submitter?

A: We currently have a Python implementation that we can share. Please send us an email if you are interested.

Q: Will Hybrido 2 have viscosity that can be changed over time?

A:Hybrido 2 won't have a viscosity model in this release. It will be implemented in a later release.

Q: Will you have a mental ray renderer inside RealFlow 2013?

A:No. We strongly believe that Maxwell Render is the way to go for fluid/particle rendering, and that is why we are implementing this Maxwell Render integration for previews inside RealFlow 2013.

 

And that's it! Leave your comment below and thank you for joining us for this latest installment of ourWebinar Series.

If you have questions about purchasing a RealFlow license, please contactBob Thayer at Novedge.

To contact the Next Limit Technologies/RealFlow team, you can use the customer gateway – or for non-customers, you can find a contact form here.

 

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