RayFire Tool

[Steve Green]

I think for the price hinted at, it's an absolute bargain if you need to do those kind of effects.

I'd much rather it go commercial and develop than the alternative.

- Steve

[PsychoSilence]

we´re aming on getting it certified by autodesk even! it will be part of the ACAP program of TurboSquid: http://www.turbosquid.com/Storefront/Index.cfm/ID/1250 but thats always the hardest and longlasting part punching a certification through making everything official :) the thing with ACAPs is they are better promoted etc and demoed on trade shows.

the pricing is totally fair since u get a whole lot of video tutorials etc too. for ACAPs a detailed help file and demo files are a must anyways for certification so thats is done already...u will get way more then just the plugin ;)

[Glacierise]

That's awesome, keep us posted on the release!

[entrancea]

If Rayfire is certified by Autodesk then it would be really great....How hard would that be? ....also the pricing sounds sweet enough:D .....Great work mir...u deserve it...

Regards,
Entrancea

[mir-vadim]

Ok guys, the day has come. :bounce:
Check out www.mirvadim.com (http://www.mirvadim.com) for new RayFire Tool 1.31 version.

[PsychoSilence]

Was a long way to this point :)

U DID IT, BRO!!!

[JohnnyRandom]

Cheers Mir :)

See if I can scrape up some extra cash ;)

[Massemannen]

That´s sweet Mir!!

Congratulations!

[mmoses00]

Neat. I used a little of Rayfire beta on John Woo's Stranglehold (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24455.html?type=wmv) cinematic.

All the little bits flying off the walls and on the floor are coming from about 30 Rayfire Rounds.
It was cool because I did not even worry about Reactor or PFlow settings... just Aim and shoot at him just like the bad guys! The only thing that was tedious in the version I used was that I had to go thru each emitter and change the blown up chunk instance after the fact... so using it kind of left me with the feeling I could not close max and go back and change stuff.. since it all ran in a maxscript session.

Next time I need anything shot at and blown up (sometime real soon), I'll pick up a license of your new plugin version!

THX,

mmoses00

[mir-vadim]

Wow, thanks for posting this mmoses00. :thumbsup:
I will add ability to interactively change debris reference in next update, sorry for inconvenience. :)
By the way, Interactive Layer Manager in new version will show You all created simulations, effects, and objects in any scenes no matter when You create them. Also it gives you ability to interactively change properties in any effect.
Can I use this reel in promotional porposes? With all copyrights and other stuff of course.

[mmoses00]

Very cool! Having Rayfire be aware of its creations is a good feature, because it can quickly create lots of stuff. It really, really saves time to be able to shoot holes in things without creating the geometry - especially when said geometry comes directly from game developer assets (eg. lots of simple shapes).

That link I posted is public domain - Gametrailers.com would love the traffic! - I have a 720P version buried on one of my websites, but I can't share that one! :) . I am not the copyright holder to the video - belongs to Midway Games, and probably has some rights belonging to John Woo, so as far as posting just the video... be best to have it popup in a window - Example: This link - http://trailers.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/1739/t_stranglehold_360tvspot.wmv opens the save/open dialog.. but Gametrailers.com gets the traffic.

** For anyone considering this tool.... I just wanted to say that I had 16 days of lighting/comping to do the 21 shots on that cinematic, and I had left the "bullet debris" thing go til the last minute. I loaded up the Rayfire sample file and shot a cube.... then went in and shot the pillar geometry a few times... made about 25 iterations before I liked what I saw ( a beautiful thing in Rayfire is "resetting" Reactor stuff and trying variations in seconds!).... then I finaled the two main debris shots in one day - ONE DAY. Just using Pflow or reactor from scratch would have been 3 days minimum to get something going... so as a time saver... Rayfire definitely has its strengths.

[iceman32]

I can't connect to your website. Are there any problems with it?

www.mirvadim.com (http://www.mirvadim.com)

Or can I see and read more about the plugin somewhere else?

/Stefan

[mir-vadim]

Site is under construction currently and only one page available.
Here links to the Tool (http://mirvadim.com/Files/RayFireSetup_1_31.exe) and to the Help (http://mirvadim.com/Files/RayFireToolHelp.pdf).

[PsychoSilence]

http://www.core2core.de/spielwiese/Rayfire_Vase_Hit.flv

vase shatters upon bullet hit :)

setup 5min, rendering 5min...

notice how the debris inherit the shader from the impact object correctly!

[Glacierise]

Here's one car going to smithereens from me:

http://cravenous.com/video/car_blast.mov

[Massemannen]

to Massemannen:
remember this thread? Blur`s Impact System Tool (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=438007&page=1&pp=15)
I created my tool partially thanks to You. Dont worry, You will get Your copy for free. :)


Mir, I´m honoured! My wife thought something terrible had happened when she heard a scream from my office... But that was just me and my happyroar :)

[JohnnyRandom]

Mir, I´m honoured! My wife thought something terrible had happened when she heard a scream from my office... But that was just me and my happyroar :)

Oh you lucky dog:D

[Massemannen]

Indeed! :thumbsup:

[PsychoSilence]

VFX Technical Director Matt Moses (http://matt.moses.name/) used RayFire Tool on John Woo's Stranglehold cinematic as posted above and is now officially linked as testimonial :)

http://www.mirvadim.com/Images/Stranglehold_360_TvSpot.jpg (http://trailers.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/1739/t_stranglehold_360tvspot.wmv)

http://trailers.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/1739/t_stranglehold_360tvspot.wmv

[JohnnyRandom]

mmoses00, nice work man:)

[mmoses00]

THX, All of a sudden I'm getting all these hits on my sites! I'd better post some new stuff. :)

Thanks for the link Mir! I'll be blowing up walls/buildings/etc. very soon!

Matt

[Massemannen]

Mir!

Just reformatted my computer and upgraded to 3dsmax 2008. How well does RayFire play with this release of max?

Take care!

/Matt

[Glacierise]

No problem with max 2008 whatsoever.

[Massemannen]

Great!! Tnx :thumbsup:

[iceman32]

Hello

Are you still working on this script? I mean, should you add more functions to it later on, ex for fumefx and so on?
I am thinking of to buy it but it's rather expencive and before I would like to know what the future is for the script and if the updates are free?
Thanks

/Stefan

[mir-vadim]

Yes, of course. Work still in progress.
Actually new 1.32 version finished.
But it will be released with video tutorials which I will finish on next few days,

Here You can see changelog for RayFire Tool 1.32

New tabbed interface.
Fragments inherit animation from original object.
Fixed mapping scale for fragmented area.
Predefined material for fragmented area.
Rift width and jitter amount properties for fragmented objects.
Reactor hit and explosion works properly in any sytem units.
Material presets for reactor.
Exploded objects keeps animation until explosion moment.
Shooting, explosion and fragmentation keep undo\redo buffer.
Particle debris references can be changed interactively.
Particle debris viewport display can be changed interactively.
Renamed objects also change their names in lists.
Fixed few non critical bugs.

So dont worry, I still have a lot of ideas, which I add in RayFire tool. :)
For instance, here new feature for 1.33,
it uses reactor fracture.
http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayXFracture.avi - 700K

And, yes, all updates for next year is for free. :)

[JohnnyRandom]

Impact breakage...Niiice!

[iceman32]

Wow, that is really cool man, well, I will look at my account and try to get some money. I really love this tool, keep up the good work! :D

/Stefan

[DaRaVEn3D]

This plugin is deffinately off the hook.
The possibilities are endless using this.
My collegue happen to have the plugin installed on his system in the office. Gave me the *.exe of an old version would be my guess. I installed it on Max 2008. Loaded my scene, large Battle Cruiser doing a flyby mars. When another ship appears from a wormhole and open's fire on the cruiser. I like the idea you can click on the object to place the hits. When I did, for some weird reason, the ship didn't have any holes, and when the hits occured, giant blocks flew off into space. Is that suppose to be debirs? Is there a way to scale those down? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Kelly Stimac
R&D 3CGFX Animation Studios
www.3cgfx.com/flood.html (http://www.3cgfx.com/flood.html)
www.3cgfx.com/ThePackage.html (http://www.3cgfx.com/ThePackage.html)
www.3cgfx.com/nissan.html (http://www.3cgfx.com/nissan.html)
www.3cgfx.com/R&D.html (http://www.3cgfx.com/R&D.html)

[mir-vadim]

First of all, to create holes You must choose Holes - Realtime or Holes - Predefined.
Just tested Instant Action with Holes and found one bug, problem occurred only with Instant Action and Predefined Holes, I will fix this bug in next version.
Next, I suppose You choose Reactor Debris, because in 1.31 version in case You didn`t define geometry for debris in Debris list, RayFire creates blocks for debris. So, create some geometry with proper material and add in debris list before make a shot. And, pay attention that this feature uses reactor, so be sure that You work in REAL world scale.

[mmoses00]

Mir,


I just bought Rayfire! I have 48hrs to finish a project....and I simply needed to fracture a paned window. The $195 was worth it just for that... because your fracture system is ONE CLICK... and my object, no matter what kind of geo.... get splintered.... and even multisub object textured... so the cracked wood has its own "inside texture" .. all automatically.

So, for this shot..I just needed my window geo all splintered.. so I could run some deflectors thru them.. and have Pflow blast them out wherever the deflectors contact the splintered wood - Example: Guy flies thru a window. - Credit Allan McKay's simple script to make 84 splinters of wood become a single PFlow system - kick ass! and lots of control!

Brilliant!

Just letting people know... in a deadline... saving 4 hrs is easily worth $195.

Later, I know I will use the full potential of Rayfire... because "Breaking stuff is necessary!"






"Breaking stuff is necessary!" - is a wholly owned tagline, ©Matt Moses 2008

:) :) :)

[mir-vadim]

Hey, Matt, thanks. :thumbsup:
I really happy that RayFire helps You. :)


"Breaking stuff is necessary!" ©Matt Moses 2008

Then You will be especially happy when You will get 1.32.
In this update I improved fracture and explosion parts seriously.


UPDATE
:lightbulb
Just thought about Allan`s script which You used and one great idea came in my head.
What if to create special RayFire PFlow birth operator?
It will check all fragmets created using RayFire, create particles for each fragment, position them at their pivot points and link each fragment to its own particle.
So You just add this operator and then do with fragments whatever You want using PFlow.
What do You think?

Need to learn how to create PFlow operators. :)

[mmoses00]

<Just thought about Allan`s script which You used and one great idea came in my head.
What if to create special RayFire PFlow birth operator?
It will check all fragmets created using RayFire, create particles for each fragment, position them at their pivot points and link each fragment to its own particle.
So You just add this operator and then do with fragments whatever You want using PFlow.
What do You think?>
That is essentially what I did... but manually... with birth script...

It would be crazy cool to be able to do that!
But one thing - PFlow gets real slow when a whole bunch of custom particles get in the mix....It would be nice to have a way of keeping PFlow from slamming the system. Maybe some nice temporary objects for dialing in the sim..then high res for render... Caching the viewport within PFlow with BOX TOOLS helps...

I tried to do standard Reactor with the chunks and Fracture. But the thing was not stable... and the pieces went crazy. That was the main reason for going PFlow.. the particles are controllable as far as how they break away.... although landing and colliding to a stop is terrible within PFlow - Good thing my camera did not show the floor in the shot.

Again.. the big thing with PFlow is speed with many custom chunks.

My window breaking shot is just FINALING... and the window was 196 pieces of glass, and 88 pieces of wood. About 100 pieces of that went flying as he broke thru the window. PFlow was very slow if you tried to scrub the timeline in any way.. not bad on the render.

[Glacierise]

Voted both thumbs up! Transfering the other particle FX to PFlow would be nice too. And have in mind that there will be physics with PFlow sometime soon (box#2, maybe Siggraph 08 time)

[iceman32]

Any news about the upcoming 1.32?

Also, are there any FumeFX support in this tool?

[mir-vadim]

Hi, 1.32 will be released in Thursday. It has the same Fume features as 1.31.
Works still in progress, that is why I didnt mention about Fume in feature list.
For now I experiment with reactor fracture, fragmentation by texture, fake reactor debris for explosion and another few features for 1.33

[Glacierise]

I'm a proud owner of RayFire as of today, goodness!

Another thing - if you are exploding metal objects, you could add a noise modifier on top of your fragments, and animate the noise amount so it starts from 0 in the intact object, and then rises quickly when the explosion happens. The effect is of mangling the metal pieces, just like a real shockwave does.

[JohnnyRandom]

That fracture mapping looks excellent! Dude you are chock full of great ideas:D

[iceman32]

Can we expect to see a demo of v1.32 or 1.33?
It´s still 1.31 on your site.

/Stefan

[mir-vadim]

Hi.
1.32 will be released tomorrow or on wednesday, depends how much I will be busy.
Last few days I spent for Fragmentaion by Texture feature and another one, I call it
Draw Fragment Mode, that is how it works, You define Impact objects, then go to Draw Fragment Mode and draw spline shapes in viewport, when You exit, RayFire cut impact objects on fragments using drown splines. I will try to share first results as soon as possible.

[iceman32]

Ahh, great man, I thought that we didn't could use a demo anymore. It´s a very good feature you added to this script that we can use it for free with full features 20 times. Looking forward to see the new stuff in 1.32 and 1.33.
I am glad for this plugin, really cool.

You could contact cebas or sitni sati or some other big plugin developer company and sell it to them and be a part of the team to develop it more and start to earn some big money.

/Stefan

[fireknght2]

This is one of the greatest tools for 3ds Max, and I compliment you on it's creation and your extreme talents. I have purchased this tool and enjoy trying out all the different tasks it performs, I love special effects.
I could really use some help though especially in tutorials and guidance. I cannot get muzzleflash to work and I have tried everything.
If there are any tutorials or help of anykind that gives a better description on how to use the various tools I would be most grateful.

Thank You and keep up the excellant work!

Fire Knight

[mir-vadim]

Hi fireknght2. Thanks for good words. ;)
In next 24 hours I will release 1.32 with nice new chm help file compiled by JohnnyRandom.
Today I tried to create some video tutorials but seems that I underestimated how hard to create them. Even on russian language. So, this part will take some time. :banghead:

[fireknght2]

I wished there was a way I could help you create the Tutorial videos. I'm pretty good in mutlimedia field but I lack experience in all of the benefits that Ray Fire provides. Its one amazing tool that you have created and improved, a fine display of knowledge. I am surprised that Autodesk has not approached you to purchase the program to be added to 3ds Max as a permanent tool.
One of the most outstanding features is the price...you didn't put it out of reach for the common person who does not have the money to purchase a plugin as valuable as Ray Fire Tool is. I look forward to the update and most especially the chm file.
Keep up the good work and if there is anything I might be able to do to help you please let me know.

Fire Knight:applause:

[mir-vadim]

Ok. I will let You know. ;)
Help file You already can download from here:
http://www.mirvadim.com/Files/RayFireToolHelp.chm

[fireknght2]

mir-vadim I am getting a strange script when trying to open the link you sent. I can wait for the update to get the new chm but was wondering if you could give me some more guidance on how to create a muzzleflash either by using the light muzzleflash or the smoke FumeFX muzzleflash.
Once again thank you for everything.

Fire Knight:cool:

[Glacierise]

The link works for me. Try again, and make sure you download the file, not just klick on the link.

[mir-vadim]

Do not open link above, You have to download this chm first.
Or use this online help, compiled by JohnnyRandom:
http://www.mirvadim.com/onlineHelp/01_Contents.html
And as I remember it was bug with muzzle flash in 1.31,
So try 1.32 first, and if it will not work, I will think about what to do next.

[fireknght2]

The previous link only opened up to an unknown script with no option to download the help file.
Will the Muzzleflash in Smoke using FumeFX work? Oh and just thought I would mention, that I can't wait till 1.32 hits the shelf, your doing great work and really helping us all out alot. Can you add some pointers on how to get the light muzzleflash feature to work, I may be doing something wrong.
Once I get it working I would be glad to create a tutorial video for you creating the Muzzleflash for both the light feature and the FumeFX featured one. The least I can do to help you out so you can keep improving and adding more features.
Thanks again,

Fire Knight:thumbsup:

[mir-vadim]

For now Ligth muzzle flash creates one animated omny ligth for each defined gun.
RayFire align it on gun`s pivot point. All You need to do to create ligth muzzle flash is just check this feature ON.
Later I am planning to create some library with flash textures and RayFire wlll also create animated geometry with flash texture.
FumeFX muzzle flash is in progress for now, I just realised tha basic to have something to play with.

[fireknght2]

If I understand you correctly than all I need to do is check the light Muzzleflash box and the omni is automatically created, @ the guns pivot point. Do I then move it out to the end of the barrel of the gun and do I need to create an impact object or just identify the gun?

This is a great tool for Max I hope I can do it justice...:thumbsup:


Fire Knight

[mir-vadim]

Yes, You right. Just check this feature ON.
After omny created You can do with it whatever You want, but pay attention that it will be linked to the gun.
Actually You cannot simulate shooting without impact object, in this case You will get warning message box. So, define at least one impact object before simulate shooting.

[fireknght2]

Now I know why I have been having a time thanks for your help. I look forward to the new version and will help in any way I can.

Fire Knight:thumbsup:

[fireknght2]

Well I finally got the omni to show when selecting the Light Muzzleflash. I created a plane as the impact object and of course my cannon as the gun. The omni showed up in the center of the cannon just as you said. I ran the animation this way in perspective view and also added a camera and tried that as well. No luck I didn't get any flash at all of the omni, so I assume I am doing something wrong.
Has anyone got the muzzleflash to work under light and if so please send me some pointers on how to get this to work. I'm sure I am doing something wrong or not setting it right.
Oh I also tried by moving the omni to the end of the gun barrel and no luck that way either.
Please help I want to try and make a nice video for this so it can be shared.
Thanks all, for your ideas and pointers.

Fire Knight:sad:

[mir-vadim]

Ok, RayFire Tool 1.32 released. :)
You are welcome.

Changelog:

New tabbed interface.
Fragments inherit animation from original object.
Fixed mapping scale for fragmented area.
Predefined material for fragmented area.
Rift width and jitter amount properties for fragmented objects.
Reactor hit and explosion works properly in any system units.
Material presets for reactor.
Exploded objects keeps animation until explosion moment.
Shooting and explosion keep undo\redo buffer.
Particle debris references can be changed interactively.
Particle debris viewport display can be changed interactively.
Renamed objects also change their names in lists.
Fixed few non critical bugs.

[fireknght2]

Looks like I get the honors to say thank you first ...:)
I'm going to put this to work right now, keep up the good work and when I get this thing going good for me I will start creating some video tutorials for you.

Thank You,

Fire Knight:thumbsup:


Can you walk me through creating the muzzleflash effect? I'm almost there with it, but just have not got the effect to show up.

[entrancea]

Dude.....Ur amazing.....rock on!!:thumbsup:

And it seems I'm the 2nd one to try it out....he he....:D



Regards,
Entrancea

[fireknght2]

Keep it rolling This update installed with no trouble at all, and looks great!
Still working on getting that darn muzzleflash right but its coming along :thumbsup:

[azozel]

I'm waiting for a "rocket engine " or "thrust" perimeter that gives pushes an object continusoly. Similar to the car reactor rig but for rockets, missals, jets and the like.

We do not have anyone who can code or develop plugins.

[mir-vadim]

Hi,
Here brief RayFire demo/tutorial movie which I did for Pete Draper.
He will perform RayFire Tool review for next 3d World Magazine issue.
http://www.mirvadim.com/Video/RayFireToolDemoVideo.wmv - 40MB
It helped him, and I hope it will help You to understand how to use this tool.

[JohnnyRandom]

Hi,
Here brief RayFire demo/tutorial movie which I did for Pete Draper.
He will perform RayFire Tool review for next 3d World Magazine issue.


Excellent! some much deserved credit:thumbsup:

[fireknght2]

mir-vadim, Great idea choosing Pete to review Rapid Fire. Hes one of the most respected Special Effects guys I know and will definetly be a plus to your program.
I'm looking forward to your updates as well as tutorials for Rapid Fire.

Fire Knight:thumbsup:

Mir I get a wierd script when opening the link to the site of the Pete Draper video. Can you help me.

[mir-vadim]

Great idea choosing Pete to review RayFire.
This is his initiative.

I get a wierd script when opening the link to the site of the Pete Draper video.
Do nor LEFT click on this link.
Right click on it and then choose "Save Target As" or something like this.
Or use download manager.

[Massemannen]

Mir!! This is just what RayFire needs, a good walkthrough of the UI and the basic steps!!
Very good, I learned a lot and as soon as my 2 boys and the ol´ wifie goes nighty night I´ll be playing around with it some more. ehhrr RayFire that is... hrmmm

To be in an article by PD in 3D World will hopefully boost your sale through the roof!

I really wish you the Best of luck!

[slime]

I just checked the video - Amazing work!
The script has lots of great features and can save tons of time, so I'm sure a lot of people will be interested. Keep the nice work and Good luck!

[PsychoSilence]

Great video that puts some light in every corner of RF :)

[mmoses00]

Here (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30702.html) is a link to a cinematic we just finished for Leisure Suit Larry - Box Office Bust.

I believe it may be the first parody ever done of another game cinematic - Gears of War.
Towards the end, Larry crashes through a window. That window was fragmented using Rayfire 1.3.1 - one click fragmentation of standard geo!

Then the geo was added to a PFlow particle system (using Allan Mckay's simple script as a Birth Script operator in PFlow), and then simple deflectors on larry's body and wind forces used to blow the window out wherever he hits it.... Thus enabling us to switch out different larry dives and see the window break differently each time.

THX Mir... look forward to using Rayfire for more cool stuff.

[Pkonst]

That window was fragmented using Rayfire 1.3.1 - one click fragmentation of standard geo!
Yep, RayFire is really cool for such things.
For my music video I have done window fragmenation and startup reactor simulation with help of MirVadim and his RayFire in a couple of hours from start to finish with no previous experience of RayFire usage.

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/1091/moslomopart20252ec3.jpg

Here is animation: http://retrostylegames.com/temp/clip/034_fly_slomo.avi

[Wicked]

Hi,
Here brief RayFire demo/tutorial movie which I did for Pete Draper.
He will perform RayFire Tool review for next 3d World Magazine issue.
http://www.mirvadim.com/Video/RayFireToolDemoVideo.wmv - 40MB
It helped him, and I hope it will help You to understand how to use this tool.
Very nice!! Only by watching the video I realize how powerfull this tool actually is. I did have a peak in this topic now and then, but never knew how much you could do with this tool. Very nice piece of software!! :thumbsup:


P.S. If you need a mirror just let me know

[Mills]

WOW RayFire looks awesome.

The amount of hours i have spent cutting up objects with npower. aaarg
This should have been built into max when reactor first came out.
I hope autodesk gives you billion dollars :)
E

[PsychoSilence]

Very nice comments here :) hope you allow us to use ´em as `testimonial voices` on the website!!! would be nice to have a full name and position along the lines then ;)

It would be very kind to have all the movies RF was used in along with some company info and the company logo(for watermark addition) in high quality to asemble a showreel. Would that be possible? If so please drop a short mail to mail@3delicious.de or mir-vadim@mail.ru

with kindest regards and thanks in advance,
anselm

[fireknght2]

All comments and especially commercial use as well as private use testimonials would be a great addition to the web site. Rapid Tool is growing into the must have tool for all forms of graphic use either for a 3D Animator or a movie or game.
Many thanks to Mir and all of the help he has recieved in creating Ray Fire Tool. I would think Autodesk would start talks with Mir soon and pay a big price for the purchase of this tool.

Keep up the good work.

Fire Knight:applause:

[PsychoSilence]

http://www.3delicious.de/spielwiese/rayfire-hit.jpg (http://www.3delicious.de/spielwiese/rayfire-hit.mov)

http://www.3delicious.de/spielwiese/rayfire-hit.mov

oh and theres a shadow issue in frame 25...but thats a comping issue...

[fireknght2]

Every household should have one what do you think?


Fire Knight:thumbsup:

[Steve Green]

Hi,

I have a couple of questions regarding Rayfire/explode.

Does it base the mass of the fragments on their size, or do you manually have to set the properties for the pieces?

Does it automatically change the rotation controller type to TCB? I've noticed that vector motion blur freaks because of strangeness at the subframe level with reactor, and it would be a nice touch if it changes the controllers automatically.

Thanks,

Steve

[Glacierise]

About the mass per volume - yes it assigns mass per volume, and you have some controls and presets too. About the controllers - gotta check.

[Steve Green]

OK, thanks - it's been a while since I've used fracture in Max, so I'm not sure what's changed.

I'll download the demo and see how I get on.

Cheers,

Steve

[mir-vadim]

Hi Steve.
There are 3 way to assign mass to fragments. Here info from help.

Mass By – Method which RayFire will use to assign mass for to the Impact Objects and Reactor Debris.

1.Random: range – RayFire will apply a random value from the mass range to each fragment.

2.By volume: range – RayFire will distribute mass from the mass range to each fragment using the fragments volume. So the smallest fragment will get the minimum value from range and largest fragment will get the maximum value from range.

3.By material density – RayFire will apply mass to each fragment using the fragments volume and material density.


No, it doesnt cnange rotation controller type to TCB, but I already fixed this. :)

[Steve Green]

Cool, thanks for the additional info.

Cheers,

Steve

[iceman32]

Any news about the upcoming 1.33? Features and so?

[Steve Green]

One question - does it work with Afterburn 4 in its current version?

I'm going to wait until Max 2009 is out since plugins need a recompile, and do it all in one go.

Thanks,

Steve

[PsychoSilence]

afterburn 4 has a way better script support then any former versions so i guess it is definitely on Mir´s list.

Mir is in the hospital these days but he will be back soon. best wishes from my side!

cheers,
Anselm

[fireknght2]

Mir I am chewing my nails to the bone in anticipation of new features to Ray Fire. Curious as to how the review has been with Pete Draper too?
Things are working good with Ray Fire tool the more I practice with it. Thank You for your help and sharing a very valuable tool with the CG world.
I hope that Mir will be well and we can expect some great upgrades to an already outstanding Ray Fire Tool.

Fire Knight:D

[Steve Green]

Cheers,

I didn't know he was in hospital - best wishes for a speedy recovery to Mir.

- Steve

[muzbee3d]

Can rayfire be inside of a CUBE for example and blast its way out ?
Camera would be watching from the outside.

TIA

[JohnnyRandom]

All the best Vadim, take it easy & hope you get well soon:)

[Glacierise]

Wow, I didn't know he has health problems either! Nothing serious, I hope. Cheers to Mir!

[PsychoSilence]

Can rayfire be inside of a CUBE for example and blast its way out ?
Camera would be watching from the outside.

TIA

of cause it can :) does the attached image reveal it for you? the pink ball is the bomb object exploding the cube in any direction you want :)

kind regards,
anselm

[tbrad]

i see that the Rayfire tool got a review in this months 3D World magazine issue 103(page 92) got an 8

overall a pretty good review

can some one tell Mir might cheer him up if hes still not well !

[PsychoSilence]

he never was seriously ill. he will explain when he´s back :) he had a precaution stay at the hospital, so no worries :)

yeah, pete draper reviewed it. mir should have a PDF and/or inspection copy since a while back. maybe someone can scan it for us :) it will be tested in other 3d magazines too these days.

[fireknght2]

I spoke with Pete recently and he is also supposed to have a tutorial in the same issue that shows how to create the Aurora Borealis in Max.
This will be great to have both the review of Rayfire in the same issue as the tutorial. An 8 is really good especially coming from Pete Draper. Mir should be very proud of himself.
I know I am especially thank ful for the Rayfire tool.

Fire:applause:

[mir-vadim]

Hey all. :)
I am still alive and I am at home finally.

I didnt see Pete`s review yet, but I am really proud to get 8.
I think it is pretty nice result for one year max script practicing.

1.33 will be in progress next two months.
During this period I will try to finish new features ("smart" fragmentation, fragmentation by texture, draw fragment mode and few others) and improve current features.

Also I will continue work on my reel. (Actually this the reason why I created RayFire).

[JohnnyRandom]

Glad to see you back!

Looking forward to the next batch of features:D

As for your demoreel, it seems they are always a WIP! Be nice to see it when you have a final.

[mir-vadim]

*Double post*

[mir-vadim]

Hi guys. :)

Today I spent few hours and finally created new fragmentation method.
Take a look at this video, 10 MB.
Still dont know how to name it :)
http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayFire133Fragmentation.wmv

And another feature, now You can use reactor via RayFire not just for exploding something,
but also just for creating animation.
Here video with this feature. 10 MB
http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayFire133ReactorAnim.wmv

So, looking forward for comments.

[Glacierise]

Dowright awesome! This would make destruction much more believable. 1.33 will be cool!

[mmoses00]

Mir,

Fantastic! This is EXACTLY what was missing last time I used Rayfire...Your plugin can now get good results way faster than any methods/plugins in Maya... IMHO
Having objects fracture with more tiny fragments based on distance to impact object allows great creative control for destruction! And the reactor animation controls in there and mass settings are really nice. Totally cool addon!

Suggestion - Any way to leverage/select between the two Reactor physics engines (Havok 1 or Havok 3) to get different results on simulation? I guess Reactor Havok 3 does better job on rigid bodies not penetrating or getting stuck in collision objects.

Looking forward to seeing this new version!
This is some of the best end user private development for max I have seen.
Keep up the great work!

[mir-vadim]

Suggestion - Any way to leverage/select between the two Reactor physics engines (Havok 1 or Havok 3) to get different results on simulation? I guess Reactor Havok 3 does better job on rigid bodies not penetrating or getting stuck in collision objects.

You can change engines manually, for now there is no way to do it through maxscript.

[JohnnyRandom]

:drool: it makes some pretty nice cuts too. You are well on your way to creating the "Make Art" button :P:D

[buller]

yes seem like you can bring blastcode to max
you ever saw blastcode demo video?
The glass shattering fx we tried to achieve so hard in max.

[mmoses00]

Blastcode does some cool stuff.... hard to get a handle on how to control stuff from scratch however.

And one thing... SImulations are cool.. but very frustrating to do production work with.... because you have to "give in" to the simulation......

Rayfire is a neat blend of simulation and "hardcoded" control of parts and pieces.... and Reactor physics engine may not be perfect and accurate all the time... but it is really fast and you can try many variations really quickly... to get it just good enough for that camera angle.. good enough for the shot.

[mir-vadim]

Hey, good news. :)
I just finished another feature about I told earlier. It called Draw Fragment Mode.
That is how it works:
You define impact objects, then go to Draw Fragment Mode, click left mouse button to start drawing stroke on screen, draw some stroke, then click left mouse button again to finish stroke, after that RayFire cuts impact objects by this stroke, then You can draw strokes again. This feature is really fast and easy way for cutting low poly objects like glass or walls.
Here short demo - 9MB:
http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayFire133DrawFragMode.avi

Also I added automatic update system, now You can update RayFire Tool just pushing "Check for updates" button. So, If new intermediate build available, RF will download it (about 350k) and replace with old build. You even must not reboot max.

[Glacierise]

Great news! That will do nicely for my reel, hehe. Painting fractures looks so cool and useful, dude!

[fireknght2]

Is the new 1.33 ready or are we just updating 1.32?

Fire Knight:wavey:

[PsychoSilence]

show me a tool where its easier and cheaper to achieve such an effect as it is in Mir Vadim´s RayFire/RayXplosion. newest built is hitting the stores near you soon ;)

[fireknght2]

RayFire tool is the Bomb...no pun intended. Greatest tool I ever used and bar none. Mir's talents are extraordinary and a great asset to the 3ds Max Community.
I cannot wait for the update and look forward to the future.

Fire Knight:applause:

[mir-vadim]

Hi, guys. Thanks. :thumbsup:
I just created new fragmentation type few minutes ago. :)
Using this frag. type You can interactively fragment objects exactly where You want.
That is how it works:
You start fragmentation and then using mouse cursor You start crawl over fragments.
RayFire will fragment only objects under mouse cursor.
Here demo:

http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayFire133FragByMouse.wmv
Yeah, sometimes I surprise even myself. :)

[Glacierise]

That looks fun as hell! Awesome stuff again, new builds will rock.

[PsychoSilence]

now that´s impressive!

[fireknght2]

Mir thats just freaking AWESOME!
Now I really can't wait to get my hands on that update. Would you consider hiring me on as a tester:), except no pay please. Just being able to work with this tool is pay enough.

Rich:cool:

[mmoses00]

Nice work Mir.


It's getting more intuitive....
A demo showing a creature (point cached) destroying walls and pillars would be cool.

Pcached geo has no interaction... therefore attached demolition objects need to be the Rayfire impact objects.... but be cool to see a real world effect shot workflow...

I would be game to make a sample.... I just need to get a few days off from my projects to do it..

:)

[PsychoSilence]

Nice work Mir.


It's getting more intuitive....
A demo showing a creature (point cached) destroying walls and pillars would be cool.

Pcached geo has no interaction... therefore attached demolition objects need to be the Rayfire impact objects.... but be cool to see a real world effect shot workflow...

I would be game to make a sample.... I just need to get a few days off from my projects to do it..

:)

Would be our plesure to call up your boss to negotiate a few days off :D

[PexElroy]

That is awesome progress Mir! Not sure if mentioned, but it would be great to see in RayFire a Voronoi Diagram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram) option for paint pre-fracture modeling with a mouse; add that to the wish list - :love:

[mir-vadim]

Hmm... Looks interesting.
I`ll dig it definitely.
Thanks.

[pyroskat]

Wow! cograts Mir! its better and better every day!
One suggestion:

Lets say you shoot a building. You will have bricks, glass, and maybe steel. Will be really cool that rayfire makes diferents thinks when one bullet interact with these diferents elements.
When one bullet shoot a brick, this bullet will create a hole and some debris. But when another bullet from the same gun interact with steel, it applys a displace and ligh effect. And diferent effects with glass.

Did you understand me? (sorry for my bad english).
I dont know if this is possible, but I think than can be really powerfull and timesaving.

[mir-vadim]

Ok.
RayFire Tool 1.33 released.!
http://mirvadim.com/Images/RayFire_1-33_header.jpg

[fireknght2]

Congratulations Mir!

I'm drooling in anticipation like a kid in a candy store :)

Rich:applause:

WooHoo I found it thanks Mir, Greatest tool ever!:beer:

[fireknght2]

Mir, can you refresh my memory on how to open the chm....getting old I guess I forgot :(


Rich:shrug:

[Steve Green]

I'm not sure if this is already covered, but how do you handle the transition between the intact and broken geometry?

Does it look like the geometry is pre-fractured in the render, or does the plugin animate visibility tracks from the source (intact) object, and do a switch between the source and fractured objects? (This is OK for a quick explosion, but if you've got something which slowly breaks up, you could see where it's going to break as soon as the first bit of fracturing appears)

I was wondering if you could do something clever with the edge fillet option in the AD material to give a fillet to the edges of the fragments, but possibly use vertex colours to animate the width of the fillet.

I'm thinking that way you could have the cracks widen on slowly fracturing geometry - i.e. they'd start narrow and widen as the fracture increases - it could be a good way to enhance geometry only fracturing.

I love the new fracturing options in the videos (BTW, the link to fracture by bomb links to the same video as fracture by mouse)

Cheers

Steve

[mir-vadim]

to fireknght2: I didnt update chm Help File yet, but I will do it soon.
All new features and how to use them You can see in video demonstration.

to Steve Green:For now it is just creates visibility keys for original solid object and for fragments. In Glass breaking video I just moved them a bit after animation was created.
But I will think how to make blending more naturalistic.

p.s. I love them too. :)

[Steve Green]

Cool,

I've sent you an e-mail with a scene to show how it can be done - may be some use for ideas, or no use at all :)

Cheers

Steve

[fireknght2]

Great job interface is still easy to understand and still the greatest tool in the 3ds max tool box.

Rich:beer:

[mir-vadim]

Good news.
New build 13302 already available.
You can download it using Automatic Update System. Go to "About" menu
and pick "Check for updates".

Here changelog:
1. Scale factor spinner in Reactor Tab\Reactor rollout: Using this value RayFire Tool scale down Impact and Inactive objects before reactor starts creating animation and scale them back after animation is created. It completely removes gaps between simulated objects and unyielding objects like ground and walls. Also thanks to this reactor calculates simulation on 20-30 % faster. Set spinner to 0 to disable it. Pay attention that spinner works in conjuction with Collision tolerance spinner.
2. Explosion radius spinner in rayXplosion Tab\RayXplosion Tool rollout. Now rayFire tool can explode objects in defined radius. Set spinner to 0 to disable it and explode all objects.
3. Accelerated fragmentation : Improved fragmentation algorithm works on 30-60 % faster.
4. Automatically redefined Bomb object : RayFire marks Bomb objects when You define it. So You dont need to define it every time when launching the scene or launching RayFire Tool.
5. Ability to use biped as unyileding object in reactor simulation. Now You can use animated biped to collide it with Impact and Inactive opbjects.

Please report me if You will find some bugs or get errors.

[PsychoSilence]

tested and runs without any errors :)

the new fragging is SUCH A BIG improvement!!! worth the money on it´s own :)

i´ll demo it next week at a couple of places near you :)

[mir-vadim]

Hi, I just released new build: 13304

There are a lot of small improvements but main improvement is accelerated fragmentation.
Yes, I accelerated it even more. :) New build fragments object 6 times faster.
For instance:
Build 13301 with 300 iterations fragments box 219 seconds.
Build 13304 with 300 iterations fragments box 35 seconds.
Well, this I call A BIG improvement. :buttrock:

Here changelog:

1. Advanced Fragmentation rollout: Some rarely used parameters like
Face threshold, Volume threshold, Jitter amount, Detach by elements,
Animate impact\fragments visibility moved into Advanced Fragmentation rollout.
Also in this rollout added:
Fill Rifts checkbox - let You create objects which fill rifts.
Bake animation checkbox - bake fragments in case impact object has animation.
Quadrangle faces checkbox - make all fragment`s faces four sided.
Remove middle edge vertices checkbox - removes two-edged vertices
after fragmentation is finished.
Remove angle threshold spinner - defines maximum angle for two edge which
shares middle edge vertex.
You can open Advanced Fragmentation rollout via New Options menu or rigth
clicking big "Fragment Impact Objects" button.

2. New tools in Tools menu:
Clean up scene from RayFire info - clean all objects from RayFire info.
Clean up selected from RayFire info - clean only selected objects from RayFire info.
Detach by element selected - allows You to detach selected objects by element.
Remove middle edge vertices - removes two-edged vertices on selected objects.
You can specify angle threshold in Advanced Fragmentation rollout.
STL check selected - performs STL check on selected objects, suggest to
select objects with errors in case found them.

3. Decreased memory leaking.

You can install new update using Automatic Update System.
Go to About menu and click "Check for updates".

[Steve Green]

Hi,

I'm having some problems with the fracturing system - it's usually pretty good for simple shapes, but when I fracture more complex ones I quite often get large chunks of the source disappearing.

Are there any rules over what is likely to cause problems, and any possible workarounds?

Also - is there a way to automatically set interiors of fragments to have a different material ID? If not, it would be a useful addition as the user could set up a rendertime displacement to the interior surface.

Thanks,

Steve

[mir-vadim]

Hi, first of all download last build 13304, in this build RF creates fragments more carefully and whole process becomes more stable. Also try to reduce noise strength and detalization.
Anyway, I am working on this problem at this moment, so I will think up something.
Also I already added material Id spinner in Advanced Fragmentation rollout in next build (13305), so now You can set Your own material Id before fragment objects.

[Steve Green]

Cool, thanks.

Cheers,

Steve

[mir-vadim]

Build 13305 available.
Specially for Ian and Steve :)

Changelog:

1. Backup preservation: Before cut fragment RayFire create fragment backup. RayFire restore fragment if fragmentation failed. This significantly reduces fragment disappearing. To use this feature check On Preserve Backups checkbox in Advanced Fragmentation rollout.

2. Interactive selection for Impact Object list: RayFire will interactively update Impact Objects list when You select objects. Using this mode You dont ought to add object in the list every time You want to fragment or explode something, just select objects and do whatever You want. To use this feature rigth click Impact list Menu and activate Interactive selection.

3. Continuous fragmentation: RayFire will fragment object until You push and hold ESCAPE button. To use this feature set Iterations spinner to 0.

4. Material ID spinner: Ability to set material Id for fragment surface.
Pay attention that value should be greater then biggest material ID value of Impact object. Set it to 0 to apply Material ID automatically.

Steve, write me after how it helped You.

[Steve Green]

Cool, thanks - I'm just going to update it now.

BTW are there any plans to include support for soft bodies/tearing metal that sort of thing?

I guess it would basically be tearing cloth, but that would involve either reactor cloth or clothfx and finding a way to make it stiffen once the blast has gone.

I've faked it by using a point cache and stopping the simulation animation, but I'm was curious if it's something you've considered or if it's just too big a can of worms to do with what Max has built in (I'd imagine Nucleus would be more suitable for this)

Thanks for the update.

Cheers

Steve

[Steve Green]

OK, just tried the material ID thing and it works great - it's also handy for passing along to PFlow to have particles spawning from the interiors or particles as extra detail locked to the interior faces (like ragged bits of rock or steel struts poking out of the fragments)


(Edit - I found something which stops me locking things using particles. If I do a regular reactor sim, and use Pflow to lock on the emitter object, then the emitter's rotation is kept.

However when I tried the same with a RayXplosion object, the position was kept, but not the rotation - are you doing something different which might explain this?)


Cheers

Steve

[mir-vadim]

I am setting position controller to Position_XYZ () and rotation controller to TCB_Rotation ().
Maybe this is the reason?
Anyway, can You send me Your scene for tests?

[Steve Green]

Hi,

I've e-mailed you a couple of files.

Thanks,

Steve

[mir-vadim]

Ha, :)
If in reactor_Pfolw scene You will set less particles and make tetra particles bigger You will notice the same effect as in RayXplosion_Pflow scene. You can even animate rotation for any geometry and get the same result. So This is not because of RayFire or reactor. Better to ask how to fix this in PFlow thread. :)

[Steve Green]

Ah right, cheers - I'll poke around in PFlow or ask Oleg if I can't find a solution.

Thanks,

Steve

[PsychoSilence]

original:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/gatorade-shattered/4166059629

RayFire:
http://www.3delicious.de/spielwiese/gatorade_shatter_spoof.jpg (http://www.3delicious.de/spielwiese/gatorade_shatter_spoof.mov)

http://www.3delicious.de/spielwiese/gatorade_shatter_spoof.mov

[JohnnyRandom]

LOL, classic :)

[mir-vadim]

Build 13306 released.
Main improvement is fixed bug causing Max freezing and crashing.
For some reason ProBoolean cant cut some object, it goes into endless loop, eats all memory in a second and crash max. I found a way to test fragment before fragment it further. So RayFire will not cut fragment if it is corrupted and attempt to cut it will crash max. You can cut only these corrupted object later.

Changelog:
1. Fixed bug causing Max freezing and crashing.
2. Ability to choose which method (ProBoolean or ProCutter) use for fragmention.
ProCutter more stable, but less accurate. If for some reason ProBooelan cannot
fragment object try to use ProCutter.
3. Fragmentation of parented objects, after fragmentation RF will link all fragments back to parent.
4. Fixed bug with big (Really big) object fragmentation.

Also want to mention that Automatic update works properly only for Authorized versions.
If You use tool in demo mode, after updating process You should go to Presets and load Default settings.

[Glacierise]

Three builds in a single page, within a week, and with quite a lot of improvements! Keep up the awesome work dude!

[mmoses00]

Mir,


You are a machine! I have never seen such quick, diligent progress on a plugin. I'll bet you are/will be attracting attention from Autodesk and major studios..... which will probably put and end to all the fun here :( because they will keep you busy! :)

Rayfire is totally useable now... hope to see it get better!

THX,

[mir-vadim]

Ha, thanks. :)
Just want to note it again, RayFire never was so stable as now.
I spent all day fragmenting objects and did not get any disappearings and crashes.

[Glacierise]

In fact I did, too, and never had a crash too :D

[Steve Green]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for a wishlist, but here goes...

Fragmenting in a particular axis, so you could optionally get some kind of alignment/strata of the created fragments - it's doable by drawing it manually but it would be nice to have the automated option.

Multiple bomb support for RayXplosions - maybe also a custom shape for the explosion (cylindrical/planar etc.)

Automatic creation of linked high-detail fragments for internal faces. (Maybe something like scatter or you pick your own source objects which are then duplicated and linked, so you get internal bits and pieces (steel supports, wires poking out) - these wouldn't affect the sim, just add extra detail to the result.

Integration of other reactor supported objects, like ragdolls, rope collections etc.

Again it can be worked around, but it would be excellent to have Rayfire as a one-stop-shop when you want to start collapsing stuff and involving any other reactor sims.

Thanks again for a great product.

Cheers

Steve

[PsychoSilence]

you got good points there, steve!

we´ll concider them asap.

thanks,
anselm

[Steve Green]

Cool,

thanks!

Cheers,

Steve

[fireknght2]

HELPPPPPP!
I cannot seem to get Muzzleflash to work. Can anyone send a short tutorial my way on how to get this done?
I am working on a project where several old sailing ships are firing cannons and need a muzzleflash that I can apply to multiple guns.
Please help as soon as possible.


Fire Knight:shrug:

[mir-vadim]

Hey, build 13307 released.
Here changelog.

1. New Reactor Explosion directions: Thanks Steve :)
Spherical - explodes objects in all directions from bomb.
Planar - explodes objects in Bomb`s Z axis direction.
Cylindrical - explodes objects in all directions from Bomb, but only on Bomb`s XY plane.

2. Fragmentation seed: Using fragmentation seed You can fragment object every time with the same pattern. Set fragmentation seed to 0 to fragment object each time in different ways.

3. Selection sets: After each fragmentation RayFire will create selection set with created fragments. Thanks Ian. :)

4. Fixed bug with dds textures.

5. Removed Backup preservation and Detach by Element checkboxes in Advanced Fragmentation Rollout. Now they are turned On by default.

[Steve Green]

Brilliant!

Thanks Mir

Cheers,
Steve

[mmoses00]

Mir,


Are you posting 13307 soon? I am on a project now where chars are breaking stuff! Looking forward to using Rayfire for the demolition.

THX,

[mir-vadim]

*Edited*
Sorry, fixed this. Now You can update it.

Working on multiple bombs support atm. :)

[mir-vadim]

And here is video with my latest progress with Multiple Bomb feature.
http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayFire134MultiBomb.wmv 5MB

[Steve Green]

Oh yeah...

that looks, well, I was going to say Da Bomb...

- Steve

[RappyBMX]

downloading right now :)

and just wanna say that u should add to your .htaccess file:

### instruct browser to download multimedia files
AddType application/octet-stream .mzp
AddType application/octet-stream .mse
AddType application/octet-stream .wmv
AddType application/octet-stream .mov

so it will automatically download those files, that way you don't have to use save file as :)
( if you don't have a .htaccess file just create a text file paste that rename it to .htaccess then upload it to the root of the web server)

[JohnnyRandom]

Very nice;) smart way to add bombs

[mir-vadim]

Thanks,
You still can use any object as bomb though,
in this case RayFire will use explosion options from its own UI.
RF_Bombs are just for more complicated situations.

[Glacierise]

That just rocks! Fabulous work mir! Now the only thing on my personal wishlist is a mechanism for controling the direction of the blasts - with cones, just like the lights - a cone and a falloff ;) Great so far!

[PexElroy]

Great tool -- :bounce:

Mir - is there a reason when I change my reactor panel settings to what I need for the shot, and then hit the Explode Impact Objects button with all elements ready to go, that button is resetting reactor's panel settings back to their defaults -- is there a way to turn this off ?

I ask because -386.22 gravity is very low in reactor, and it should be around -800.

[mir-vadim]

Ok, I will add spinner for gravity in Reactor Options in next build.

[PexElroy]

ok great, but we seem to lose all our custom settings, and gravity was one of them :) - maybe we could use a check box toggle to not reset (or change) reactor settings?

[mir-vadim]

Well, ther is one way to set up Your own properties.
Before explode something, check Off "Create animation" checkbox, then hit explode button.
RayFire will setup rigid body collection and create initial animation for objects. Then You can set up Your own properties and finally simulate animation using Reactor`s "Create animation"
button.

[PexElroy]

Ok thanks Mir - I did however try your steps and the Explode button, no matter what I do, the Explode button resets the reactor panel properties settings, even doing your steps :) ; using max 2008 and the 13306 demo.

I changed the Col. Tolerance from the default 0.394 to 0.1 and the Explode button reset it back to 0.394, with Create animation on or off.

[mir-vadim]

Hm, ok, I will work more on that field for next release, so it will not reset Your reactor properties. Thanks for pointing me on this problem.

[PexElroy]

Thanks Mir.

When I use the Explosion radius field, and set it to a good range, then press the Explode Impact button, it seems to do one frame and not animate my set reactor frame range and just stops after 1 frame, not sure why yet.

update; I had a Fracture helper in the scene, and it may of interfered somehow, after I disabled it, it animated again.

[mir-vadim]

Yeah, reactor will not work if it finds empty fracture object.
After initialization it says "There are not valid pieces in the fracture objects" and stop simulation.

[fireknght2]

Can someone please help me?
I need a muzzle flash effect that applies to multiple guns. I'm sure that RayFire can do it I just am having a difficulty setting it up.
Mir or anyone that can please write a tutorial or something that will help me, I need this done for a demo reel I am submitting to get a possible job in the Movie Industry.

*Mir this is a opportunity for your Ray Fire Tool to be exploited in the USA. I also want to use it in a current movie being made here in my hometown. A Gangster movie called "The Fifth Mafia" where multiple shootings of guns are occuring and also bullet fragments from concrete and brick walls.

Fire:bowdown:

[Glacierise]

I don't think Rayfire has muzzleflashes yet, but you can do them in several ways. First, there are some great footage libraries with such effects. I don't own any, but I have seen them hyped, one was called Pyromania, don't know about the rest, you can find them easily. There's muzzle flashes there, that you can import in max, and project them on billboarded particles that you pop from your gun. Add some lighting and you're ready! If billboards work for you - that's great. If not - another way is again with particles, create some geometry that resembles a muzzle flash, put some illuminating material on it, make shape instance particles to pop with that geometry, and glow it in post. And the third way, if you have a hero-shot muzzle flash, like the scene with the bullet to the eye in Superman returns, use FumeFX!

[fireknght2]

I just can't seem to master it and it's bumming me out because I can promote this tool for Mir here in the USA in the Movie Industry.
I am currently on board with a movie production company here in the USA and they want an extensive demo reel to place me in the current productions.

If anyone has any pdf tutorials or any tutorials I can use to create some awesome CG using RayFire Tool I would appreciate it. I want to get the RayFire Tool as much notice as I can, I owe Mir a lot and want to do this for him.


Fire:buttrock:

[PexElroy]

firekinght2 - there are a few ways to do this FX, and RayFire can do it using lights and Afterburn, but you could also create them as 3D elements and comp them in 2D.

Do you know the gun types and how close the camera will be to the blasts? Bullet wall debris can be done with RayFire or with PFlow/TP3 depending on accuracy.

[PsychoSilence]

muzzle flashes for now are omni lights with a smaller range and animated intensity. the fume muzzle flashes are a bit tricky.

i would highly suggest the BLUR method: animated, deformed geometry, animated visibility

that worked for years so far :)

unfortunately i cant share any file. I´ll assemble one later the day maybe.

[fireknght2]

I'm looking at two different scenarios. One is Cannon fire from Naval Ships, sailing type vessels of the 1800s. The other is the Machine gun pistol type effect for the gangster movie. If we pull this off we can get a sweet contract for the special effects required for this movie as well as others that are coming up.

I will gladly compensate anyone who wants to get involved, this is a huge opportunity, and I for one never forget my friends. Feel free to email me for more information and especially any demo's that you have which I can submit on your behalf if you wsh.

rvandermey@fireknight.net

Fire Knight:buttrock:

[PsychoSilence]

for the cannon fire:

there was a FXWars contest about that lately. maybe get in touch with the people who took part in it. maybe they share some knownledge or scene files even. the fumefx thread holds some nice tips for that task too...

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=454635&page=2&pp=15
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=541152&highlight=cannon+fire

for the rapid fire use the animated geometry trick!

[PsychoSilence]

i attached a very simple scene for the muzzle flash to examinate:

[fireknght2]

That Contest winner video is exactly what I want to do.
That was awesome thanks for your help.
The gun Muzzleflash is really awesome and should really work well with the pistols and machine guns, Thanks for the help

Fire:bowdown:

[Glacierise]

Wow, that's a cool assignment - I'd be very enthusiastic to make a line ship firing all the starboard cannons! FFX and AB of course, that would be awesome.

[fireknght2]

I'm working on it right now hopefully I can master it and get a contract.

Fire:buttrock:

[Glacierise]

Keep us posted dude! I am going to make my own version too. As the ninja said - gauntlet thrown, gauntlet picked up, and now I'm going to bludgeon you over the head with the gauntlet :D

[fireknght2]

Since I am registered already with the Production Company and I have my own Business name, I want to give opportunity for all the talent out there to be a part of the new movies being shot here in Michigan. The Fith Mafia has already started and is looking for the bullet fragmentation effects, and muzzleflash from pistols and machine guns, we also need bullet impact with blood flowing.
The cannon fire is something I am working on for a secret project but none the less will take help in that too.
I think this will be a great opportunity for all of the CG SFX, and VFX folks and especially a good promotion of the Ray Fire Tool.
As far as getting paid I would also like recommedations from everyone on how we can work that out. I in no way want to take credit or get paid for anyone elses work, but will be glad to be able to refer anyones work to the production company.
Here in Michigan there is a new incentive for Movie production where as if you spend a Million Dollars the State gives you back 420,00 Dollars. Another words a 42% incentive to lure movie production to our State.
Several Movies have started, and new ones are beginning or being proposed.
Clint Eastwood, Drew Barrymore, Haile Duff (sister of Hillary Duff) and many more are going to be doing movies here.
If your interested and you have anything you want me to submit please write.
rvandermey@fireknight.net

Fire Knight:applause:

[mir-vadim]

Hey guys, just finished new "Reactor Demolition" feature for 1.34
Finally Reactor and ProBoolean works together creating real demolotion effect in a SECONDS.
Also I involved reactor fracture system in this feature.

Just watch this video: 9MB
http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayFire134Demolition.wmv

Looking for comments :)

[PsychoSilence]

This brings us definitely a tiny step closer to TP collision fragmentation :)

Hope I get the update in time as I demo stuff at SoftImage germany tomorrow :)

[Wicked]

Hey guys, just finished new "Reactor Demolition" feature for 1.34
Finally Reactor and ProBoolean works together creating real demolotion effect in a SECONDS.
Also I involved reactor fracture system in this feature.

Just watch this video: 9MB
http://mirvadim.com/Video/RayFire134Demolition.wmv

Looking for comments :)
This is just awesome work! Great job Mir!!
Question: is it possible to load/save simulation presets? Just curious :)

Oh and I would be more than happy if I could join a beta-test program or something. :D

[Glacierise]

Mir, that's a KILLER! :Will test it ASAP, and I'm just in a situation that I'll need that.


P.S.: Two capital letters in 'Softimage', and not even one in 'Germany'? Anselm, you are a geek :D

[PsychoSilence]

I never use capitalisation... :D waste of time :D

as bash.org says:

Capitalisation makes the difference between:
"I help my uncle Jack off a horse." and "I help my uncle jack off a horse" ;)

back to toppic :D

[mmoses00]

Wow.... I need to try this today on a sample I need... guy breaks thru a wall.
Is this version available for update?


Mir, You are creating something of great value here....

THX,

[mir-vadim]

Hi Matt, this version will not be available via update system.
I made some changes, so You will need to uninstall 1.33 and install this new 1.34
It will be released after a week, but PM me if You really need it now.

[mir-vadim]

Sorry for late reply Wicked, did not notice Your post.
You can save settings in Presets rollout in Effects Tab.
And thanks for offering to help, but there is no need to test it,
I already tested it a lot, fixed all bugs ( I hope :) ) and will release it soon.

[iceman32]

Wow, That is really cool Mir, your script is getting more and more interesting to me. Soon, I will be forced to buy it (hate limits in the demo) *lol*
You are doing a great job with it. Some things I miss is more support for FumeFX and PFlow but maybe that´s on it´s way.
Anyway, soon I will buy it from you, love to play with it!

/Stefan

P.S Will it be a demo of v1.34 to?

[PsychoSilence]

Wow, That is really cool Mir, your script is getting more and more interesting to me. Soon, I will be forced to buy it (hate limits in the demo) *lol*
You are doing a great job with it. Some things I miss is more support for FumeFX and PFlow but maybe that´s on it´s way.
Anyway, soon I will buy it from you, love to play with it!

/Stefan

P.S Will it be a demo of v1.34 to?

The FumeFX support was supported in earlier versions but experienced a cut in the current versions due to the fact that other more important features got the production focus :) Maybe we re-add that feature slightly changed soon-ish. What kinda PFlow implementation would you want to have added? The thing with more crazy setups and it´s implemetation is that some events need to be connected manually so its not fully automated. Another thing is that some FX might need a toolbox operator and we can´t assume that people who bought rayfire have bought any of the additional toolboxes too. That´s why AB is not automaticly added. First of all because the older versions (3.X) of afterburn don´t support script accessability. The latest AB release does BUT same here we can´t assume that people have AB4...

Yes, there will be a demo of 1.34 :) We´re testing the newly adde demolition feature right now and kill bugs etc. Will be out next week f´sure.

cheers,
Anselm

[Steve Green]

Regarding PFlow support, maybe a possible candidate is using Object Position and selected mat ids of the internal faces of fragments to spawn geometry particles on fracturing/explosion?

Nothing too complex, maybe you just pick a group and it uses percentages of the individual instances for the source particles, and sets up a deflector for the floor collision (not sure if inter particle or even particle>fragments collision is strictly necessary) - it's more just to give another layer of pieces to the effect.

Cheers

Steve

[mir-vadim]

Today I thought how to differ fragmentation parameters for each object. :banghead:
You can set different fragmentation properties for simple fragmentation manually before fragment object but how to differ fragmentation for each object in Reactor Demolition simulation? :shrug:
And this is what I did today:
You select objects, go to Options and click "Add Fragmentation Options".
After that all selected geometry objects will get additional rollout in Modify panel.
It this rollout You can activate custom Fragmentation Options, set Fragmentation Type, iteration, detalization, chaos and noise specially for this object. So, if object has activated custom Fragmentation Options, RayFire will use them for fragmentation, if not, RayFire will use options from main floater.

So, as new RF_Bomb object, this feature does not overflow main user interface but gives You ability to create more complex effects. :)

[PsychoSilence]

Regarding PFlow support, maybe a possible candidate is using Object Position and selected mat ids of the internal faces of fragments to spawn geometry particles on fracturing/explosion?

Nothing too complex, maybe you just pick a group and it uses percentages of the individual instances for the source particles, and sets up a deflector for the floor collision (not sure if inter particle or even particle>fragments collision is strictly necessary) - it's more just to give another layer of pieces to the effect.

Cheers

Steve

thats a good point steve!

[PsychoSilence]

RayFire Tool 1.34 (Will be released on June 27)

www.mirvadim.com

updated 2day ;)

[Steve Green]

Cool, thanks for the update - can't wait to try the new reactor stuff.

Cheers

Steve

[mir-vadim]

You are welcome. :)
RayFire Tool 1.34 released.

[Glacierise]

Hi guys, check this out:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=5234308#post5234308

A scene with some Rayfire and other cool stuff in ;)

Ok now when that's out of the way, time to dig into the new Rayfire build!

[ArtiZta]

RayFire really rocks!
Just learning its powers, is already amazing. Long awaited plugin for Max.
Btw, I do get a problem making fractures with mouse.. it just won't work like in the tutorial.
Is there anything I'm missing ?? using RayFire Tool 1.34.


Cheers

[mir-vadim]

What the problem?
How it works?

[ArtiZta]

What the problem?
How it works?

It works fine, as performance I wonder why id doesn't take full power of my quad core processors.

My current problem is with Relative to mouse fragmentation, i followed the video but it just won't make fragments according to my cursor position.

[mir-vadim]

That is how fragmentation Relative to Mouse works.
First RayFire collects all fragment BEHIND cursor, NOT only near it.
Then it finds biggest object in this collection and cuts it.
So, if You fragment thick object, You might even not see how RF fragments it.
Turn On wireframe mode and try to fragment again.
I will add ability to fragment only objects NEAR cursor in next build tho.

[mir-vadim]

RayFire Tool 1.4 - Frame 41 - One building - One meteor.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=130037&stc=1

[SoLiTuDe]

Where's the rest of the frames? I wanna see frame 42 when the building gets hit! :cry:

[mir-vadim]

Heh, later my friend, later. :)

[JohnnyRandom]

heh, no teasing:D

[mir-vadim]

RayFire Tool 1.4 - Frame 62 - 5690 Fragments

http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=130082&stc=1

[JohnnyRandom]

Booom! sweet!

Please don't tell me it took this long to calculate :D

[mir-vadim]

Dont wory. :)
It took 10 minutes to calculate 180 frames.
4 seconds for frame.

[PsychoSilence]

Booom! sweet!

Please don't tell me it took this long to calculate :D

actually a 5400fragment over 178frames setup: with in about 10minutes... ;)

EDIT: Mir took the suspense away faster :D

[JohnnyRandom]

Had me worried, I was hoping I didn't have to wait until tomorrow for frame 43! :D (just messing around)

Looks good too, the way the pieces appear to be crumbling is nice.

4 seconds a frames is pretty freakin good. Makes me curious how long it took to calculate that timber shot SuperHyperSam Khorshid did?

[mir-vadim]

Ok, seems now I can say truth finally. :)
All this time I was silent because implemented PhysX engine support in new RayFire Tool. And for this moment I added PhysX support for most of all dynamic features in RayFire.

Here rendered versions of building demolition shot.
As I said, there are 5690 fragments and all dynamic simulation took 10 minutes.

http://www.mirvadim.com/Images/Building_air.jpg
http://www.mirvadim.com/Video/RayFireTool_1.4_meteor_air.mov

http://www.mirvadim.com/Images/Building_man.jpg
http://www.mirvadim.com/Video/RayFireTool_1.4_meteor_man.mov

Heh, as I see You surprised. :)

[Glacierise]

That's seriously one of the most kick-ass improvements to RF I can imagine! Man, post this ASAP! I can already see it SERIOULSY impacting the tornado challenge :D

[TwiiK]

That looks sick.

Me and a couple of friends are making some small games for our own amusement in Unity3d and the included PhysX engine makes it so every time you decide to test the game you end up playing a long time just going around blowing stuff up. :p

The destruction could follow the path and speed of the meteor more, but I guess that's something that's easy to tweak. All that debris flying everywhere looks wicked anyway.

[mir-vadim]

Yeah, I agree with You.
I did not want to spend much time creating something more realistic.
By the way, all work took about 2 hours 20 minutes, including modeling, texturing, and fragmentation.
So, just wanted to show how PhysX can handle such a big anount of objects.

[Steve Green]

Hi Mir,

I haven't really been keeping up with PhysX - I knew they were bought out, but I don't know the status of the tech being ported to gfx cards.

So was that example just using the software only implementation, or were you using a card?

I see you can pick up the cards for about 50 quid now, so if it made a huge diff in the calculation time, it's something I'd pick up in a snap as an interim measure.

Looks fantastic, anyway.

Cheers

Steve

[Glacierise]

After NVIDIA bought AGEIA they set on porting the solver to run on CUDA-enabled GPUs, these are the ones from 8600 on. They haven't gone public with the port yet, but they say it's almost ready. So you won't need a dedicated physics card, PhysX will run on the GPU. Mir is running the software vrsion of the solver, which is still very fast, imagine what the accelerated one will be like!

[Steve Green]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking - save me grinding my teeth with Reactor anyway.

I wasn't sure how far off the port to gfx cards was, maybe an announcement at Siggraph?

Cheers

Steve

[Glacierise]

Take a look here:

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7892&Itemid=1

"According to current plan, confirmed by high-ranked Nvidia executives, a driver that will drive PhysX on Geforce 8 and 9 GPUs will come at least a few weeks after announcement of GTX 280.
Geforce GTX 280 and 260 are about to launch next week, but the PhysX driver will follow a few weeks after. Nvidia simply wants to be ready, and as you know Nvidia uses its CUDA marchitecture to make this possible.
We were informed that all the PhysX-enabled games, including GRAW and Unreal Tournament 3, will work with PhysX over GPU, and you won't need Ageia card anymore to get the benefits. It will be interesting to compare the performances of the Ageia card to the actual Geforce PhysX scores.
At this point the driver should be out at some point in July if it doesn’t hit some further delays."

Should be out real soon!

[Steve Green]

Cool - thanks :)

It's a bit hard to tell on Mir's video as to how well Physx supports something like a slower fracture, like if the building was crumbling and it progressively loses integrity.

This is the one thing I find arse-numbingly slow in Reactor, and I wondered if it is a lot better in PhysX.

At the moment in the video, it's a building going boom in a matter of seconds - which is great, but I wonder how a slow demolition would look?

[Glacierise]

That is a continuous contact case - a very nasty one for rigid body solvers. From what I've seen, the PhysX solver is fast and stable (no sinking, no popping) in that case, with few substeps - best behavior I've seen, even better then the TP solver. You won't be dissapointed on that front, I think ;)

[Steve Green]

Cool, thanks for the info - I look forward to seeing the new release.

Cheers

Steve

[JohnnyRandom]

HOLY Sh!t, that is tight! mmmmnnn PhysX, me like it...:scream::eek::applause: (you get three smilies for that)

[SoLiTuDe]

Take a look here:

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7892&Itemid=1

"According to current plan, confirmed by high-ranked Nvidia executives, a driver that will drive PhysX on Geforce 8 and 9 GPUs will come at least a few weeks after announcement of GTX 280.
Geforce GTX 280 and 260 are about to launch next week, but the PhysX driver will follow a few weeks after. Nvidia simply wants to be ready, and as you know Nvidia uses its CUDA marchitecture to make this possible.
We were informed that all the PhysX-enabled games, including GRAW and Unreal Tournament 3, will work with PhysX over GPU, and you won't need Ageia card anymore to get the benefits. It will be interesting to compare the performances of the Ageia card to the actual Geforce PhysX scores.
At this point the driver should be out at some point in July if it doesn’t hit some further delays."

Should be out real soon!

I have the GTX280... It came with Physx Support built in. I'll have to do some benchmarking soon! The geforce's have way more processors than the ageia card did from what I remember, though it's shared with video, but still in theory they should be able to handle a lot more than the ageia card did...

[Steve Green]

Cool.

I suppose you should be able to specify a balance of graphics goodliness vs physics goodliness, so you could just crank up the physics side while it bakes calculations in, then switch back afterwards.

Be nice if it's all done transparently though.

Cheers

Steve

[SoLiTuDe]

Cool.

I suppose you should be able to specify a balance of graphics goodliness vs physics goodliness, so you could just crank up the physics side while it bakes calculations in, then switch back afterwards.

Be nice if it's all done transparently though.

Cheers

Steve

That'd be sweet -- as far as I know (read it somewhere) it's just all automatic... but I could be wrong... actually for all I know they have a set number of proc. for physx, but it's unlikely. As for actually being able to specifiy it somewhere I don't believe there are any settings for it. It might be up to the software developer... turning off viewport updates is usually faster for any physics thing anyway.

[jigu]

This is sweet! so G92 GPU's card like 8800 GT supports physx(inbuilt)? I will wait for the drivers that includes phsx support. (UT3 will rock then..)

and that test looks awsome.

btw I would like to know if it's possible to drive the fragements simulation using lines. I mean to customize simulation. Looking at this building example, If I make line coming out fragments, which will define some percentage of volume of some fragements, which will follow that line during simulation. Is this way possible to make it more customizable? (I havn't read previous posts, so pardon me.) I would love to make stylish building explosion(maybe a bit unreal) that way.

Keep it up guys. This is the best tool coming out for max.

[mir-vadim]

Hi, jigu. Actually this is a great idea to use splines to define simulation direction.
I will take a look how to implemet such ability later. Thanks. :)

[SoLiTuDe]

This is sweet! so G92 GPU's card like 8800 GT supports physx(inbuilt)? I will wait for the drivers that includes phsx support. (UT3 will rock then..)



Yes, but not yet... they've already got it working in the gtx280 / 260, but haven't released the drivers for the older cards yet.

[mir-vadim]

It's a bit hard to tell on Mir's video as to how well Physx supports something like a slower fracture, like if the building was crumbling and it progressively loses integrity.

This is the one thing I find arse-numbingly slow in Reactor, and I wondered if it is a lot better in PhysX.

At the moment in the video, it's a building going boom in a matter of seconds - which is great, but I wonder how a slow demolition would look?

Here, this demo specially for You. 1780 fragments.
I set friction for left box to 0.3, and for right box to 1.0.
All other properties are the same.

http://www.mirvadim.com/Video/RayFireTool_1.4_friction.mov
http://www.mirvadim.com/Images/Ad/RF14_Friction.jpg

[Steve Green]

Thats beautiful Mir,

thanks for the movie.

Cheers

Steve

[Glacierise]

The new NVIDIA card has 240 cores! I think they either will have an auto rebalancing algorhitm, or will just brute force it.

@Steve Green - I told you it is pretty ;)

[Steve Green]

Yeah, indeed.

I always found fracture frustrating if you wanted to do layers of thin(ish) material laid on top of each other, like the layers you would get in buildings - it seemed to really bog reactor down.

It will be interesting to see how Rayfires physx version handles something like that.

Cheers

Steve

[Glacierise]

As I said - the Novodex solver (the one in PhysX) handles this stuff much faster and more accurately than anything else. The guy who wrote it must be some kind of genius to make it so much better then the rest :) Cool thing is that Rayfire will practically function as a PhysX dynamics frontend in Max - another plus point for it.

[Steve Green]

Hah, yeah - it's funny - despite all the stuff about Max being sped up over the past couple of versions, you can see what can be done by other people outside of Autodesk which still run within Max but are massively quicker.

Glu3Ds PWrapper, PhysX, JoeAlter's sculpting plugin and that subdiv/turbosmooth replacement (Gruesome Arts?) Proof of concept that popped up a couple of years or so ago.

- Steve

[Glacierise]

That's why it's smart to have a plugin architecture - it's very unlikely that all the smart people will end up working at AME :D

[Steve Green]

Well, yeah - but then there's the double edged sword of unifying things to work with everything else - like multiple versions of cloth which don't work with particles.

At the moment Max's effects architecture is the worst of both possible worlds - it's cloth and physics are bundled third party plugins, and the particles were written by someone who has left AME.

- Steve

[mir-vadim]

Short sceengrab shows You how PhysX Preview mode works with standard Spacewarps.
For now I added support for Wind, Gravity, and PBomb, but there will be more.

http://www.mirvadim.com/Video/RayFireTool_1.4_PhysX_Preview.wmv

[Steve Green]

You know that scene in the Thing where the head grows legs and scuttles off?

And one of the guys says 'You've got to be f**king kidding...'

That's your spider head scuttling thing right there.

Makes reactor look a bit shoddy.

- Steve

[Glacierise]

:D Doesn't that make you feel something warm, ecstatic... ah the poetry!

[jigu]

that also shows , we don't need costly quadro card any more. Geforce is enough for max.

[binesh]

I just happened to download the demo of Rayfire for Max…. I was really impressed with its features. But I am not able to get any assistance for making an R & D.

For the various effects …My main intrest is on the cylinder breaking down with smoke….Is there any way you could help in getting me a tutorial for that. My personal mail address is binnyraj@gmail.com

[Glacierise]

Don't forget that this is in software mode! Imagine what wold be possible with the accelerated mode!

[jigu]

Don't forget that this is in software mode! Imagine what wold be possible with the accelerated mode!

you mean that was not even in direct3d?

[Glacierise]

It's not about the graphics dude - the solver will be hardware accelerated by the GPU! Read the thread up ;)

[jigu]

oops... I misread.. I got it now. Just like there is "hardware acceleration" in UT3.

[PsychoSilence]

http://www.3delicious.de/spielwiese/Rayfire_Wanted_Spoof.jpg

lil fun with physx...obviously a WANTED window jump spoof ;)

[Glacierise]

Heh, smash it up! Btw, that would look great with toon shaders...

[mir-vadim]

PhysX + Animated Wind space warp.
http://www.mirvadim.com/Images/Ad/RF14_Wind.jpg
http://www.mirvadim.com/Video/RayFireTool_1.4_wind.mov

[Jordo]

Is love to see the pieces of that window slowley entering the reactor sim as the teapot pushes through, rather than all the bits falling the frame of impact... hehe! I only say that cos im trying to do that effect at the moment. BTW ray fire is pretty cool!!! just playing around with the demo now!

[jigu]

Now this is getting stylish. :drool:

[TwiiK]

Everytime this thread updates it's with something more awesome than the last. :p

I love how the friction works in that last example. Looks very real.

If everything goes as planned I will have some spare time in August and then I may have to check this plugin out.

[Steve Green]

I'm sure there's some awesome event horizon that Mir crossed a while back.

I was just wondering - has anyone tried any of this stuff with blobmesh type objects? I was going to say PWrapper, but that only works with particles doesn't it?

I guess you could set up a pflow positioned by object but I'm guessing it could be pretty slow with some of the high fragment scenes.

Annoyingly I'm in the middle of a job and all machines are occupied, so I can't test it straight away, but I quite like the idea of a mixture of solid fragments and blobby mud seeping out between the cracks. Might make for some good lava.

- Steve