FumeFX clearing viewport

[JohnnyRandom]

Could be a few thing but it sounds like you need to "enable display" if what you mean by "particles" you are refering to the fume output.

Also when you sim do you see anything in the sim preview window? If not, something is wrong, first step is usually your grid spacing is generally to large.

What type of fume source are you using?

[X-PanDer]

Hi. :)

Yeah I have messed around with the "enable display" thing, but that's not it. :/

My fume source is a simple source, set to sphere with low velocity.

My grid size is adjusted to ony be large enough to cover the fume inside the cameras view and yes when I simulate, the preview window and the viewport in 3ds max is updateing beautifully. But the instant fumefx is done solving, the fume vanishes from the scene and the preview window. The files with the simulated data is saved perfectly.

[JohnnyRandom]

Can you post a scene file?

Is the layer hidden that the fume helpers reside on?
Hard to say exactly what's going on, have you tried merging the scene to a new file? Something sounds wonky, with the fume preview window open you see nothing when you scrub the timeline through the simulation range?

[SoLiTuDe]

What frame range are you working with too? Check the output start frame and the play from / to , and especially the start frame.

[CapitanRed]

yea, that has made me mad sometimes. playback must allways start at 0, no matter if your sim starts at an other frame. it's like a local(time) playback setting.

[X-PanDer]

Hi sry for the long waiting time. I'm on vacation and will be for another 2 weeks. :)

But, no I cannot post a scene file, it is a commercial project with a lot of "in-house" geometry in it, so sorry.

But this sounds interesting: "playback must allways start at 0, no matter if your sim starts at an other frame."

I guess that could be it. I will try that in 2 weeks, but for now, thanks for your answers. :)

[floopyb]

yea, that has made me mad sometimes. playback must allways start at 0, no matter if your sim starts at an other frame. it's like a local(time) playback setting.
Really? I have never encountered this and have been using fume for a while!
I always specify the same start frame. eg, Under Output Start frame is 316, end frame is 500. Under Playback Play From is 316, Play to is 500 and Start frame is 316.
I get problems when i DO leave Start frame at 0 (as I often forget to change it).

[X-PanDer]

Hi again.

floopyb -> Hmm, well now I'm not as optimistic as I was before about this solution then. As you may recall I have the range and playback set to frames 752-845. So I was looking forward to changing it to 0, even though didn't make the most sense...

[CapitanRed]

yes, you're right floopyb. thanks for reminding. I didn't use the correct words. wehn changing the "play from" option to something different than 0, than also the "start Frame" must be adjusted to not get any animation shifting or clipping.

leaving the output as is will allways give you the correct result. at least for me. I never touch the output.

[JohnnyRandom]

But, no I cannot post a scene file, it is a commercial project with a lot of "in-house" geometry in it, so sorry.



No worries, totally understand.

just an FYI when asked to post a scene, one always strips out everything but the necessary objects, obviously if those "in-house" geometry objects are totally necessary to fume then yep, no go, but if you can strip to scene to fume only go for it. You also could PM or email it if you don't want to post it on the board.:)

Did you try merging the file to a new scene?

[X-PanDer]

Hi again. :)

JohnnyRandom -> You actually are right, I could just remove any excesive geometry and so on. When I get back from vacation I will have a look at that, because right now, I'm so relaxed I can't even remember the scene if I tried to. :P

Cya in less than 2 weeks. :)

[X-PanDer]

Hi again!

I finaly found out what the problem is. It does have something to do with making a fumefx simulation before frame 0.

The thing is, that frames from frame 0 to indefinite, is named: FumeFX01_0000.fxd, FumeFX01_0001.fxd etc. But, the frames before frame 0, is just named FumeFX01_-1.fxd, therefore missing the three first zeros.

I have tested it by renaming to FumeFX01_-0001.fxd, but as of now it does not work and I don't want to experiment with renaming the file over and over again.

So, I hope this is the right conclusion and if it is, then I hope it is fixed in later versions.

Hope this is helpfull to others.

[JonathanFreisler]

thats odd it screwed it up, i only say this because i'm currently using a scene with negative .fxd and i'm having no problems at all - weird. regardless, yeh that should be fixed in the future.

[X-PanDer]

Hi again.

I just want to share some more information, that may help others who are having the same problem as me.

JonathanFreisler -> Hmm, this disproves my theory of a bug in FumeFX i guess. Are you using version 1.1?

Mainly I would use the negative frame numbers as a prestart for FumeFX to enable it to have a complete fire or smoke like it has been going on for ages. But this is still achievable even with this type of error.

You will not be able to see the simulated frames before frame 0 but you will still get the correct frame on frame 0 and onwards. The only thing you have to adjust, is ofcourse the Start Frame in General -> Output -> Range -> Start Frame: -100 (in my case)
And then you need to set the Play-range correctly too.
General -> Playback -> Playback Range -> Play From: 0 (in all cases I guess)

My animation ends at frame 200, so that value goes for both end-values.

Using this technique I can use the "prestart-function" still, even though FumeFX, isn't working. But I am still not sure if this is a bug or it is me who are doing something wrong. The error just triggers everytime I do anything with negative frame numbers in FumeFX.

Hope this helps. :)

[circusboy]

hmm I am having none of those issues (with 1.1).
I just match my output start frame and playback-playfrom and Start frame to all be the same.
Maybe its overkill-but its predictable too.

For 100 frames of preroll on your original scene I just would have had all three be 652. So 652-845.

Also for the case of negative frames-this works as well. For early stages I set the timeline/ global start frame to match my pre-roll start as well-so if i want to sanity check whats going on a frame -85 -I just go there and see. Then match my render start frame when I'm happy with the pre-roll behavior.

As for your mixed cache result-were they really all generated at the same time/day/session?-almost looks like a mixed cache to me-with the default cache name/location being used by multiple incarnations of fume scenes.
Never seen that from a single sim either.

[X-PanDer]

Hi.

Well, by now it seems that I'm the only one with this problem.

I'm going away for a while, form my regular job, until after christmas. When I come back, my workstation will be formated and a 64-bit operating system installed. From there, I will install max and fumefx again and hopefully, this is fixed, or there is a new release available at that time. Because the preroll it very usable and I really don't want to work without it.

circusboy -> About the files, I'm always storing my cache-files in new folders for each project.

Kind regards, Stefan.

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