Splashy-Bits on Surf

#1

So, I got that animated surf to work, and at the right size–by golly, did MAX ever not want to cooperate with me on that one; it gets pretty particular about adding morphing splines to use as bones…specifically where they are on the timeline when you add them to the Skin modifier!–and I’d say it looks pretty good…
…but there are some bits that are missing, and I’ll be damned if I can figure out how to do 'em.

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I tried with metaparticles,which looked pretty good, but either the effect was monstrously huge, or I make the particles smaller and end up needing so many more of them to have the right density, and my computer goes all, “Nope, nope, nope, nope…!”, especially using the water itself as a deflector (would it be better to fake it with a plane deflector?)

Is there a way to do this that doesn’t make the computer wig out because it’s so processoriintensive that you can’t preview the effect even at 10% visible, never mind trying to render it…?

#2

See, look at this…it’s terrible!

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You can see the particles falling through–though the preview I made clearly shows that some are hitting the deflector and bouncing; what’s up with that?–and, like I said, my choice seems to be Freakin’ Huge™ or small-but-not-enough-of-'em without my computer going bonkers.

#3

I would use the animated surface as guided simulation for MaxFluids like in this video.
Might take a while to process but the results a pretty great:

#4

Hrm. I suspect that this is one of those things that my much older version of MAX (2013) doesn’t have, alas.

But it looks badass.

#5

So, like, if you bind a SuperSpray to a deflector, particles fall through it like I showed above.
But if you do it with a PFlow in Particle View, it works properly.

What in Hades is that about?

#6

deflector does deflect my superspray…did you bind it properly ?

#7

Is there more than one way to do it? I mean, besides Bind to Spacewarp?

#8

not that i know of, think if you bind superspray to deflector…or deflector to superspray…both work.

#9

Well, that’s definitely what I did. What I’ve always done
…and the result I’ve always gotten.

I should do some sort of demo-thingy, a small video showing it happening. Maybe.

Is there something, perhaps, where if a particle is going too fast, the deflector won’t catch it?

#10

Yes, there is something…
I’m pretty sure I saw (animated) examples in help files on this matter…

#11

I’ve not seen these.

Alas, this is probably the sort of thing where Google-Fu won’t help find it because the keywords would cover too much ground.

But I’ll try.

#12

takes a coupla minutes to confirm…if I continually crank up the speed, eventually, some particles will get thru the deflector…

TooFast
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#13

So it is a speed thing. I’m animating surf; speed is kinna gonna happen.
That stinks.

Been looking around, and there are a lot of tutorials on how to make surf, and I’ve got that down; even if it’s not perfect, I like what I’m getting. But not one of them tackles the splash/foam.
I found a tutorial that did it with PFlow, and it looked good…except it didn’t so much work on the surf I’d made. Still needed too many of 'em for the effect.
I’ve found a number of plugins that are supposed to be able to do it, but they’re all either for a later version of MAX, or I’m getting a 404 on the linked page.

I’m tempted to just say screw it; it’s only for an opening animation for my YouTube videos, the character that’ll be surfing is rather cartoonish, and it doesn’t really have to be photo-accurate.
But, darn it, I really wanted to make it happen.

I’ll keep lookin’ for a while, but…

#14

Max Fluids is 2018 or later only, I think ? like MCG…only 2016 onwards…

At least in PFlow, you can adjust substeps to 1/2, 1/4…etc…for accuracy…while in PSystems…ain’t nothing there…

#15

Okay, hold on a sec…I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not a fan of PFlow (mostly because it’s quite often counter-intuitive to me; there are a lot of times when something goes above something else when it would logically make sense the other way 'round), but I’ve been trying to work with it…

That said…I don’t grok substeps. There are a lot of things in MAX that have ‘steps’ for one reason or another, and those are often quite useful, but “substeps” with regard to particles is a new one. Wuzzat do?
Cuz…if it means that I can cut down on processor time, so I can possibly look at the effect in something more closely resembling real-time, that’d be awesome.
If not…well, then I have no idea what it does. Can you explain?

#16

if you click on PF Source 001…or whatever it’s called in 2013, you’ll see Integration Step, Viewport and Render, ideally they should match up, otherwise it’s silly to see something in the viewport and render something ELSE.

So for fast moving particles…set them to 1/2…or 1/4…or even 1/8 if called for. It just means per frame, the calcs are not done in 1 frame to the next…but in little steps in between.

While you’re there, also set Quantity Mult to 100 so you get an accurate picture of your system (rather than half)…of course if you’re using a bazillion particles…then display only a percentage otherwise…you die.

#17

Oh.
I prolly coulda figured that one out on my own; I just didn’t have sufficient context.

Thanks. :slight_smile:

#18

oh yeah…now there’s Realflow for Max too…do your sim inside Max that is…

(Max 2017 onwards…)

#19

I just looked at your picture again…one with the arrow going boing boing boing pointing at the splashy bits…to me they’re mist…so they’re just fine mist flying up and die pretty much quickly…different than foam on the surface…

I mocked up a mist fx emitting on top of the waves…you’ll have to excuse me so called…ahem…wave…if you can be bothered to play with it, make sure to go into Cache in PF, Clear then Update to see your changes.mist_2013.max (576 KB)

#20

I’ll take a look, thanks.

'Course, now I’ve got another problem: the surfboard won’t make the waves deform for some reason.
I tried the exact same setup, the only difference being the plane that was being deformed, and it totally worked, but on the geometry I actually need to be deformed, it’s like it’s not even there.

Bizarre.