Deconstructing a max2010 pflow sample scene

#1

I’m trying to figure out a sample scene that comes with max2010. Its the waterfoam.max file. It’s a pretty well setup ocean scene with procedurally created foam and spray. What I can’t figure out is how they are creating the foam. Specifically how its being generated on the ocean surface. I can see their using position object op and lock bond, and is using the surface option, but the foam is being placed rather realistically, in how it only appears in certain areas. I cant find out how thats being done. The water plane is really small, and if you scale up the plane size, the foam generation breaks. Can anybody take a look at that scene and figure out how the foam is being placed?

#2

I don’t have max 2010 in front of me right now, but the foam is probably being generated using a greyscale map in the Position Object operator. Check the maps in the material editor.

#3

Thanks for the reply, that was the first thing I checked. The density by material option is not being used.

#4
  1. Open the Particle View and look at what object is being used to emit the particles from Event01, it is Plane02, not Plane01.
  2. Open the layers and unhide Plane02. You will see that it is using a Volume Select to select the upper faces (inverting the selection) and a Delete Mesh to remove the lower section.

It is a little bit of trickery, and what you are seeing in the viewport is not what is actually emitting the particles.

-Eric

#5

ahhh… thanks man. Funny I had been working on a similiar approach over the last few days before finally installing max 2010 and seeing the file.

#6

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