Thursday, April 12th, 2012 Posted by Jim Thacker

Sitni Sati releases FumeFX 3.0 for 3ds Max


FumeFX 3’s new RenderWarps feature in action to direct a simulation.

Sitni Sati has released a major update to FumeFX, its gaseous fluid simulation plugin for 3ds Max.

The key addition to FumeFX 3.0 is the Effectors, which provide per-voxel control over simulation parameters, providing greater scope for directing the internal structure of a sim, or creating non-physically realistic effects.

FumeFX 3.0 also adds the option to apply RenderWarps – standard space warps such as FFD, Bend or Taper applied as post processes – to precalculated simulation caches, further increasing the directability of sims.

The new N-Sim feature enables users to connect simulation grids together in order to execute a set of smaller sub-simulations as a single large simulation: for example, to add detail to part of a simulation without the need to resimulate completely.

Finally, a GPU-accelerated render preview window enables users to view simulation results more quickly. Sitni Sati claims the preview is fast enough to orbit the camera around a sim with self-shadowing enabled, at least on high-end cards such as the GeForce GTX 460.

There is also an extensive list of minor features, which you can find via the link below.

FumeFX 3.0 is available now for 3ds Max 2009 and above. Each full licence comes with two satellite ‘Simulation Licenses’ and costs $845.

Sitni Sati has also confirmed that it is working on a version of FumeFX for Maya, and expects to release it commercially later this year.

Read a full list of new features in FumeFX 3.0