Cool tech videos: X-Particles 2 for Cinema 4D
Developers Steve Pedler and Mike Batchelor have posted a couple of cool preview videos for X-Particles 2, the forthcoming update to their Cinema 4D particle simulation plug-in.
Fluids and multi-threading and XPresso, oh my
Batchelor describes the update as “about a thousand times cooler than version 1”, and with some justification: new features include SPH fluid simulation, surfacing, particle sculpting, and a redesigned collision engine.
As Cinema 4D’s “first fully threaded particle system”, performance is much improved: the first video (at the top of the post) shows a million particles in the viewport in real(ish) time.
And if that wasn’t enough, the entire toolset has been ported into XPresso, giving power users access to X-Particles features via XPresso’s nodal workflow.
Other additions include new modifiers, a redesigned grouping system, and nice bonuses such as the option to use the new meshing system on splines and polys as well as particles, for a kind of ‘super-metaball’ workflow.
X-Particles is due out in “about three weeks”. There’s no information on pricing for now.
View the second part of the X-Particles 2 video demo
(Shows the new particle sculpting and fluid simulation tools)