Next Limit ships RealFlow | Cinema 4D 2.5
Originally posted on 2 March 2018. Scroll down for news of the final release.
Next Limit has announced RealFlow | Cinema 4D 2.5, the latest version of its fluid simulation software for Cinema 4D, adding a visualiser for daemon forces and new vertex maps to control renders.
The update will also make RealFlow | Cinema 4D compatible with the emitter from gaseous fluid simulation software TurbulenceFD, and improve workflow with Cinema 4D’s native Thinking Particles system.
New Visualizer node displays daemon forces in the viewport
The main new feature in RealFlow | Cinema 4D 2.5 is the Visualizer (above), described as “a powerful tool for previewing, adjusting, and evaluating force-based daemons”.
It provides a viewport preview of the vector fields generated by RealFlow’s Attractor, DSpline, Gravity, Noise Field, Vortex and Wind daemons, helping gauge their effect on a simulation.
The DSpline daemon, which makes particles follow a spline path, also gets a new falloff setting.
New vertex maps improve the realism of renders and let users blend fluids at render time
The update also adds three new Vertex Maps (shown above) representing simulation properties.
The maps can be applied to materials when the meshes derived from a simulation are rendered: in the case of Age and Vorticity, helping to increase realism; in the case of Weight, enabling users to mix fluid types.
All three can be previewed in the viewport in real time.
Better compatibility with TurbulenceFD and Thinking Particles
Other changes include support for animated textures and Cinema 4D’s noise shaders in the Image emitter, along with the option to set the resolution of the emission image.
Users can also now accept groups created in Cinema 4D’s Thinking Particles toolset as a parameter to decide which group particles should be synchronised.
The update also makes RealFlow | Cinema 4D compatible with TurbulenceFD’s Emitter tag, making it possible to use RealFlow particles to drive emission in Jawset’s gaseous fluid simulation software.
Updated 15 March 2018: RealFlow | Cinema 4D 2.5 is now shipping. Next Limit has updated its website with videos showing the new features in action. You can also see them on its YouTube channel.
Pricing and availability
RealFlow | Cinema 4D 2.5 is available for Cinema 4D R15+ on 64-bit Windows 7+ and Mac OS X 10.9+. A node-locked licence costs $795.
Read a summary of the new features in RealFlow | Cinema 4D 2.5 on Next Limit’s website
Read a full list of new features in Next Limit’s online documentation