Friday, July 8th, 2022 Posted by Jim Thacker

AqMesher for 3ds Max gets new liquid solver


VFX tools developer MagicPictures Software has released AqMesher 2.8 for 3ds Max, adding a new liquid solver to the OpenVDB-based meshing plugin.

Part of Japanese VFX facility MagicPictures Studio’s in-house toolset
First released in 2019, AqMesher converts native 3ds Max particle systems, particle caches in Krakatoa’s .prt format, or OpenVDB volumes to meshes.

Meshes can be generated as all quads or all tris, with options to control mesh resolution, and users can clip or fracture the mesh generated with a separate cutter object within the scene.

The software was originally developed as an in-house tool at Japanese VFX facility MagicPictures Studio, of which MagicPictures Studio is a spin-off.

AqMesher 2.8: new GPU-accelerated, network-capable PIC/FLIP liquid solver
The latest release, AqMesher 2.8, adds a new PIC/FLIP solver, making it possible to set up liquid simulations inside the software, as well as to mesh simulations created in other applications.

Simulations are GPU accelerated – the software uses CUDA, so you will need a compatible Nvidia GPU – and may be run across a network.

The online documentation is pretty brief, but it lists the options available in the PIC/FLIP solver, including fluid density, viscosity and surface tension.

Other new features include the option to export simulations as sequences of Alembic files.

Pricing and system requirements
AqMesher 2.8 is compatible with 3ds Max 2017+ running on Windows 10. A workstation licence costs $245, also including unlimited network rendering and unlimited network simulation.


Read more about AqMesher on MagicPictures Software’s website

Watch tutorials on AqMesher’s new liquid solver on MagicPictures Software’s YouTube channel