cebas releases thinkingParticles 7.3
Originally posted on 31 July 2022. Scroll down for news of thinkingParticles 7.3.
cebas Visual Technology has updated thinkingParticles, its particle and physics plugin for 3ds Max.
thinkingParticles 7.1 adds five new solvers for simulating ‘hyperelastic’ materials like rubber and jelly.
thinkingParticles 7.2 adds ME-L, a new scripting language for manipulating OpenVDB data.
thinkingParticles 7.3 extends ME-L into a more general-purpose system for creating custom particle simulations.
A popular simulation tool for 3ds Max-based visual effects pipelines
First released two decades ago, thinkingParticles is a procedural simulation tool that has been used by leading VFX studios including Scanline VFX, FuseFX and Bottleship VFX.
Originally geared towards particle-based destruction and gaseous fluid simulations, it later added a SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) solver for liquids and soft bodies.
Subsequent updates added tools for manipulating volumetric data in OpenVDB format.
The software is also now bundled with finalRender, cebas’s GPU renderer.
thinkingParticles 7.1: MPM solvers for hyperelastic materials like rubber and jelly
The 7.1 update builds on the new Material Point Method (MPM) simulation system introduced in thinkingParticles 7.0, which featured dedicated solvers for snow and sand.
To that, thinkingParticles 7.1 adds five new MPM solvers for ‘hyperelastic’ materials, like rubber and jelly.
New Tracer operator increased particle counts to up-scale fluid simulations
Other new features include Tracer, a particle multiplication operator that increases the number of particles in a simulation without “adding extra load” to the solver.
The new particles are created outside the main simulation and ‘dragged along’ by their counterparts within it, making it possible to upscale low-particle-count simulations without significantly increasing processing time.
According to cebas, Tracer can be used in sand or snow simulations, but “really shines when up-sampling fluid simulations”.
Workflow improvements and smaller features
Workflow improvements include the option to export particles in PRT format, widely used as an interchange format for particle data; and to display volumes in the viewport, as rendered fog or smoke, wireframes or voxels.
Updated 19 September 2022: Cebas has released thinkingParticles 7.2.
The update introduces ME-L (Math Expression Language) a new multithreaded scripting language specifically tailored to manipulating OpenVDB data within thinkingParticles.
According to cebas, it can “achieve breathaking speed-ups in handling and manipulating volume data”.
Released 22 March 2023: Cebas has released thinkingParticles 7.3.
The update extends the capabilities of the ME-L language, with a new ExpressionME-L node making it possible to use ME-L scripting to create custom particle simulations.
According to cebas, ME-L scripts have “almost unrestricted access” to the core simulation data created by thinkingParticles.
You can see a range of examples of effects created using ME-L scripting, including a flocking system and audio-driven fire simulation, on the thinkingParticles product page.
In addition, a new Fluid material property makes it possible to use the new MPM solver to simulate liquids as well as granular fluids and elastic materials.
Price and system requirements
thinkingParticles 7.3 is compatible with 3ds Max 2021+. The software is available on a rental-only basis. Subscriptions now cost $55/month or $660/year.
Read an overview of the new features in thinkingParticles on cebas’s website