Cell Fluids 2.0 for Blender is out
CG artist and programmer Shahzod Boyhonov (specoolar) has updated Cell Fluids, his promising lightweight fluid solver based on Blender’s Geometry Nodes system.
Cell Fluids 2.0 makes it possible to art direct fluid flow with guide curves, to increase the resolution of a simulation, and to integrate simulations with a larger ocean surface.
A promising lightweight ‘semi-realtime’ Blender fluid simulator
First released last year, Cell Fluids is a Geometry Nodes-based fluid solver.
It’s compatible with both Blender’s Cycles and Eevee renderers, and is described as being fast enough to work interactively, with the simulation being calculated in “semi-realtime”.
It isn’t a particle-based solver – it generates a water surface with displacement rather than a full 3D fluid – so it has some limitations, listed in the online documentation.
However, as well as rendering simulations inside Blender, users can bake them to a static mesh and flow maps, for export to game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine.
Art direct simulations by using guide curves to control fluid flow
New features in Cell Fluids 2.0 include the option to art direct simulations by using guide curves to control the direction in which the fluid flows.
There are also new shaders mimicking a range of real-world materials, including lava, oil and juice, although the plugin doesn’t currently have true viscosity support for thicker fluids.
New options for creating larger, more details simulations
Cell Fluids 2.0 also introduces some significant new features when it comes to using the plugin in production, including the option to increase the resolution of a simulation.
It is also possible to subdivide a simulation as a post-process, to further enhance details.
The update also introduces a simple ocean blending system, for blending the borders of the fluid surface generated with a larger ocean plane: it currently only works for relatively still water.
Potential use cases include simulating the wake of a boat without the need to simulate the entire expanse of ocean surrounding it.
It is also now possible to simulate custom frame ranges, and to increase the speed of a simulation.
Price and system requirements
Cell Fluids 2.0 is compatible with Blender 4.1+. It now costs $25, up $5 from the original release.
Read more about lightweight real-time fluid solver Cell Fluids on Blender Market
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