Sitni Sati releases FumeFX 7.0 for Maya with FumeFX GPU
Sitni Sati has released FumeFX 7.0 for Maya, the latest version of the fluid dynamics plugin.
The update introduces FumeFX GPU, a new CUDA-based GPU solver, speeding up smoke and fire simulations by 2-5x for users with suitable NVIDIA graphics cards.
An established smoke and fire simulation tool for VFX and animation
First released in 2007 for 3ds Max, FumeFX quickly became a go-to tool for VFX artists looking to create gaseous fluid effects like smoke, fire and clouds.
Since 2013, it has also been available for Maya, although new features are usually rolled out in the 3ds Max edition first: the current 3ds Max release is FumeFX 7.5.
New CUDA-based GPU solver for smoke and fire simulation
FumeFX 7.0 for Maya introduces FumeFX GPU: a new GPU-based solver for smoke and fire.
According to Sitni Sati, it is 2-5x faster than the CPU solver on a system with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU and an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X CPU, depending on simulation size and complexity.
It uses the same dense grid approach as the CPU solver, and the same underlying simulation principles, although it doesn’t produce identical output,
Simulations that exceed GPU memory automatically fall back to the CPU, so you will need a pretty beefy graphics card: Sitni Sati recommends at least a 24GB GPU.
The GPU solver is CUDA-based, so you will also need a NVIDIA GPU.
In addition, FumeFX now pre-allocates memory for CPU simulations, making them “approximately 10-15% faster”.
Price and system requirements
FumeFX 7.0 for Maya is compatible with Maya 2024+ running on Windows 10+ only. Sitni Sati recommends at least a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 GPU for GPU simulation.
A new perpetual license of the Maya edition alone costs $695.
Subscriptions, which now include both the 3ds Max and Maya editions, cost $395/year. Additional simulation licences cost $95/year.
Read a full list of new features in FumeFX 7.0 for Maya in the online documentation
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