With every major release of thinkingParticles new features are introduced, extending the power and flexibility of thinkingParticles by a magnitude, as compared to its predecessor. Release 4 represents a milestone in advancing the feature set.
Most of its new functionality was born out of the need for advanced technical effects that were required by several major block buster movie productions, such as: Roland Emmerich's "2012" that was all about demolition and disaster, Director John Woo's "Red Cliff" which had an epic ship battle of more than 4000 burning and crashing ships, and sequences in the movie GI Joe "Rise of the Cobra" that needed our development attention as well.
Find below: a list of visible and invisible changes done to thinkingParticles R4 when compared to thinkingParticles R3.
Enhanced Operators
thinkingParticles ships with many operator nodes; its great flexibility and concept of wiring everything with everything offers an endless combination of nodes and setups, used to create particle effects. With every new node added to the tool set, the combinations and possible uses for effects increases by a magnitude.
This release of thinkingParticles is not only about adding complete new nodes, it is also about enhancing existing nodes, which offer extended benefits, as completely new nodes are expected to do.
The following existing thinkingParticles Nodes have been changed/enhanced
Intersect Node:
This node received new inputs and outputs to enhance its functionality.
New Inputs: Particle Shape, UVW Channel
New Outputs: Object Position, Face ID, Face Coordinates
One To X:
A new more generalized data stream concept has been introduced to this helper node
New: the Type of data stream connected and output can now be selected
Surface Pos Node:
New inputs have been added to this node to enhance its functionality
New Inputs: UVW, Particle Shape
Volume Pos Node:
By adding a new input to this node, particle shapes can now be used to define the volume for placing or generating particles.
New Input: Particle Shape
OP_ObjToParticle:
A new object state has been introduced to this node, the "No tracking" option will not use any transformation information at all, except position.
New Selection Option: Initial Velocity
"None" now really does NO tracking at all
Get Reference Operator: by adding a new Number of Refs output, it is now possible to request the total number of references which a particle possesses.
New Output: Number of Refs, outputs the number of references
PAttach:
Particles can now attach to other particles either relative or absolute
New Option : Absolute
New Option : Relative
Fragment Operator:
A lot of fine tuning has been done to this operator. New inputs and features have been added.
New in Fragment Shape section: Segments
New in Remaining Shape section: Segments
New function for Edges: Automatic texture mapping added
New Inputs: Segments, R Segments
The NVIDIA PhysX dynamics solver is now true 64-Bit.
New Menu Categories
Serious housecleaning has been done for this release of thinkingParticles R4, in the process of streamlining the thinkingParticles workflow, some operator sections have been reorganized.
Find below: a list of new menu sections added to this release of thinkingParticles.
Fragmenter:
Organizes all fragmentation nodes in one section.
VolumeBreaker:
Gives access to all VolumeBreaker specific nodes.
Shape Collision:
The all new ShapeCollison nodes are collected within this menu section.
New Joints
In addition to the already existing PhysX Joint helper object, another more advanced Joint helper has been added to the standard tool set, to be used with the new ShapeCollison rigid body solver, named SC.
Rigid body particle dynamics, especially joints, are one of the "big" new things in thinkingParticles R4 that have been fine tuned and optimized to the best possible extent. The result of our efforts to deliver the best possible Hollywood F/X tool ever can be seen in the many flexible ways which rigid body joints are now created and used. At first, this may seem overwhelming or even confusing; however, once you get the hang of it, you won't want to miss the new freedom and power.
Joints can be created and accessed in one of the following ways:
Modifier Joints
Object Joints
Operator Joints
New Operators
Yes, we admit it - it's cool to get new toys with every major release of thinkingParticles and this release offers plenty of them! By integrating volumeBreaker technology right into thinkingParticles, in a pure and fully procedural way, the core tool set of thinkingParticles offers never before seen, rigid body "demolition" power. Without this ground breaking new technology, movies like "2012" or "Red Cliff" would not have been possible.
thinkingParticles R4 also introduces for the first time ever - a true hierarchical rigid body demolition system, that enables the handling, in a exact and controllable way, how "connected" parts of a bigger system (house,plane ...) fly off or collapse under certain situations. This rigid body dynamics skeleton system, allows for a full procedural demolition setup, that can be individually adjusted anytime later when needed.
HFragmenter:
This new operator was developed to help in "2012" and "Red Cliff" to allow the creation of all of the jaw dropping destruction sequences.
HFragmenter (Modifier):
This new modifier plays along with the operator node mentioned above and it supplies all the needed extra data.
VolumeActivate:
First of a kind Multi-DynamicSet aware operator node used to control volumeBreaker activation in 3D space
VolumeBreak:
This is the fully procedural volumeBreaker counterpart integrated into thinkingParticles R4.
VolumeCell:
Another multi DynamicSet aware node that actually controls the volumetric debris creation of a volumeBreak operator in a fully procedural way.
SCJointCounter:
This node is, as well, Multi-DynamicSet aware and outputs the amount of joints that a particle possesses.
SCJointData:
Is also Multi-DynamicSet aware and allows the changing of Joint data in a fully procedural way, at any given time
SCJoint:
Another multi DynamicSet aware node used to create rigid body joints in a fully procedural way, through rules and wire setups
SCOperator:
This is the all new next generation ShapeCollision, with enhanced multi-core support, having better stability and accuracy with low sub-frame rates
Camera Map:
Offers a new way of texture mapping particles, based on the camera view. Many advanced particle texturing effects can be achieved with this new operator.
X To One:
This new node offers the functionality to procedurally switch multiple inputs to one output.
In Mesh Condition:
An operator that tells you if a particle is inside a mesh or not.
New Utility
thinkingParticles is the "Mother of all Demolition Software" and we have added a rich set of tools to enable the user to create realistic looking demolition sequences in the least amount of time. We want to be clear about one thing: realistic rigid body dynamics demolition effects are still one of the most complex things to create in computer graphics! There is no software tool on this planet that will take away the pain of properly planning and deciding how the effect should progress and finally look like. The tools that thinkingParticles offers can help in speeding up the process, and surely in a later stage, it is the best tool available to art direct a destruction sequence.
The all new TP Collapse utility is meant to automatically assemble complex constructions and prepare them, in a unique way, for thinkingParticles to create a hierarchical "structural skeleton" of the main construct.
New Shape Collision (SC)
thinkingParticles R4 ships with its next generation of rigid body dynamics solver: The "SC Operator" or "ShapeCollison 2," regardless of how you want to label it, is the new rigid body solver in tP town!
For compatibility reasons the old ShapeCollision solver has been kept in the tool set "as is", so all of the older simulations will still work and look the same. From R4 onwards, it is recommended that you use the all new "SC" operator instead.
The new ShapeCollision operator incorporates, for the first time ever, true Multi-Core (CPU) support for most parts of its collision detection and overall solving. The accuracy of the solver has been enhanced beyond belief and the stability that you derive is unmatched by the old ShapeCollision or any PhysX simulation.
Speed is always an issue in complex physics simulations, PhysX delivers already fast game quality physics but it is not good enough for the Hollywood style of effects, which need way more accuracy than PhysX can deliver. Thanks to a much more enhanced multi-core (CPU) support that SC has to offer, the simulation times can be reduced by a factor, as much as, 10 times when compared to the good old ShapeCollision!
New Modifiers and Textures
Several new Textures and Modifiers have been added in this release. Some of the new tools are not directly related to particle effects but can be combined, offering an amazing additional value to effects that would be way more complex to achieve without these new tools.
TP_Deform_Modifier:
Used to simulate earthquake like rifts or folds that progress along a path over time. Other creative uses are possible.
TP_Deform_Texmap:
An animated depth-map only solution with near identical results to the TP_Deform_Modifier
TP TexMap:
Has been updated and offers now more features to paint with particles and textures
TP_Variation Texture Map:
This texture map, mainly used to texture crowd simulations, has been enhanced in many ways in this release of thinkginParticles.
New Functionality
thinkingParticles R4 offers an additional licensing model with which to allow network simulation of files and creating caches on individual machines. Those so called "SIM-Licenses" can be ordered separately from the cebas online store whenever needed. Every thinkingParticles R4 comes with one SIM-License, which allows you to simulate/write out particle caches on one extra machine in network mode, while at the same time, continuing to work on a computer with thinkingParticles.
The handling of cached simulation files, created by thinkingParticles R4, has been greatly enhanced. Simulation cache files are now really "transportable" and self contained. They can be copied and moved around and played back within any thinkingParticles scene; even an empty DynamicSet with no particle groups at all will work and play back the cache file. To achieve this "transportable" and self contained workflow every cache file comes with its own material library, which makes it independent from any scene content and even allows for chaning it afterwards, without the need to re-simulate the particle effects.
Master Dynamic Rollout Menu:
Several new additions have been done to the MasterDynamic Set dialog. Some of them are listed below.
Viewport sub-frame settings are locked now to render settings by default.
Time Offset allows you to change or offset the playback start time of a cache file.
Cache file statistics now include more detail than ever; information like PC name, User name, simulation time etc., has been added to the statistics window.
Cache playback of particle simulations can now be positioned and rotated in 3D space afterwards.
Cached particles can now be Scaled on playback.
Cache playback can now be linked to an object or multiple objects for unlimited instancing of caches.
Sophisticated out of range control for recorded caches has been added.
Scripting thinkingParticles functions
thinkingParticles R4 incorporates the best ever MAXScripting support of all releases so far. Now, it is possible to even write complete thinkingParticles operator Nodes with inputs and outputs that just behave like native thinkingParticles operators! If we forgot something to add - you can now script it on your own.
In addition to fully functional operator Nodes written in MAXScript, full MAXScript access to DynamicSets and Node properties has been implemented into thinkingParticles R4. Find below a short example of such an access via MAXScript
The script below demonstrates how, with a selected thinkingParticles system, a new particle group is created and renamed "MyGroup".
thinkingParticles R4 enhances the interoperability with finalRender R3 - thinkingParticles R4 now supports spin motion blur for rotating particles.
The best ever vessel for FumeFX effects!
thinkingParticles R4 has become the standard tool for FX professionals in this industry; the flexibility and the sheer unlimited power it offers, makes R4 a natural choice.
Renowned 3rd Party developers like SitniSati also offers advanced FX tools; FumeFX for example, perfectly integrates into thinkingParticles to create the most amazing fluid effects ever. No other product combination on the market is as hot and perfect at the same time, as thinkginParticles and FumeFX!
Imagine: 100% rule based bi-directional fluid effects perfectly interacting with a fast Rigid Body Particle Solver, all from right within thinkingParticles.
