Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Hi !
Long time no post !
Just wanted and release this "Alpha Preview" before moving-on to other things for a while
Would be released once I consolidated/cleaned stuff that's scattered across many "versions" later-on ,
and would maybe be "on demand" if it might be useful ( send me a PM ),
as I mostly did it for myself .. always trying to push the limits of what's possible lol .. )
but anyhoo, nice to be back! , and comments welcomed !
from the video comment:
_________________
Setup(s) / presets / compounds for very quick & efficient water FX
using a compiled C++ node ( authored by "Pedrito" ) interfacing with Nvidia Flex particle solver.
___________
Flex solver is itself very fast,
( so is XSI ! ... which specially on modern harware
can emit -hundreds of thousands- of advected /influenced particles per second, with a sustained 24fps until -Millions- are displayed ....
or almost lol, which is important in this case because ICE "talks to" or communicates what it's doing to Flex particles )
And flex otherwise isn't subject to certain limitations which previous GPU solvers came with in the past, limitations mostly about deformed and /or concave obstacles,
& it's also fast for a particle solver with any sort of inter-particle dynamics,
or it's fast, even for a GPU solver.
on an NVidia RTX 2070 :
- A sim with 100,000 particles : ~24fps
- 300,000 particles : 10fps
- and a Sim with 5 million particles : ~28 seconds per frame
Limited only by Vram on your GPU.
And 5 million was pretty-much the max for my own 8gb Vram
BUT.. other than 5 mil. not being exactly either "tiny",
max sim-ed particle count is not necessarily limiting, because even with lots of RAM, it remains ideal to split simulations if possible,
( also, nothing in this video requires more than 4 GB, except for the 5 million particle drop in a box )
Otherwise In this case, the host application has NO problem collecting handling/displaying/rendering caches that can amount to TENS of -millions- of particles.
( sigh XSI lol )
_______
Other factors on performance can include, deformed obstacles usage,
and obstacle mesh density is also a factor,
but not so much sim bounding box size ( if at all ),
as Flex particles are "Boundless".
So lots of empty space between farthest particles -won't- affect performance,
( if any of you can remember Exocortex SlipstreamVX ? )
But in general, because it's fast to make iterations,
it's therefore also fast to discover optimization methods to not need AS many particles
( per units of 3D space for the same level of detail .. as shown in the video )
______
Also in general, is this solver VERY well integrated,
( like bidirectional IO between Flex & host app )
so all "regular forces", or usual ways to advect particles still work ! ( or mostly work lol )
_____
Otherwise, you can double the shown FPS results if using an RTX 3090
PS: Note that the last "rendered looking" segment of this clip isn't actually "rendered",
and quality would go up another notch if there was actually raytracing going-on,
which there isn't ( or not yet
as all elements were essentially hardware captured.
( here applied the same "tricks" as when receiving flat or almost flat particle passes from FX Depts.
and reflections based on gamma-ed down incidence goes a long way for "water shading" )
I also applied a "post-densifyer" to the cached particles of the patch that's just below the camera,
but might have also applied it for another patch farther down.
( we can notice approximately where the lower density starts, but found it useful to see the limits of lower density particles in this first "un-raytraced visualisation" )
In any event, Happy Particles !
Long time no post !
Just wanted and release this "Alpha Preview" before moving-on to other things for a while
Would be released once I consolidated/cleaned stuff that's scattered across many "versions" later-on ,
and would maybe be "on demand" if it might be useful ( send me a PM ),
as I mostly did it for myself .. always trying to push the limits of what's possible lol .. )
but anyhoo, nice to be back! , and comments welcomed !
from the video comment:
_________________
Setup(s) / presets / compounds for very quick & efficient water FX
using a compiled C++ node ( authored by "Pedrito" ) interfacing with Nvidia Flex particle solver.
___________
Flex solver is itself very fast,
( so is XSI ! ... which specially on modern harware
can emit -hundreds of thousands- of advected /influenced particles per second, with a sustained 24fps until -Millions- are displayed ....
or almost lol, which is important in this case because ICE "talks to" or communicates what it's doing to Flex particles )
And flex otherwise isn't subject to certain limitations which previous GPU solvers came with in the past, limitations mostly about deformed and /or concave obstacles,
& it's also fast for a particle solver with any sort of inter-particle dynamics,
or it's fast, even for a GPU solver.
on an NVidia RTX 2070 :
- A sim with 100,000 particles : ~24fps
- 300,000 particles : 10fps
- and a Sim with 5 million particles : ~28 seconds per frame
Limited only by Vram on your GPU.
And 5 million was pretty-much the max for my own 8gb Vram
BUT.. other than 5 mil. not being exactly either "tiny",
max sim-ed particle count is not necessarily limiting, because even with lots of RAM, it remains ideal to split simulations if possible,
( also, nothing in this video requires more than 4 GB, except for the 5 million particle drop in a box )
Otherwise In this case, the host application has NO problem collecting handling/displaying/rendering caches that can amount to TENS of -millions- of particles.
( sigh XSI lol )
_______
Other factors on performance can include, deformed obstacles usage,
and obstacle mesh density is also a factor,
but not so much sim bounding box size ( if at all ),
as Flex particles are "Boundless".
So lots of empty space between farthest particles -won't- affect performance,
( if any of you can remember Exocortex SlipstreamVX ? )
But in general, because it's fast to make iterations,
it's therefore also fast to discover optimization methods to not need AS many particles
( per units of 3D space for the same level of detail .. as shown in the video )
______
Also in general, is this solver VERY well integrated,
( like bidirectional IO between Flex & host app )
so all "regular forces", or usual ways to advect particles still work ! ( or mostly work lol )
_____
Otherwise, you can double the shown FPS results if using an RTX 3090
PS: Note that the last "rendered looking" segment of this clip isn't actually "rendered",
and quality would go up another notch if there was actually raytracing going-on,
which there isn't ( or not yet
as all elements were essentially hardware captured.
( here applied the same "tricks" as when receiving flat or almost flat particle passes from FX Depts.
and reflections based on gamma-ed down incidence goes a long way for "water shading" )
I also applied a "post-densifyer" to the cached particles of the patch that's just below the camera,
but might have also applied it for another patch farther down.
( we can notice approximately where the lower density starts, but found it useful to see the limits of lower density particles in this first "un-raytraced visualisation" )
In any event, Happy Particles !
Last edited by FXDude on 08 Jun 2023, 18:29, edited 3 times in total.
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
It's encouraging to see that someone continues to experiment in XSI (^,^)
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
This looks very cool. The ocean sims are very impressive and the other fluids demonstrated are convincing too. Incredible work!
Next time I need fluid sim I think this would be so useful to work with.
Next time I need fluid sim I think this would be so useful to work with.
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
damn that looks great!!
-
- Posts: 169
- Joined: 16 Jun 2009, 06:23
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Useful already only for "-ty" presets
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Thanks!
Also, if taking flex particles "out for a spin",
of course the more regular RAM the better ...
( 64g is almost a norm or a 'minimum requirement' for large scale sims )
BUT ... flex ( and/or XSI lol ) is'nt AS "fussy" about ram as it is about Vram
( would just immediately crash if running out of Vram lol OR if running out of swap space .. if too many sim-ed particles )
Otherwise, regular memory use would increase, specially if in the same session for a long time ,
yet when hitting a ceiling, would either eventually release (clear) memory (half the time) OR it would dump it to swap.
But even when dumping to swap ... I swear that performance would be barely ( if at all ) affected.
I don't think it even needs to read back whatever it dumps, it just needs to dump it somewhere.
So you don't necessarily need alot of ram ... but what you DO need is -alot- of --> PREALLOCATED SWAP (and maybe a fast SSD)
"preallocated", because a dynamically expanding swap would also crash flex,
or would still see the minimum swap space as a "hard limit" once reached ( would not expand swap )
So I resized my swap to a fixed 120 gigs as it would sometimes consume more than 80+gigs of swap space.
and it might be something to set, even if running with 64gb of ram
( but you're probably fine if running on a 128gig machine lol )
Other stuff running will get swapped out though ... so browse internet on another machine lol
( BTW the shown work was on my laptop's 16g of ram )
Also, if taking flex particles "out for a spin",
of course the more regular RAM the better ...
( 64g is almost a norm or a 'minimum requirement' for large scale sims )
BUT ... flex ( and/or XSI lol ) is'nt AS "fussy" about ram as it is about Vram
( would just immediately crash if running out of Vram lol OR if running out of swap space .. if too many sim-ed particles )
Otherwise, regular memory use would increase, specially if in the same session for a long time ,
yet when hitting a ceiling, would either eventually release (clear) memory (half the time) OR it would dump it to swap.
But even when dumping to swap ... I swear that performance would be barely ( if at all ) affected.
I don't think it even needs to read back whatever it dumps, it just needs to dump it somewhere.
So you don't necessarily need alot of ram ... but what you DO need is -alot- of --> PREALLOCATED SWAP (and maybe a fast SSD)
"preallocated", because a dynamically expanding swap would also crash flex,
or would still see the minimum swap space as a "hard limit" once reached ( would not expand swap )
So I resized my swap to a fixed 120 gigs as it would sometimes consume more than 80+gigs of swap space.
and it might be something to set, even if running with 64gb of ram
( but you're probably fine if running on a 128gig machine lol )
Other stuff running will get swapped out though ... so browse internet on another machine lol
( BTW the shown work was on my laptop's 16g of ram )
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Wow! Great job Dude!!
I noticed you mentioned Pedrito, but unfortunately he never shared FlexToSi in the si-community.
Honestly, I'm still hoping he comes back with news. I liked that in his version there were also options for cloth/softbodies.
Anyway, looking forward to the release of WavZ
I noticed you mentioned Pedrito, but unfortunately he never shared FlexToSi in the si-community.
Honestly, I'm still hoping he comes back with news. I liked that in his version there were also options for cloth/softbodies.
Anyway, looking forward to the release of WavZ
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Thanks!
and I also saw that he at least started implementing other "physics" as he did for his Houdini plugin,
( maybe was it buggy ? )
He also fairly recently made "an update" for the fluids solver,
I'll try getting in touch with him when getting back to it to make a sample scene.
( later-on & part time .. for now I just need to go work for money lol )
and I also saw that he at least started implementing other "physics" as he did for his Houdini plugin,
( maybe was it buggy ? )
He also fairly recently made "an update" for the fluids solver,
I'll try getting in touch with him when getting back to it to make a sample scene.
( later-on & part time .. for now I just need to go work for money lol )
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Hi !
I've included a bit of 'WavZ' compositing elements in my comp reel
( also if you wanna check-out my comp reel )
Cheers!
🍎 🍒 🥝 🍐 🥧
I've included a bit of 'WavZ' compositing elements in my comp reel
( also if you wanna check-out my comp reel )
Cheers!
🍎 🍒 🥝 🍐 🥧
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
Hi there, i have updated the PcTools repo to have the compiled Flex nodes for ICE and the sample scenes. no source code.
It should work, but honestly didnt try it since long time ago, just in case some one is interested here it is:
https://github.com/pedroCabrera/pcTools_Softimage
I updated the repo to have the dlls and sample scenes.
....rest in peace xSI..... 💚
It should work, but honestly didnt try it since long time ago, just in case some one is interested here it is:
https://github.com/pedroCabrera/pcTools_Softimage
I updated the repo to have the dlls and sample scenes.
....rest in peace xSI..... 💚
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
YYYYYAAAAAYYYYY!!!
Almost like Lagoa multiphysics but on sterroids !!
BTW, I actually never used Lagoa as an "FX artist", only because of how slow it was to do everything\anything.
Wasn't exactly "slow", but just "normal" considering how much can be involved in solving such things,
but "normal" could easily be seen as "slow" specially for larger scale sims ( same for Bifrost "MPM" )
Nevertheless, we could say that each one of these tools\scripts could warrant it's own Resource Section entry lol
( not an actual suggestion 1 entry is fine lol )
Also seems to be lots of other great things in this package
In any event, thanks so much for putting time on this
also for the first fluids release which was totally awesome
can't wait to try everything !
( I still have to release my own 'WavZ' sample scenes, will get to it in the next weeks )
Cheeeers!
Almost like Lagoa multiphysics but on sterroids !!
BTW, I actually never used Lagoa as an "FX artist", only because of how slow it was to do everything\anything.
Wasn't exactly "slow", but just "normal" considering how much can be involved in solving such things,
but "normal" could easily be seen as "slow" specially for larger scale sims ( same for Bifrost "MPM" )
Nevertheless, we could say that each one of these tools\scripts could warrant it's own Resource Section entry lol
( not an actual suggestion 1 entry is fine lol )
Also seems to be lots of other great things in this package
In any event, thanks so much for putting time on this
also for the first fluids release which was totally awesome
can't wait to try everything !
( I still have to release my own 'WavZ' sample scenes, will get to it in the next weeks )
Cheeeers!
Re: Introducing "WavZ" Ocean/Water Toolkit - ( based on "Pedrito's" FlexToXsi )
HURRRRAYYY!!Pedrito wrote: ↑28 Jun 2023, 19:59 Hi there, i have updated the PcTools repo to have the compiled Flex nodes for ICE and the sample scenes. no source code.
It should work, but honestly didnt try it since long time ago, just in case some one is interested here it is:
https://github.com/pedroCabrera/pcTools_Softimage
I updated the repo to have the dlls and sample scenes.
....rest in peace xSI..... 💚
Is it just me and FxDude here being so happy about this?
Thank you very much, Pedrito!!💕
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