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This page provides an overview on setting up and installing Phoenix FD.
Overview
This guide serves as a reference for the installation of Phoenix FD for 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design. You can download the latest official version of Phoenix FD from http://www.chaosgroup.com with the account supplied to you by Chaos Group or your reseller.
Scroll the list of programs until you find Phoenix FD for 3ds Max 2018 or simply activate the Search field and type in 'Phoenix FD for 3ds Max 2018'. If it exists on your system the Phoenix FD for 3ds Max 2018 application will be found very quickly. Chaos Group has released Phoenix FD 3.10, the latest update to its fluid simulation software, adding support for liquids of variable viscosity, plus a number of smaller workflow features. The software, which is compatible with both 3ds Max and Maya, simulates. Get your free 30-day trial at Phoenix FD 4 for 3ds Max and Phoenix FD 4 for Maya is now available. We’ve included new. Phoenix FD for 3ds Max 2018 has the habit of leaving behind some leftovers. Folders found on disk after you uninstall Phoenix FD for 3ds Max 2018 from your PC: C: Program Files Chaos Group Phoenix FD 3ds Max 2018 for x64; The files below remain on your disk by Phoenix FD for 3ds Max 2018 when you uninstall it.
This page covers installation of Phoenix FD through the Phoenix installer. For additional setup and troubleshooting, see the following pages:
- Trial Installation of Phoenix FD for 3ds Max - Includes details on how to sign up and use the trial version of the software.
- Installation Troubleshooting - Provides solutions to common installation issues.
- Silent Install and Uninstall - Instructions for silently installing or uninstalling Phoenix FD through the command line.
- Uninstalling Phoenix FD - Instructions for manually uninstalling Phoenix FD through the included Phoenix uninstaller.
- Set Up Your Phoenix FD License - Instructions for setting up and managing the Phoenix floating licensing system.
- V-Ray Collection Trial Installation - Instructions for obtaining 15 Chaos products, including Phoenix FD for 3ds Max with V-Ray Collection.
If you experience any problems, please check the Installation Troubleshooting page.
In order to run Phoenix FD for 3ds Max, you need to have access to the License Server (installed on your machine or a connection to one over your network).
System requirements
Please make sure that your system fulfills these requirements before installing Phoenix FD:
Phoenix FD for 3ds Max comes in 2 build types - compatible with V-Ray Next and V-Ray 5. If you don't have V-Ray, it does not matter at all which one you install - Phoenix would still be able to simulate, load, save and preview caches, and it would render with the Scanline Renderer. If you do have V-Ray Next or V-Ray 5, please take care to install a matching Phoenix build.
Processor | Intel® 64-bit or compatible processor with SSE 4.2 support |
RAM | 8 GB RAM and 8 GB swap minimum – recommended 32 GB or more RAM, 32 GB or more swap file |
Operating system | Windows ® 7 SP1, Windows ® 8.1 Professional, or Windows ® 10 Professional operating system |
3ds Max | 3ds Max ® 2016 / 3ds Max Design ® 2016 or later, 64-bit versions only |
USB port | Required for dongle licensing, USB 2.0 or newer |
TCP/IP | Only IPv4 is supported. IPv6 is currently not supported |
Chaos License Server | 4.5.1 or later |
V-Ray | All V-Ray 5 and V-Ray Next versions are supported |
Hardware Advice for Faster Simulating
Here's some tips to help you make sure your Phoenix sims calculate as fast as possible.
Hardware | Recommendation |
---|---|
Bus speed | Phoenix transfers huge amounts of data between memory and the CPU. The entire simulation grid gets processed tens to hundred times per simulation step, so the bus speed is the bottleneck in most simulations. |
CPU speed | Processor speed is more important than core count. Also, NUMA and multiprocessor architectures do not perform well with Phoenix. Simulating on one NUMA node is often faster than waiting for multiple nodes to synchronize. |
Fast Storage | Both large and small simulations take significant time just to write the cache files from the simulation and to read them back for the preview, so good storage speed can help decrease simulation times up to 30%. Turning off the preview for all grid and particle channels during large simulations could also help speed up the simulation. |
GPU | GPUs are currently only used for the GPU preview of fire/smoke simulations. |
Software Advice for Faster Simulating
On some machines, the Anti-Virus software may treat Phoenix FD's files .aur, .f3d and .vdb as a potential risk and consume significant processing power to scan them. Since cache files are often hundreds of Megabytes or more, this could cause the simulation to slow down several times.
Consider adding an exception in your Anti-Virus software for these file formats.
You may also add Phoenix FD log file extension (.log) or the log file directory (accessible through the Phoenix Preferences) to the exceptions of the Anti-Virus software.
It may also be beneficial to add an exception for the 3ds Max process (3dsmax.exe).
Here is a short step by step guide by Microsoft on Adding an Exclusion for Windows Defender.
Installation of Phoenix FD
The Phoenix FD installer will automatically remove any previous installations. This will allow you to seamlessly upgrade from older versions of Phoenix FD. If you experience problems, you can manually uninstall the previous versions to perform a clean install. For more information, please refer to the Uninstalling Phoenix FD page.
Before running the installation, make sure your Windows account has administrative privileges and the dongle is not plugged in.
Setting up the installation
Run the installer.
1. Upon the start of the installation, Windows may ask you for permission to run the installer with administrator privileges. Please confirm.
2. You will be presented with the Phoenix FD licensing agreements. Please take a moment to review the agreements. Click the I Agree button to proceed.
3. During the next step, you can choose the installation type. The available installation types are:
Workstation (full) – This is a full installation and includes all components necessary to use Phoenix FD. It includes Phoenix FD for 3ds Max, V-Ray Standalone render plugin, and an update to the Chaos License Server.
Simulation and V-Ray Standalone Render Slave – This installation includes Phoenix FD for 3ds Max and V-Ray Standalone render plugin. Select this option if you intend to use the machine for network simulations or for distributed rendering of your Phoenix FD cache files. Note: Phoenix FD does not support distributed simulations yet.
V-Ray Standalone Render Slave – This will install the V-Ray Standalone render plugin.
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4. After you choose the installation type, you can click the Customize button and adjust the corresponding installation settings. If you have selected the Workstation installation, you will see the full list of customizable settings:
Uninstall previous installations – Leave this checked to automatically uninstall any previous versions.
How are you going to connect to the Chaos License Server? – Specifies whether the Chaos License Server will run locally or on another machine.
If you select the Remote Chaos License Server on the network option, you will have to fill in the IP address of your Chaos License Server in the field labeled Primary License Server. Please leave the port 30304 unchanged.
Specify installation paths – Please check if the default folders are correct. Common settings for Workstation installation for 3ds Max 2018 with default paths should look like the screenshot below:
5. When ready, click the Install Now button.
Completing the installation
Please skip the steps that are not relevant for your installation type.
1. After you click the Install Now button, the installer will proceed to uninstall any previous versions and install Phoenix FD on your machine.
2. If the installation was successful, you will get this screen:
Visit our online documentation site will open a new browser window/tab to the Phoenix FD for 3ds Max Docs.
Open the changelog file after the installation will open the text file with changes broken down by releases (also available through the Version Change Logs).
Click the Finish button:
To make sure that your license server is up and running and you have the necessary licenses, please proceed to the Set Up Your Phoenix FD License page.
Official release
Date – Feb. 14, 2018
Download – Build 3.10.00
New Features
FLIP Solver
Variable viscosity for the FLIP solver. Added to the Sources, Grid Texture and Mapper
Default RGB color for Initial Fill Up of the simulation and Initial Liquid Fill of interacting geometries
Particle Shader
- Use texture RGB color to shade particles in the Particles Shader
Ocean Texture
- Implemented looping and direct frame index option for the Ocean Texture
Particle Flow
- Implement caching of the Simulator frames in order to speed up the Phoenix Particle Flow operators
- Option to delete PFlow particles exiting the Simulator grid when using a Force Operator
3ds Max Integration
- Support XForm modifiers in Volumetric render mode for the Simulator
- Added the Flip Y/Z option to the Input rollout in 3ds Max
Improvements
FLIP Solver
WetMap particles are now able to stick to deforming and fast moving geometries
Improved the thread loading of the FLIP solver
- Added a Fill Up for Ocean option which can be disabled so Initial Fill Up would not produce liquid voxels and mesh under the fillup level
Volumetric Shader
- Render negative Fire from caches imported from FumeFX
- Speed up rendering of scenes with Simulators and Particle Shaders in volumetric mode in 3ds Max
Animation
- Renamed Cache Start to Cache Origin and Play Start to Timeline Origin
V-Ray RT and IPR
- Ignore the Optimize Big Volumetric Grids option when the current render is V-Ray RT
Ocean Mesher
- Allow simultaneous use of the Vertical Fade Level and Fade Above Velocity displacement options
- Added a hidden cache stretching parameter used to fill air pockets in imported Houdini VDB caches used for ocean meshing - 'cachestretchzone'
Ocean Texture
Path Follow
- Reverse the direction or attraction of FollowPath using a negative Follow Speed or negative Pull Speed
VRScenes
- Resolve environment variables in Phoenix paths during rendering and not during export
Cache I/O
Multithreaded writing and loading of AUR caches. After this change, old versions of Phoenix won't be able to open new caches. New Phoenix versions will open old caches without problems.
- Merged the OpenVDB DLL into the Phoenix plugin
User Interface
- Added options for using the Timeline beginning/end as the simulation start/stop frame
3ds Max Integration
- If the connection to the license server is lost, automatically try to reconnect
SDK
- Allow providing custom motion blur start and end frame times through the Phoenix SDK
Removed Features
Phoenix FD
Bug Fixes
FLIP Solver
Random crash with liquid simulation when particles exit the grid and there is an obstacle on the border
- Random crash while simulating liquid in contact with moving solid source geometries
- Hang when not all existing FLIP particle systems are affected by a Phoenix force
- Solid bodies with Clear Inside kill liquid particles on contact
- Can't use another simulator as an obstacle to FLIP liquid
- Restoring liquid simulation with moving simulator creates incorrect velocities at the borders
- Load & Start of a non-backup liquid cache does not load all the liquid particles
- Animated object entering the simulator does not emit liquid from its entire surface
- Liquid cannot wet the inside of a Confine Geometry
Grid Solver
Overlapping non-solid Surface Force sources sum their temperatures to very high values
- Crash with fire/smoke simulations and Confine Geometry if Object Voxels is different than Circumscribed
Simulation General
Crash during simulation when Phoenix FD runs out of memory
- Pressing Start quickly and repeatedly could crash the simulation with enabled Force Preview
- Repeated Stopping and then Starting the simulation quickly could lead to a crash in 3ds Max
- Hang when using Load & Start for a Resimulation
- After a recent Windows Update, simulation in 3ds Max could hang on Start
- Can't Start a simulation from the toolbar after a failed Restore
V-Ray RT and IPR
Crash when the Ocean Texture is used as liquid simulator displacement when rendering with V-Ray RT
Volumetric Shader
No scene shadows if Visible to Camera is disabled in Volumetric Geometry mode
- Fire/Smoke in Volumetric Geometry mode does not render at all when Min Visible Opacity is set to 0.0
Particle Shader
Crash when rendering a Particle Shader with Liquid Geometry set to a Simulator used by a Particle Texture with motion blur
- Particle Shader without particles slows down rendering of the entire scene in 3ds Max
Rendering
Crash when rendering a simulator without a cache with Velocity render element enabled
Animation
Precise Tracing and Interpolation methods don't work smoothly for particles if the original simulation has SPF above 1
Sources
Lag when displaying the Modify panel for Liquid Sources in 3ds Max 2018
- Wrong texture mapping when using a Grid Texture to transfer data from one simulator to another via a Source
Forces
3ds Max forces need huge multipliers in order to work with Phoenix
Body Force
Body Force using geometry with modifiers may not use the proper geometry transform in 3ds Max
- Crash when a body used by Body Force is moved far away from the simulator
Wave Force
Wave Force icon helper position in the viewport affects the simulation
Mapper
Mapper's Time-Constant is not working correctly with a mask
Grid Texture
Crash when trying to add a quick Paint preset with open Material editor and previously used Grid Texture in it
Ocean Texture
Crash when rendering Ocean simulation using V-Ray Standalone with -numThreads command
Ocean Mesher
Handled out-of-memory when rendering high-poly Phoenix ocean on large resolutions
VRScenes
Particle Shaders are not correctly exported to VRscenes from 3ds Max in Phoenix FD 3.05
PRT I/O
Export of PRT files from an unsaved scene does not expand the $(cachedir) macro correctly
- Cannot export PRT files for negative frames
Particle Flow
Some PFlow particles randomly get stuck when exiting the Simulator grid when using a Force Operator
3ds Max Integration
Cannot render a simulator with modifiers since Phoenix FD 3.05
- Sources stop emitting through Particle Flow in 'Use Particle Shape' mode if test operators remove some of the particles
- Crash when setting a Phoenix Simulator as a Clipper mesh
- Crash when shift+clicking on a Simulator with the move tool
SDK
All Phoenix nodes returned NULL for getPhoenixSDKInterface()