LuxBlend25: Smoke export

[neo2068]

Hi!
I recently worked on smoke export for luxblend25. Now the code is matured enough to present it, I think. Currently dougal2 is checking the code and if it is ok it hopefully will be added to the repository.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFL81PQ2ouc

[jeanphi]

Hi,

Great! Thank you for your work.

Jeanphi

[neo2068]

Hi,

Great! Thank you for your work.

Jeanphi

I appreciate your work and perhaps this feature is an encouragement to implement inhomogeneous volumes for the new system.

Neo2068

[jeanphi]

Hi,

Inhomogeneous volumes will obviously come, maybe with dumb ray marching if I don't have time to implement a better solution.
I just need to find enough time to code it (and most notably create textures matching the existing density functions of the old interface).

Jeanphi

[neo2068]

EDIT: Added 32 bit libraries.
Hi!
Dougal2 submitted the luxblend25 smoke export code to the repository under the pointcache-smoke branch. It still is in development and propably doesn't run out-of-the-box. You'll need external libraries for lzo and/or lzma decompression of the smoke data.
For windows you find attached 32 bit and 64 bit versions of the appropiate DLLs.

compression_dlls.zip

windows x64 DLLs for smoke data decompression

(55.68 KiB) Downloaded 154 times

compression_dlls_x86.zip

windows x86 DLLs for smoke data decompression

(63.07 KiB) Downloaded 90 times

To use the export function you have to bake the smoke cache and assign an internal volume material to the domain object. Currently the absorption and scattering values are used. The first value for g is used for symmetrical scattering.
Due to the incompatibility of the volume grid (used for smoke export) and the bidirectional path tracer the smoke may look not as expected. This will change as soon as inhomogeneous volumes are supported by the new volume system.
Here are the necessary steps:
1. Bake smoke cache

smokecache.png (21.08 KiB) Viewed 2460 times

2. Add a volume material in world settings:

3. Add a material to the smoke domain and set the volume material in the interior slot:

4. Make sure that the export LXV option is activated. Optionally the volume step size in the render options could be tweaked.

A frame of the smoke drum tutorial render from
http://blenderdiplom.com/index.php?opti ... 06&lang=en

[dougal2]

Here was my test: http://vimeo.com/19612383

[ameuret]

Tantalazing!

For us underheros:

Where should the DLLs be put ?
What particule render type must be used ?

At the moment, I seem to have everything in place but no smoke renders at all in lux and nothing special in the logs.

-- Arnaud

[neo2068]

Tantalazing!

For us underheros:

Where should the DLLs be put ?
What particule render type must be used ?

At the moment, I seem to have everything in place but no smoke renders at all in lux and nothing special in the logs.

-- Arnaud

Hi!
The dlls should be put into the blender directory or somewhere in the windows search path (e.g. windows\system32 directory). I will add a simple search routine for the dlls that makes it easier to use the exporter right out-the-box (as done for mac os).
As explained in the short description you have to bake the smoke simulation, add a homogeneous volume material to the interior slot of the domain object material and set the scattering color. To be able to select the homogeneous volume type, pylux v0.8 has to be installed. If the volume export was successful then the log should show something like this:

Code: Select all

[Lux 2011-Feb-09 20:22:23] Volumes: LZO Library found
[Lux 2011-Feb-09 20:22:23] Volumes: LZMA Library found
Compressed LZO stream of length 9409253 Bytes
[Lux 2011-Feb-09 20:23:32] Volumes: Volume Exported: Domain


If the export was successful there should be a rather big .lxv (serveral MBytes) file beside the other lux scene files.

EDIT: The smoke cache filename in the domain settings must not be empty.

[neo2068]

The complete animation of the smoke drum tutorial from http://blenderdiplom.com/index.php?opti ... 06&lang=en

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34-9-n17V1I

[Dobz]

Hi!
Dougal2 submitted the luxblend25 smoke export code to the repository under the pointcache-smoke branch. It still is in development and propably doesn't run out-of-the-box. You'll need external libraries for lzo and/or lzma decompression of the smoke data.
For windows you find attached 64 bit versions of the appropiate DLLs.

Could you explain where you got the sources and what procedure you used to build LZO and LZMA? I'd like to gave a go myself.