External fluid simulation with Luxrender

[vcazevedo]

Hi all.

I'm trying to render my own results of fluid simulations with blender and luxrender. However, I am not able to load voxel data into the Luxrender renderer. The option from textures tab to load voxels is there, but it doesn't show the field to specify my own voxel data file.

Is it possible to render my results with luxrender?

Thanks in advance,
Vinicius Azevedo.

[Meelis]

Hi

If the particle fluid is similar to smoke simulation then it probably isn't supported for now, not 100% sure though.

[vcazevedo]

Hi Meelis.

Hm, i dont think so. I generate an density volume by an external application, similar to this thread. For example, I'm able to render my smoke in the standard blender renderer:



But the multiple scattering algorithm is producing awkward results, so I'm considering using Luxrender.

[B.Y.O.B.]

Are you making a fluid-simulation (wet, e.g. water, oil etc.) or a smoke-simulation?
http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxBlend25_Manual#smoke

[vcazevedo]

Hi BYOB.

I'm making my own smoke simulation. The result is loaded into the standard blender render by the texture tab:



However, the same texture tab has some missing sections on Luxrender. For example, I'm able to select voxel data, but I cant load the data:

[J the Ninja]

Blender's voxel data texture isn't supported in Lux. Lux allows voxel rendering via a special object called volumegrid, which is what we use for Blender's smoke sim. It's kind of old and creaky, it doesn't (I don't think) support true multiple scattering the way the object mediums do, and it renders very dark with the bidirectional integrator. IIRC, replacing it is on the to-do list, but no one has gotten to it yet. (patches are welcome. ;P)

[vcazevedo]

Hi J The Ninja.

I didn't find this volumegrid that you said. I'm using blender 2.6 and lux 0.9, is it working for these versions?

Thanks.

[J the Ninja]

You can't make them yourself in Blender atm. The way we handle smoke sims at the moment is by detecting that an object is a smoke domain, then read the smoke cache off the disk and build the volumegrid object for Lux from that. Blender doesn't send us the voxel data directly, it doesn't support that. Not sure what options you have, although if you haven't read all the way through that wavelet turbulence thread you linked, I'd read it now.

[vcazevedo]

Well, I read about it, there is nothing too much to do right now. Guess I will stick with raw luxrender then

Thanks for all the answers.