Aquarius released for 3ds Max. with OpenVDB meshing and smoke, fire, and liquid MPM simulation

Magic Pictures has announced Aquarius, a new plugin for 3ds Max capable of OpenVDB meshing, volume, particle editing, and creating simulations such as smoke, fire, liquid, and and other MPM-based effects.

The plugin features a  node-based editor to construct OpenVDB-based features, including geometry and particle meshing, level set filters, and fluid simulations. Fluid simulations use CUDA GPU acceleration and a single license permits unlimited network fluid simulations. 

Aquarius 1.0 is a renamed and much-improved version of AqMesher2. Customers who purchased AqMesher2 within the last year or who have an active Support & Maintenance plan for AqMesher2 can receive a free upgrade to Aquarius 1.0 by contacting Magic Pictures’ support.

An overview of the main nodes types give you sense of what’s possible: 

• OpenVDB Control Nodes: These nodes include ParticleToLevelset, ObjectToLevelset, LevelsetToMesh, Smooth Filter, Erode/Dilate, reNormalize, Resample, Transform, Reset Transform, CSG, Fracture, Segment, Levelset Morph, Add Map, LOD, VDB Export, Visualize, and Grid Info.
• Input Nodes: Nodes like Bool, Int, Float, Vector, Random, VecToFloat, Object, Object Listbox, Geometry Obj, Geometry Listbox, Particles Obj, Particles Listbox, Prt File, Prt Listbox, VDB File, Curve Value, and Map Helper allow for a range of inputs to be incorporated into simulations.
• Grid Merge Nodes: Includes Grid Array Merge, Grid Array Split, and Particles Merge.
• Simulation Emitter Nodes: Features such as Grid Smoke Emitter, Grid Emitter Hub, Particle Emitter, and Particle Emitter Hub to facilitate the emission of various simulation elements.
• Simulation Force Nodes: These include Add Gravity, Add Force, Add Point Force, Add Turbulence, Add Wind, Add Vortex, Add Attractor, Add Drag Force, Add Normal Drag, Add Velocity Force, and Velocity Diffuse to simulate different forces within the environment.
• Simulation General Nodes: Nodes like Levelset Cache, Pressure Solver, Kill Plane, and Kill Field help in general simulation management.
• Grid Simulation Nodes: Includes Grid Smoke Solver, Grid Advection, Grid Smoke Terminal, and Wavelet Turbulence.
• FLIP Simulation Nodes: These nodes, such as PIC/FLIP Solver, Particle Advection, PIC/FLIP Terminal, Secondary Emitter, SecParticle Solver, and SecParticle Terminal, are used for fluid simulations.
• MPM Simulation Nodes: These are for simulating materials like snow, sand, and mud, and include nodes like Collision Material, Add Snow Material, Add Sand Material, Add Elastic Material, Add Mises Material, Add Liquid Material, Add Mud Material, Add NACC Material, MPM Solver, MPM Advection, and MPM Terminal.
• Math Nodes: A variety of mathematical operations can be conducted using nodes such as Arithmetic, Logic, Threshold, abs, min/max, sqrt, pow, Distance/Dot, Cross, exp, Pi/e, Trigonometric, log, and DegRad.

To learn more about Aquarius and its features, visit Magic Pictures’ website.

MPM quick start