New features in AlphaVFX’s GPU-accelerated, highly optimized version of the Bullet Physics library plugin for Max include: new simulation options like co-rotational FEM, narrow band FLIP fluids, strain-based dynamics, V-Ray rendering support, ease of use and animation tools, etc. BulletFX 4 is a free release for all users who own a BulletFX 3 license. For a complete list of new features visit AlphaVFX’s website.
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A free release more companies should do this! 😀 Buying BulletFX3 was a very smart move for me AlphaVFX = Best company of the year.
AlphaVFX, is that you?
Examples are still not production worthy. I have doubts on this plugin to be able to pull off quality simulation work for fx.
@Matt – I spoke to the devs about this due I also think the same as you. I said that I had doubts about the plugin for large, high resolution sims and that there was no high detail examples and tutorials out, just low scale and low resolution sims.
He said that there should be some more examples out soon, and stated that the plugin indeed was production ready and also good for large scale sims.
I’m on my way to buy this, but I want proof first that the plugin can handle what I need. Anyway, it’s a good upgrade from v3.0 I think!
Guess we have to wait and see what examples they comes up with!
Yeah i feel your pain i want to use the plugin as well but for me but i need to see bigger examples and i have to figure out a pipeline to revolve around the plugin it self.
@stefan – I have doubts that it would be ready for prime time since it’s built on “Bullet” libs. All the apps I’ve used Maya, Max, houdini, etc.. that have a version of Bullet is just “OK”. I’d rather just use MassFX for rigidbodys than this plugin. The FEM simulations just don’t compare to what houdini has done. The flip fluid examples are not good at all. They kind of look worse than a siggraph paper video.
Woah i agree with your assessment on the fluids and im sure we will see more but Bullet is great in Houdini and maya and quite frankly bulletfx. I agree that the fluid examples do suck but the new fem solver is quite good. You seem to not know how to use bullet i mean how can anyone say bullet in houdini isnt good?! Its used all the time in movies and in production even thinking particles uses bullet… How can anyone say that!?
I respect all the hard work put into developing this plugin, but even with the low res examples you can tell how bad it is. At 0:15 you can truly experience the first compressible FLIP solver on the Earth 😉 Have anyone of you guys actually ever seen bouncy flip simulation??! That’s the point of solving pressure on the grid in FLIP vs. per particle interaction as in SPH – to AVOID compression and bouncyness. Having said that – it’s either completely bad implementation OR it’s not FLIP solver at all. My guess: the dev started with Bullet library and extended its use for fake’y fem, flips etc. utilizing bullet’s constraint system and VDB library.
This would be similar to what Cebas did with bullet in TP (ropes, cloth, softbodies) – and it’s a cheap approach and very limited in terms of scalabiliy.
I would NOT recommend this tool to anyone unless you get a demo version, where you can try running a few milions of points with stable uncompressible manner using 1-2 substeps – that’s what EVERY flip solver should be capable of.
Bullet is a let down in production most of the time unless you are doing something simple. I’m speaking from Houdini experience. Doing complex rigid bodies with constraints, clusters, etc.. bullet just runs into problems. Always have to find work arounds with bullet. This plugin looks interesting in concept but the examples are not up to the rest of the industry.
@adalwin – Have you used bullet much in a big production? Bullet is only good for a few things. The speed vs accuracy with Bullet is the big let down. I’ve used bullet in multiple apps and Houdini has the best implementation besides what Cebas has done. Do some searching on threads and you’ll start to see how many issues people run into with bullet in any app. Common jitters, small objects, collision tolerances, etc….Houdini’s RBD is much better in most cases and works with ‘deforming geometry’.
I have a license but never used it…v3 was a let down due to workflow issues (in my opinion) and lack of tutorials and clear explanations, even though the guy behind seemed to be helpful in trying to explain, but perhaps i couldn’t understand him very well…
When v4 came out last Monday i was excited because apparently workflow had been improved and new features added…i went on to download to install, turns out there are Horrible issues with some win10 home installations :(, so I can’t use it still…he says there must be something specific with my system because some other users also have win10 installed and they work…I have other 3rd party tools installed and work very well… just be careful installing.
Ive had nothing but good experiences with 4.0 when i first bought my license i took some time getting used to but i personally plan on trying to use bulletfx in production the customer support was something was amazing to me near instant replies. i think people should give young plugins like this a chance. when vray first started it was buggy and horrible but know its a industry standard but i think this plugin will be used even more in future and bulletfx and lucid is something we should watch and see.
alpha vfx site domain is dead…any news about the company guys? I hope they continue this challenge.
A Month has passed and he still Has not been able to fix this tool…i still can’t use it..he got my money and he’s not delivering! :(:(, no wonder his site is down.
Yes, I agree, it’s very bad of them not to reply to email anymore and even not tell their userbase why their site is down. I’m very glad of that I didn’t bought this plugin!
He’s not even answering thru Skype, you can CLEARLY see he’s online, but hasn’t got the “balls” to reply…i tried many times already.
This guy is Liar and a con artist
I wonder what the ‘software agreement’ said when you all bought this plugin.
I’m guessing he can choose to stop develop it when he feels like it.
You got what you paid for (BulletFX – current release). That’s the downside of depending on small 3rd party plugin companies (I’m guessing he’s a 1 person company).
And clearly he’s not moving forward with it, does not seem like it, and he certainly does not give any impression about continuing.
Yes, I also think it’s a rather small company, max 1-5 people, and I guess you are right about that he/they can close down the development when they want to. But that doesn’t make them to behave like this, they could at least send out an email to all who bought the plugin to tell them that we decided to close the development because of… and not just dissapear like this and stop responding to people.
Anyway, somehow, I can understand why they closing, the response from people here and on other places isn’t the best and the company didn’t manage to give the user what they asked for regarding of showing up how the plugin behaved in large scale simulations, if it was production ready and more. When I talked to him, he said that new example scenes and demo reels that showed this would be out the “next day”, but that didn’t happen so.
And yes, people who bought the plugin got what they paid for, now they just loose further updates, support and more.
I wonder how the people who bought it will be able to get the plugin to work on a different computer (license wise) or after a re-install of Windows or something like this, don’t know how the license works.
Still, I’m happy that I didn’t bought it after all!
I agree with you, and also – I do not think either it justifies the behavior at all. They could at least be clear about it all.
I started developing a open source plugin for bullet some time ago (before BulletFX was announced) see here : ( https://bitbucket.org/stigatle/bullet4max ) , I discontinued the development after bulletFX and bullet for MCG got announced, but I now still see the need for what I started, so I might pick it back up and get coding again, it’s not as feature complete as bulletfx yet though.
So I have a understanding about the amount of work that’s needed for something like it, and also the frustration when you get stuck in development not getting the features up to the expected standard.
I too thought about selling the plugin when I started my project, but I ended up deciding against selling it and rather making it open source because of the exact reasons you see now with bulletfx – being afraid of not meeting the expectations, and ‘locking people in’ and feel the pressure all the time on improving\supporting the plugin and users.
By making mine open source I could work on it when I feel like it, and if people wanted to complain then they are free to help out.