The plug-in is able to translate particle systems defined by the RealFlow particle importer (rf_particle_import node), meshes defined by the RealFlow mesh importer (rf_mesh_import node), RealFlow RenderKit mesher (rf_flowmesher node) or Houdini’s standard particle system (particle node) to the Maxwell scene using extensions. Houdini’s fur asset is also translated using the Maxwell hair extension.
Maxwell particle, mesh and hair objects have some special parameters which can be set in Houdini via detail or point geometry attributes. The following sections describe these parameters.
RealFlow particles
The following extra attributes can be defined with the RealFlow particle import node:
| Name | Class | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| mb_factor | Detail | float | Multiplier for the particles motion blur value. |
| radius_factor | Detail | float | Multiplier for the original radius value of each particle. |
| per_particle | Detail | integer | Generates more particles from the original ones. |
| extra_dispersion | Detail | float | Distributes the newly generated particles with this dispersion value around the original particle. |
| extra_deformation | Detail | float | Specifies the generation method of the particles. |
Houdini particles
The following extra attributes can be defined with a standard Houdini particle system:
| Name | Class | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| lod | Detail | float | Level of detail value of the particle system in percentage (0 - 100). |
| mb_factor | Detail | float | Multiplier for the particles motion blur value. |
| radius_factor | Detail | float | Multiplier for the original radius value of each particle. |
| per_particle | Detail | integer | Generates more particles from the original ones. |
| extra_dispersion | Detail | float | Distributes the newly generated particles with this dispersion value around the original particle. |
| extra_deformation | Detail | float | Specifies the generation method of the particles. |
RealFlow meshes
The following extra attributes can be defined with the RealFlow mesh importer:
| Name | Class | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| mb_factor | Detail | float | Multiplier for the original motion blur value. |
| smooth_normals | Detail | integer (0|1) | The mesh looks smooth regarding certain angle when enabled. |
| smooth_angle | Detail | float | Defines the angle below which the normals are interpolated, resulting on a smooth look. |
RFRK mesher
The plug-in is compatible with RFRK mesher v2.2 (or above), no extra attributes can be specified.
Fur
The following extra attributes can be defined with the fur assetExtensions are pieces of code which allow extend the capabilities of Maxwell Render. The built-in extensions are available in Houdini as OBJ or SOP nodes, and some of the standard Houdini nodes are translated as extensions to the Maxwell scene.
There are two types of extensions in Maxwell:
- Extension Objects: the extension code generates a new object in the scene with particular characteristics (like the Maxwell Sea, Volumetric or the Alembic importer).
- Object Modifier Extensions: the extension modifies an existing geometric object (like the Grass, Scatter or Subdivision modifiers).
Extension objects
Extension objects can be found as OBJ nodes in Houdini.The following extensions are supported:
Maxwell Volumetric
TODO
The Maxwell Volumetric Houdini node supports three types of volumetric fields:
- Particle Field: the volume is defined by a particle density field. The particles can be added from a RealFlow™ BIN particle file sequence or from any Houdini geometry node. When a Houdini geometry node is selected the source, all points of the geometry is translated as particles, the channels such as density, force, velocity, etc. are expected as point attributes.
- Constant Field: defines a constant density field.
- Voxel Field: translates any Houdini geometry which contains volume primitives (such as Pyro FX nodes).
Maxwell Sea
Maxwell Sea creates a simulation of the ocean surface based on the Ocean Statistical Spectrum solver (in RealFlow™), that produces a realistic waves simulation from a simple plane. Read more...
Maxwell Alembic Object
The Alembic scene format is an industry standard format developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Lucasfilm and released in 2011 that represents a very efficient way to store and reference geometry. Read more...
The plug-in also supports Houdini's alembic archive node and translates it to the Maxwell Alembic extension.
Object Modifier Extensions
Object Modifier Extensions are located on the SOP level (except the Maxwell Grass nodes which is an OBJ). The following extensions are supported:
Hair and fur
Maxwell Render uses the MaxwellHair.mxx procedural primitive to be able to read fur and hair fibers and render them without the need to convert the fibers into triangles. Read more...
The plug-in translates Houdini's fur node to the Maxwell Scene using the MaxwellHair extension. The extension's extra parameters can be defined with detail or point geometry attributes in the fur. These extra parameters are:
| Name | Class | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| radius | Point | float | Radius of the hair points. |
| mb | Point | float | Motion blur factor of the hair points. |
| color | Point | vector | Color of the hair points. |
Maxwell Grass
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The Grass extension allows you to very easily and quickly create different types of grass. Read more...
The Maxwell Grass extension requires a geometry object which is the source of the grass. The geometry can have the following extra attributes defined:
| Name | Class | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| triangle_with_blades | Primitive | integer | Optional array to define which triangles of the modified mesh will have blades. |
Maxwell Subdivision Modifier
Maxwell Scatter
Maxwell Cloner