PM - Mesh

This is the place for the mesh’s fundamental settings. They directly influence the way the polygons are created around the particle cloud.

Type

RealFlow's “Particle Mesh” provides three modes to create completely different results and looks. To get a better understanding of how these methods work, please read the introduction “Isotropic vs Anisotropic” in the particle mesh description. The first method is called “Metaballs”. Metaballs can be seen as spheres which can influence one another to create an organic-looking, smooth surface. Metaball-based fluid meshes often show thick borders and require a certain amount of filtering or correspondingly high particle counts to achieve a better quality.

“Weighted isotropic” is the second option and suited for a wide variety of meshing tasks, because it is the best compromise between creation time and quality. This mode yields smooth meshes with slightly rounded borders. Filters can help to achieve a very good, realistic mesh.

Finally, there is “Weighted anisotropic”. This mode creates meshes with thin borders, but sometimes the fluid has a torn look. To compensate for this effect, the “Radius” parameter of the attached emitter's “Field” panel should be increased. Please use a moderate “Filter” with this option. “Weighted anisotropic” is slower than its isotropic counterpart, but this difference is almost negligible with lower numbers of particles.

Weight normalization

Auto polygon size

RealFlow’s “Particle Mesh” engine automatically adjusts the polygon size to get the best balance between quality and number of faces. You can activate/deactivate this feature by simply switching to “Yes” or “No”. With “No”, the “Polygon size” field is unlocked.

Polygon size

Here you can enter a custom value for the mesh’s polygon size. Smaller values lead to larger mesh files, but also more detail. Lower “Polygon size” values take longer to calculate and need more resources. Please note that “Polygon size” is not responsible for the rounded look of a fluid’s borders. If you want to avoid rounded borders, filters and “Radius” settings are of much higher importance. A sufficient amount of particles is also needed. Finally, the look of a mesh strongly depends on your scene scale.

Smooth

A “Particle Mesh” is created from spheres (or more common: ellipsoids) and/or metaballs around the individual particles. “Smooth” blends the individual elements together to achieve a coherent mesh. The radius of these ellipsoids/metaballs is exactly the value you have entered under the emitter’s "Field" settings: 

Emitter (grouped under the mesh node) > Node Params > Field > Radius

Very high “Smooth” settings have an effect similar to strong filtering. If the value is too high, the mesh starts to look unnatural and many details will be lost. Please keep in mind that “Smooth” directly depends on “Polygon size” and high “Smooth” values can increase the mesh creation time significantly.

Surface proximity

To decrease or increase the distance between the mesh’s polygons and the emitter’s particles, this value must be raised or lowered.