Simulation - Caronte Dynamics

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 30 May, 2014
2 min read

“Caronte” is the name of RealFlow's powerful rigid and soft body dynamics engine. The Caronte system is not just a tool for simulating the motion of objects, but consists of several parts. In order to enable an object's dynamics capabilities, you only have to activate the appropriate feature under “Node Params”:

Node > Dynamics

There, you can choose whether the node should be a passive or active rigid body, or a soft body. Once you have made your decision, the object provides a new panel where you can adjust its physical properties. One of the most sophisticated features is that nodes of each type are not only able to interact with each other, but also with standard particle emitters, Hybrido fluids, and even RealWave surfaces. This is not a one-way street, because fluids can move rigid bodies, and deform soft bodies. Even RealWave is capable of changing the motion path of an object, for example with the “Downstream” option. These interactions are not just limited to changes in the object's behaviour, and they can even leave visible marks behind in the form of wetmaps and splashes.


A soft body car crashes into a rigid body wall and becomes deformed.


Furthermore, Caronte lets you simulate phenomena, like collapsing structures, the behaviour of vehicles or hinged objects, explosions, and deformations of complex structures.

Caronte's level of accuracy can be adjusted individually and independent from the other solvers’ settings. For this purpose, RealFlow provides dedicated “Preferences” and “Simulation Options” panels. There, an easy-to-use slider lets you increase the solver's level of quality and accuracy.

The most impressive feature with RealFlow's Caronte solver is certainly that all the different features are able to work together, to interact, and can they be combined with fluids and RealWave surfaces. With Caronte, you have a powerful and incredibly versatile system at your finger tips. Other strong attributes are the solver's ability to work with any geometry, combine rigid and soft bodies, use built-in tools to prefracture internal and external objects, while preserving texture data.

All this makes Caronte a fully-featured, modern dynamics system for visual effects.