3DS - ParticleFlow Export

Particle Flow systems can be exported to .BIN particle files by simply pressing the first BIN toolbar button (see below). If it’s the first attempt to export PFlow emitters from the current scene, the following dialog will open asking for the appropriate settings.

After the scene is exported, the specified settings will be saved in the current scene file. That means that if you export again using the first toolbar button (see below), the plugin will automatically perform the export using the settings already saved in the scene. If you need to export using other settings, you can open the settings dialog by pressing the second toolbar button (see below) or by using "Settings" menu under RealFlow > Export PFlow particle. After you make the changes, you can export with the new settings by pressing the "Export" button.

The "PFlow to BIN Export" toolbar buttons.

Performance

The main drawback of the 3ds Max PFlow system is that it cannot be used in a non history-depending manner. That means every frame depends on the last one. When you move back in time using the slider, PFlow will automatically evaluate the operators for all the frames between frame 1 and the current frame. This is not needed for RealFlow, but it cannot be disabled and therefore searching backwards using the time slider is slow. A workaround for this problem is to use the settings in the “Quantity Multiplier” section of the interface. These values control the percentage of the particles which are read from the BIN files. A lower setting will result in poorer visual quality but better performance because the system has to load and display fewer particles. There are separate settings for viewport display and rendering.

Old Particle Importer

The “NL Particles 2” emitter, now called “Particle Loader”, is still available in the UI. We have kept this alternative method available because its performance is better than the PFlow approach (due to the reasons explained above).