RKC - Quick Start

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
02 Dec, 2014
2 min read

The basic functionality of this plugin differs strongly from platform to platform, because every 3D program uses a different method to render volumetric data. However, there is a common workflow for loading the data:

  • Add a “RealFlow RenderKit Cloud” node. This element can be seen as a container that holds the particle/volumetric data.
  • Load a sequence with particle or density field data. In contrast to the RenderKit's particle and mesh tools. the “RealFlow RenderKit Cloud” plugin supports only one sequence. If you want to load more sequences please add an appropriate number of plugin nodes.
  • The plugin accepts VDB, ABC, RPC, BIN, and PXY files.
  • Particles are displayed inside a bounding box, while density fields are not visualized – here you will only see the box.
  • Once you have specified a sequence, it is important to define the particles' radius. This value determines the size of the rendered particles. If you are not sure which size you should enter then it is also possible to use the radius which is stored with the particle files – this option is called “RadiusPP”. Another idea is to render a test image.
  • “Cell sizes” determines the cloud's resolution: when volumetric data is rendered then it is subdivided into individual cells. Large cell size create a blurry look and lack details. With small settings you will be able to get more details and fine structures, but at the cost of increased render times and RAM consumption.
  • In the last step a volumetric shader is required: some RFRK versions provide a built-in shader which is assigned to the plugin node automatically, on other platforms you have to use the 3D program's own shader.

Working with Channels

Channels are an important concept, because they are used to visualize a fluid's properties like velocity or vorticity. With the “RealFlow RenderKit Cloud” tool, channels can be made visible with particle data, but they cannot be rendered. Density fields from VDB files do not support channels at all.

If you want to display a particle cloud's channels please go to the “Display” tab, and choose a property from the “Show Channel” drop-down menu.