WHATS CHANGED IN THE NEW UPDATE OF FLIP FLUIDS V1.8 21 MAY 2024
version 1.8.0 (May 21 2024)
FLIP Fluids 1.8.0 is an update to make whitewater point cloud rendering a default, as well as add improvements and bug fixes.
Video Overview: https://youtu.be/18Hbx7SEUJY
Compatibility Notes:
FLIP Fluids 1.8.0 is officially supported in Blender 3.1 to Blender 4.1.
Blender 4.2: At this moment, Blender 4.2 Alpha contains known issues that may cause the addon not to be fully functional in this version and may break Blend files saved in this version (Blender 4.2 Support).
Change: Whitewater simulation meshes are now initialized to render using the Point Cloud object type by default instead of the older particle instancing system.
Features related to setting up whitewater particle instancing have been removed. Blender’s Object Properties > Instancing system may be removed in a future version of Blender in favor of using Geometry Nodes for instancing.
Point Cloud rendering is currently not supported in EEVEE. For rendering whitewater in EEVEE, enable the whitewater geometry nodes modifier to use particle instancing instead of point clouds. However, rendering a large amount of particles in EEVEE can be very slow and use more resources compared to the Cycles render engine. (Documentation).
Blend files created using older versions of the FLIP Fluids addon will be automatically updated to use point cloud rendering, if not already set up.
For the most up-to-date FLIP Fluids geometry node modifiers, these will only be automatically applied to new Blend files created in FLIP Fluids 1.8.0. To update older Blend files, delete any FF_MotionBlur modifiers, save the Blend file, restart Blender, and reload the frame to re-initialize the modifiers.
Change: Preferences > Tabbed Domain Settings is now enabled by default (Documentation).
Change: Preferences > Autosave Blend file before launching command line operators option is now enabled by default (Documentation).
Change: The FLIP Fluids Sidebar > Geometry Node Tools > Remove Motion Blur operator has been removed as it is no longer relevant. Instead, and ON/OFF toggle has been added to quickly toggle motion blur rendering on or off. (Documentation).
UI: Preferences menu is now organized into tabbed categories (Documentation).
UI: General UI and organization improvements.
Bug Fix: Fixed issue where the force field antigravity feature could result in surface mesh artifacts.
Bug Fix: Fixed issue where whitewater materials may not be correctly transferred to geometry node modifiers initialized by the addon.
Bug Fix: Fixed error that could be triggered during Bake + Batch Render operator that could result in the process finished alarm not to be triggered.
Bug Fix: Fixed issue where an error could be triggered during render that could prevent keyframed motion blur scale from being applied.
Bug Fix: Fixed issue where fluid particle speed and/or vorticity attributes may not be loaded into the fluid particle mesh.
Bug Fix: Fixed icon missing error due to the Geometry Nodes icon not being available in Blender 3.2 or earlier.
Bug Fix: Fixed issue where the Turbo Tools command line menu was missing from the UI when an installation Turbo Tools Addon by 3d illusions was detected (Documentation).
What is the FLIP Fluids addon?
The FLIP Fluids addon is a tool that helps you set up, run, and render liquid simulation effects all within Blender! Our custom built fluid engine is based around the popular FLIP simulation technique that is also found in many other professional liquid simulation tools. The FLIP Fluids engine has been in constant development since 2016 with a large focus on tightly integrating the simulator into Blender as an addon. It just feels like a native Blender tool!
Create awesome large scale fluid effects with the whitewater simulator. Generate and simulate millions of foam, bubble, and spray particles to give a sense of realism to large bodies of water.
High Viscosity Effects
Use the high accuracy viscosity solver to simulate thin silky-smooth liquids, thick fluids that buckle and coil, and anything in between. You will be able to simulate thicker fluid in Blender than you could ever before!
Surface Tension and Sheeting
Create beautiful small-scale fluid effects with surface tension and add particle sheeting to create large thin splashes. Simulate the natural cohesion of surface molecules that cause fluids to form into beads, drip, and add an elastic look to splashes.
Custom Built Force Fields
We built our own custom force field system designed specifically for popular liquid effects! Volume forces for forming liquid shapes, surface forces for aligning gravity to surface normals or to help liquid stick to surfaces, and curve forces for guiding liquid to flow and spin along a curve.
FLIP and APIC Solvers
Choose between FLIP and an APIC simulation methods! FLIP is turbulent and chaotic – good for large scale splashy simulations. APIC is smooth, stable, and swirly – good for small scale or viscous simulations.
Why choose FLIP Fluids?
Fluid simulation software can be intimidating, complex, and difficult to work with, but it does not need to be. We believe that usability should come first when designing a simulation tool. A simulator might contain the most advanced technology in the world, but if it is not usable, reliable, and flexible, it will not be a tool that is useful or enjoyable to the artist.
Our goal is to improve on many aspects of the built-in Blender fluid simulator such as usability, stability, customization, and to prevent common problems that we see artists encounter when working with simulation systems. We want to provide you with the tools, learning resources, and workflows to assist you in creating beautiful effects as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
