3DS max realflow animation export frame rate weird problem!!

[Moonhowl]

Hi,

I have a weird issue when I export a realflow mesh from 3ds max to standalone.

I have the simulation set up at 25 FPS in RealFlow, then I mesh it and create the bin files. After I export it to 3DS max and load it via the BIN loader it works perfectly fine, and frames match to that of the simulation (for the test purposes I had 75 frames in total at 25 FPS). All works great so far.

But if I export to octane standalone at the same frame rate, 25 fps, the simulation will only get to frame 12 in Standalone and the rest will not load, i.e. the real flow object will stop animating and not proceed with the simulation after that frame.

Now if I set the ***frame rate*** in MAX to 150 before export (twice the length of the total simulation), it will open it in standalone as if there were 12 frames in total, but it will ***run the full simulation through those 12 frames***.

Any ideas?

This is really important to go into Standalone as when I try run and save the animation via the "common" tab in MAX it won't update the realflow object at all (funny enough it does it in octane render viewport in 3ds max)

[Moonhowl]

why don't I ever get any anwsers on this forum, it's like pulling teeth to even get a simple "no" answer, to at least get me on the track of looking for workarounds.

Realflow, probably THE most used liquid sim software out there?

I scoured the forums and all I got was tidbits of pretty useless information, and finally managed to find a script that forces 3ds max to update realflow each time so I can at least render from 3DS max, but I'd still like to find a way to export it to standalone properly so I can have 30 sec render times instead of 1 min 30 sec (what is that difference in speed all about anyway?!)

I saw quite a few reaflow sims rendered in Octane so far, but not a single topic on these forums that explains how to do it (or anywhere else for that matter)

Any good workflows out there yet?

From Max to Standalone.

How?

Yes? No? Maybe? Python? Poo? Skittles? Curse at me! Anything at all????

[coilbook]

i am not sure about standalone but octane does not want to update realflow mesh. we told otoy about this problem many times but got no help. The only way to render is to use the script that updates rf mesh one frame at a time but it makes rendering slow because every frame is like a new rendering

[Moonhowl]

Cheers man.

At least now I know where I stand haha.

Yeah that is the script I managed to find myself so at least it's a bit of a workaround. BTW if anyone is reading this and needs it I found it on Corona forums somewhere. All you have to do is set up animation range and file saving as normal in the "common" tab in Max and then pull the script in and it will work like a charm. Just don't expect you can cancel the render process until it's done or unless you are ready to be furiously clicking "cancel" through all of the frames.

I'm aware from reading the posts that Jim and Karba still haven't managed to figure out where to download the realflow demo since at least 2014 or so (guys, it's here: http://www.realflow.com/try )...it's more than a bit frustrating but ok, the script is a good enough workaround for now.

Still, what really bothers me is the fact that it actually does come through to standalone if I export via 3DS max, just messes up the frame rate! A dev could probably give some sort of an answer or a vague idea of what would be causing that, perhaps there is a solution to get it through properly.