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simulation time
#1
Hello there!
I want to purchase fumefx very soon but there is a problem that concern me. I heared that fume does not support multiple machines for a single simulation... because the "simulation" time is a big problem... I'm not an expert, and I don't know what computers NASA could use to make the simulation faster... I've seen fumefx on some graphic stations, and it took a very long time to simulate.

So, my question is, how do I improve my "simulation" time, because one single machine isn't the best solution, and I don't think that my machine will do a great job (since I'm totally obsessed with the quality of my animations), even if I have 8GB RAM and a good CPU... I heared people that had to wait 72 hours to simulate 100 frames on a 8GB RAM, Intel Core Quad 9300 CPU machine...

First time I thought that buying other 10 machines with the same configuration will increase the simulation time (using the backburner in 3ds max), but now I see that's not the solution, Witch is then? How money do I have to spend, witch system from another planet do I have to buy? How many, and how do I put those 1000 CPU to work together to simulate one single simulation?

My question could sound stupid for some Hollywood experts guys here that own in their homes the NASA's machines, and keep the secret from us ... I'm not an expert, maybe I didn't understand very well the whole stuff about fumefx...
Thank you!
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#2
Multiple machines are great for setting off 10 different fume sims at a time to test different settings but you are right. One machine per sim!
A good dual quadcore with 16gig of ram has been adequate for most of our company's needs.
Jordan Walsh
VFX Technical Director

Showreel 2012
Check out my scripts on ScriptSpot!
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#3
:lol: yea, I know what you feel. sometimes it's frustrating. but the more patient you keep trying, the more you will learn how to improve the setup to get the sim you want as fast as possible.

of course, you need a good machine. As jordan said, 8 cores with a lot of ram are doing well. When you're working with a lot of particles, or detailed emission objects, then all these informations have to get located in the grid which takes time and is single threaded. this for I think you need a very strong core and fast datatransfer. and of course when it comes to the simulation calculation, the more cores the better Wink

but you can shorten the simulation time by setting fume up correctly. proxy objects will do the first step. don't simply crank up the grid resolution for no needs. quality and iterations are most of the time set to high. turbulence is a killer. try to avoid. long vectors increase sim time too. don't use to big grids when not needed. for example where the camera is not looking at. keep in mind that the spacing value is the length of one voxel. I do always orientate my setup to this value so I know what settings to use, velocities and size and stuff. hope this helps a little.
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