07-13-2011, 08:36 AM
Well, you asked for it Kresimir!! 
I asked around the FX guys here and compiled a list of bugs and feature requests...
Considering there are about 15 or so of us and have been working 90% in fume for the last 6 months on about 500+ close up fire/smoke shots the list isnt that big but I think has a lot of good stuff on there:
Feel free to tell me if there are already solutions to stuff on here or if you need further explanation.
UI Wishlist
General:
1: Ability to pin the UI while not simming with multiple grid's UI open)
2: Maxscript access to everything
3: Ability to save/load presets from any directory, maybe keep the current setup as a Quick Preset Load/Save option
4: Even with maxscript it is pretty clumsy working with sims that involve multiple grids. It would be great to have either a) variable resolution grids, or b) a master object to control multiple grids.
Simulation Tab:
5: Allowing Vorticity to be set to higher that 1
6: a thumbnail representation of the turbulence which is created like in AB (Similar to the turbulence viewport display but in swatch form)
Src/Obj Tab:
7: A "select object" button (next to the "Pick Object"+ "Remove Object" buttons) to select the object/s highlighted in the list in the scene
8: the "use" tick box in the objects panel, doesn't work on multiple selections
9:On multi-select of Objects in the Obj/Src tab access to the object properties.
10: Display of space warps UI in the Obj/Src tab when selected
11: objects list box, doesn't scale when there is alot of objects in it.....becomes cumbersome to use with more then 10 objects/sources/spacewarps in the list.
Sources:
12: Allowing Turbulence to be set to higher that 1
Preview Window Wishlist
13: The ability to preview Lighting/Shadows and Multiscattering either in the preview window or in viewport like in Maya/Houdini.
14: Ability to preview to frames rather than an AVI
15: The Play preview function dosent open the AVI in the program ascociated with AVI's if it has been changed (eg default changed from WMP to MPC, still opens in MMP)
16: Change the way the Preview window get resized so it doesnt always stay 3:4 when you drag diagonally
Source Wishlist
General:
17: Multiple map channels on sources. Remove the "Map Channel" spinner and use the mapping set in the map/s (Explicit, World XYZ and Local XYZ support too)
18: maps for velocity in ALL sources, currently only object sources have this feature.
Particle Source:
19: Ship the After Burn Pflow node with FumeFX or allow event based selection within the Particle Source
20: Particle Source Turbulence Parameters like in the object/simple sources.
21: Radial velocity for particles.
22: spherical mapping per particle for all channels
Simulation Wishlist
General:
23: The ability to color/shade (fire and smoke) separately per emitter in the container, ie blue smoke off of one source, and purple of another...
24: a better/different Turbulence algorithm you can see the pattern, decreasing realism of the fume.
25: Ability to set Temperature Expantion or Expantion on Fuel burn rather than just Fuel Expansion
26: Also, nothing new here, but it would be awesome if low-res sims could better approximate their high-res counterparts. It seems when you up-rez a grid there are certain properties you need to adjust to reproduce a similar result (ie. increase vorticity, decrease advection stride, etc.). Perhaps there could be an optional setting in Fume that would enable internal "hack values" that would attempt to approximate simulation outcomes across multiple resolutions.
FDXs:
27: optimized cache size's... ie saving extra channel data is bloated, extra detail, i'm looking at you
Perhaps compression?
Rendering Wishlist
28: Multiple Scatter from one fumeFX grid to another
29: Render IDs per grid combined with a multimatte style render element (Similar style to Final Render's "fR Object-Material ID" Render element, see attachment) where you can select one or multiple IDs per colour channel (RGB)
30: worldspace/ local space position render element for fumefx
31: It would be extremely useful to have a Render Void object, like in AfterBurn, where you can choose which part of the sim to exclude from render, with adjustable falloff.
Documentation Wishlist
32: Better documentation on network submission.
33: Updated documentation on the current fumefx features exposed to maxscript.
Other Wishlist
34: a faster way to advect particles through low resolution container in Pflow/TP, atm its choppy, unstable, and interpolates badly.
35: A way for FumFX to communicate with the Deadline Lightining plugin when network simming via a deadline maxscript job.
36: A way for FumeFX to create lights (Like it does with multi scattering ) that can be used as direct lights in Vray/Final Render to get better/quicker lighting solution than relying on GI.
Bugs
37: Loading preset while simulating crashes max instantly
38: Curve Editor and gradients, randomly stop allowing flags/knobs being created.
39: Preset path breaks and doesn't displays and presets save, Randomly though, you can hit esc in the maxscript listener spits an error and the path becomes available again
40: Large Cache Files, (2gb per frame and above) stop the preview window working correctly, it holds a frame, and never progress's
41: Setting extra velocity in simple sources to above 50cm, can cause the velocity NOT to be calculated.
42: A more reliable cancel button.... it freezes max 1 out of 10 times, forcing a forced exit.
43: Perhaps some Windows 7 compatibility issues related to white windows and cycling windows.

I asked around the FX guys here and compiled a list of bugs and feature requests...
Considering there are about 15 or so of us and have been working 90% in fume for the last 6 months on about 500+ close up fire/smoke shots the list isnt that big but I think has a lot of good stuff on there:
Feel free to tell me if there are already solutions to stuff on here or if you need further explanation.
UI Wishlist
General:
1: Ability to pin the UI while not simming with multiple grid's UI open)
2: Maxscript access to everything

3: Ability to save/load presets from any directory, maybe keep the current setup as a Quick Preset Load/Save option
4: Even with maxscript it is pretty clumsy working with sims that involve multiple grids. It would be great to have either a) variable resolution grids, or b) a master object to control multiple grids.
Simulation Tab:
5: Allowing Vorticity to be set to higher that 1
6: a thumbnail representation of the turbulence which is created like in AB (Similar to the turbulence viewport display but in swatch form)
Src/Obj Tab:
7: A "select object" button (next to the "Pick Object"+ "Remove Object" buttons) to select the object/s highlighted in the list in the scene
8: the "use" tick box in the objects panel, doesn't work on multiple selections
9:On multi-select of Objects in the Obj/Src tab access to the object properties.
10: Display of space warps UI in the Obj/Src tab when selected
11: objects list box, doesn't scale when there is alot of objects in it.....becomes cumbersome to use with more then 10 objects/sources/spacewarps in the list.
Sources:
12: Allowing Turbulence to be set to higher that 1
Preview Window Wishlist
13: The ability to preview Lighting/Shadows and Multiscattering either in the preview window or in viewport like in Maya/Houdini.
14: Ability to preview to frames rather than an AVI
15: The Play preview function dosent open the AVI in the program ascociated with AVI's if it has been changed (eg default changed from WMP to MPC, still opens in MMP)
16: Change the way the Preview window get resized so it doesnt always stay 3:4 when you drag diagonally
Source Wishlist
General:
17: Multiple map channels on sources. Remove the "Map Channel" spinner and use the mapping set in the map/s (Explicit, World XYZ and Local XYZ support too)
18: maps for velocity in ALL sources, currently only object sources have this feature.
Particle Source:
19: Ship the After Burn Pflow node with FumeFX or allow event based selection within the Particle Source
20: Particle Source Turbulence Parameters like in the object/simple sources.
21: Radial velocity for particles.
22: spherical mapping per particle for all channels
Simulation Wishlist
General:
23: The ability to color/shade (fire and smoke) separately per emitter in the container, ie blue smoke off of one source, and purple of another...
24: a better/different Turbulence algorithm you can see the pattern, decreasing realism of the fume.
25: Ability to set Temperature Expantion or Expantion on Fuel burn rather than just Fuel Expansion
26: Also, nothing new here, but it would be awesome if low-res sims could better approximate their high-res counterparts. It seems when you up-rez a grid there are certain properties you need to adjust to reproduce a similar result (ie. increase vorticity, decrease advection stride, etc.). Perhaps there could be an optional setting in Fume that would enable internal "hack values" that would attempt to approximate simulation outcomes across multiple resolutions.
FDXs:
27: optimized cache size's... ie saving extra channel data is bloated, extra detail, i'm looking at you

Rendering Wishlist
28: Multiple Scatter from one fumeFX grid to another
29: Render IDs per grid combined with a multimatte style render element (Similar style to Final Render's "fR Object-Material ID" Render element, see attachment) where you can select one or multiple IDs per colour channel (RGB)
30: worldspace/ local space position render element for fumefx
31: It would be extremely useful to have a Render Void object, like in AfterBurn, where you can choose which part of the sim to exclude from render, with adjustable falloff.
Documentation Wishlist
32: Better documentation on network submission.
33: Updated documentation on the current fumefx features exposed to maxscript.
Other Wishlist
34: a faster way to advect particles through low resolution container in Pflow/TP, atm its choppy, unstable, and interpolates badly.
35: A way for FumFX to communicate with the Deadline Lightining plugin when network simming via a deadline maxscript job.
36: A way for FumeFX to create lights (Like it does with multi scattering ) that can be used as direct lights in Vray/Final Render to get better/quicker lighting solution than relying on GI.
Bugs
37: Loading preset while simulating crashes max instantly
38: Curve Editor and gradients, randomly stop allowing flags/knobs being created.
39: Preset path breaks and doesn't displays and presets save, Randomly though, you can hit esc in the maxscript listener spits an error and the path becomes available again
40: Large Cache Files, (2gb per frame and above) stop the preview window working correctly, it holds a frame, and never progress's
41: Setting extra velocity in simple sources to above 50cm, can cause the velocity NOT to be calculated.
42: A more reliable cancel button.... it freezes max 1 out of 10 times, forcing a forced exit.
43: Perhaps some Windows 7 compatibility issues related to white windows and cycling windows.
Jordan Walsh
VFX Technical Director
Showreel 2012
Check out my scripts on ScriptSpot!
VFX Technical Director
Showreel 2012
Check out my scripts on ScriptSpot!