RealFlow Official Forum

Hi everyone,

My name is Mark and I am new to Real Flow. I purchased the Learning Edition to evaluate the software for use in our production pipeline.
I have been tasked with integrating Real Flow into Lightwave, and ultimately other packages once I have proven it will suit our needs.
However, I am having a difficult time getting Lightwave specific information from the online documentation. I am hoping that someone here
in the forums is well versed in this topic matter and can help me out. All help is appreciated.

My first issue is installation. The documentation on how to install Real Flow into Lightwave is neither complete nor thorough.
When I first got access to the Gateway there was no definitive list of what to download and what to install. I downloaded every and any file
that I believed was correct.

The only definitive document I could find that offers specifics on Lightwave and its workflow is:

http://thevault.realflow.com/lightwave_ ... al-50.html

Does anyone know if this is an official document?

As I worked through the document, I found some issues:

1) The version of Lightwave utilized is at least two releases old.
2) The plug-in wizard did not 100% match the screen shots.
3) I tried to follow through the documentation, in particular page 4 of 52. Instead of finding Next Limit Plug-in Manager, I found Next Limit RFRK Plug-in Manager v1.1.0 (SDK...
4) On page 4 of 52 of the same document, the options listed do not appear n my plug-in manager. Instead I have the following tabs:
Partciler, RK Mesh, Hybrido Mesh, and Cloud.

My first question is, is there more than one version of Next Limit Plugin Manager? Do I have the correct one? As to the best of my knowledge it appears I have the wrong one installed.

As I suspect I do not have all the correct files installed, or they did not install correctly. However, I have no benchmark or metric to verify this.
Could someone tell me if I missed a step or if one of my installers did not behave as expected?

My next set of questions is relevant once I have a working installation. I am looking for a set of precise instructions that outline the following:

1) How to set up a Lightwave Scene for Real Wave
2) Once I have the scene set up, how do I render? Do I use the internal Lightwave renderer?
3) I am using Lightwave with multiple render nodes, how does this effect my Learning Edition Work Flow?

Thank you in advance

Mark

Hi Mark,

Glad to have you in the RealFlow community.
I believe we may have forgotten to include the connectivity plugin manual in the latest package update for Lightwave, but it will be hopefully sorted shortly.

The info you have from thevault... is of course dated. In fact, that link should not work anymore, thanks for bringing that to our attention.

I am not a LW user myself, but on some of your other questions...

2) Once I have the scene set up, how do I render? Do I use the internal Lightwave renderer?

Should be your renderer of choice, whether that is LW renderer, MW render or any other you can hook up LW with.

3) I am using Lightwave with multiple render nodes, how does this effect my Learning Edition Work Flow?

You will just need to make sure that the render nodes have the RF connectivity plugin for LW installed, so they can understand the RF formats.

Having said this, if LW reads Alembic format, which I believe it does in its latest if I am not misinformed, you could always use that format to export from RF2013 your RealWave or any other data you are outputting, and read it that way into LW without using our connectivity plugins. That is part of the idea of integrating Alembic into RealFlow 2013.

Apologies for the inconveniences that the missing manual might be causing you. As I said, we will try and get it fixed asap.

Best,

g-)

Hi Gus,

Thank you for the response and the welcome to the community!

I believe we may have forgotten to include the connectivity plugin manual in the latest package update for Lightwave, but it will be hopefully sorted shortly.

This probably explains a lot of my confusion. Would it be possible for you to post the manual here or email it to me? I am dead in the water until I find out why my Lightwave
installation is not working.

The info you have from thevault... is of course dated. In fact, that link should not work anymore, thanks for bringing that to our attention.

Ok, that explains a bit more. Does this mean, based upon my description, that I have the plugin installed correctly?
I am attaching a screenshot with this reply.
[Note: I was not able to attach, the forum errored with the following message, "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached." ]

You will just need to make sure that the render nodes have the RF connectivity plugin for LW installed, so they can understand the RF formats.

If I understand you correctly, this means Lightwave using the learning edition will support multiple render nodes for Real Flow?

Again, thank you for following up.

Mark

Gus, I was having the same issues as Mark so I will be glad to know also.. Thx

gitch wrote:Gus, I was having the same issues as Mark so I will be glad to know also.. Thx

Hi Gitch, welcome to this forum!

We are currently updating the manual and putting it online. Kinda missed this one, have to admit.
Should be live shortly. Will post here the links to all the connectivity plugins manuals.

Just to clarify a bit the workflow between RF and any of the 3D platforms for those of you that might be not that familiar with the RF Pipeline, there are a few different installers apart from the RF one that you have to consider:

1.- RF Connectivity plugin : This allows for exporting/importing data between your 3D platform of choice and RF. Uses RF native formats like '.sd' for exporting animated objects into and back from RF.
To import particles coming from RealFlow, we use '.bin' , '.rpc' , '.pxy' formats.
To import RF meshes, we also use '.bin' format.
With the addition of Alembic format, this connectivity plugin could become 'optional' in the long term if Alembic finally becomes a standard.
2.- RF RenderKit plugin : This is a plugin to use when you are at the render process, and helps by producing meshes at render time from the cached particles, instead of having to mesh inside RealFlow, for example.
In order to use the RFRK plugin you will need to install the NL License Manager, and add your RFRK license to it. If you don´t it will run in demo mode.

I think this is it for now. Apologies for the inconveniences that this mistake might be causing you. We are trying to get it sorted.

Best,

g-)

In order to use the RFRK plugin you will need to install the NL License Manager, and add your RFRK license to it.
How do I go about doing this? I got the plugin installed in Lightwave.. Thx

Hello again,

We have uploaded the manual for the Lightwave connectivity plugin to this temporary link in our online docs:
http://support.nextlimit.com/display/rf ... +Lightwave

Regarding the installation of RFRK and adding licenses, you can find all the info here:
http://support.nextlimit.com/display/rf ... se+Manager

Let us know if you are missing something or it is not clear enough so we can improve this too.

Best,

g-)

Thanks Gus,
so in lightwave you actually don't import a mesh you just use the particles? That is all I get is particles cannot seem to get any mesh in there.
The manual still needs a major upgrade, I will just play with it for now in RF not sure about getting it into LW..
Thx..

I believe I may be able to help. Once you have the Real Flow Plugin installed, you can import a .bin file, which the Real Flow GUI can help you generate.
You attach it to a null object. Once you have that in place, you have to enable hyper voxels onto the object.

Poof! You will now see textures and the beginnings of a fluid.
Once I figured this out, I was able to rend this image.
Now the trick is to massage the hyper voxels to get the correct look.

This was NOT explained in the manual. A friend who is extremely knowledgeable of Lightwave explained to me how Lightwave's particle system works.


Next Limit --> You need to spell this out in the manual. As the workflow between Real Flow and Lightwave is not explained in detail. There are many assumptions made.

Gitch, in your case click on the Circle_01 particle. Enable Hypervoxels, and I think you will see something pretty quickly.
Hope this helps.

Mark

Hey,

It is easier. In order to add a realflow binary loader is not necessary to create the null and then add the plugin, so go to Utilities panel, and choosing Master Plugins. In Master Plugin try to add a RealFlow Plugin called something like Next Limit RealFlow plugin. Once add the plugin, you will be able to load particles, meshes, etc from there.

I hope it helps.

luisM.