[Soc-2005-dev] Fluid animation

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi Nils,

Thanks for the cool wiki docs!
http://wiki.blender.org/bin/view.pl/Blenderdev/SoCFluidAnimation

Here's a quick review;

- The FluidSim Panel is fine, but (later) will be moved to an own  
'context', together with other physics based properties on Object  
level. I can organize that. :)

- I don't fully grasp the "Domain" versus "Fluid" Object types... it  
seems to me that the "Domain" object is supposed to be there only once,  
storing the global info and probably invoking display of the baked  
result. Right? I'm not sure if this belongs to the "World" context of  
buttons...
We also lack in Blender a proper way to define groups, which could have  
been used to define which Objects take part in the simulation.

- The workflow; is "preview" doing things basically different from  
"Final"? And if so, what? And why are in the Panel these 2 options next  
to each other visible and both a popup menu?

- Where are the temporal .bobj files saved? Having a button for it  
could be nice, including the 'relative path' option of Blender (the  
"//" code denotes the directory where the current .blend file is in).

- Another workflow issue; I guess doing a simulation won't be possible  
using a distributed network... so for an animation project you have to  
do a 'Bake' as a preproduction step, just like for SoftBody now.
Also, since the .bobj files are stored outside of the .blend file  
context, an option for a "Fluid" object to just read/display a baked  
system would be useful.
Denoting a single Object to be the "Domain" could be used for that. The  
Domain Object then will get three action buttons;
- Show a preview
- Do the Bake (indicate directory)
- Show a Bake (indicate directory)

- For Blender editing pleasure, store the .bobj files with  
Object-relative locations. This means that the data you generate is  
stored in "Object space", just like a Mesh right now. That would enable  
to re-use baked Fluid simuls in any location within a project you work  
on. :)

- How would your system cope with animated Objects now?

Thanks!

-Ton-


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Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org  
http://www.blender.org