[Soc-2005-dev] Fluid animation

[Nils Thuerey]

Hello,

first of all - thanks again for the feedback!

> - 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. :)
That would be nice, it's crammed a bit into that corner...

> - 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...
Correct, the domain marks the boundaries of the simulation, while fluid
object are the regions to be filled with fluid for the simulation setup.

> 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.
Ok, I think it will also the work the way it is now, but that could be a
nice addition...

> - 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?
It's not visible from the screenshots, but the pull down menues are for
GUI display and for rendering (only visible when clicking on them). For
GUI display usually a lower resolution preview will be used, that loads
quicker. A third option is to display the original setup, as displaying
the mesh should hide the objects marked as fluid.

> - 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).
Currently they're saved in the working directory, but I'll include a button
for that, good idea.

> - 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)
Right, that's how it should work - as the previews are always for a
baked simulation, that's handled by the pulldown menues above. I think
it might be enough to add a directory button to get this functionality.
If that turns out to be inconvenient it can be changed of course.

> - 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. :)
As of now that's not correct, but I'll try to do this...

> - How would your system cope with animated Objects now?
When writing the simulation setup, I switch to frame one, and take the
positions from there... So any animation is basically ignore right now.

> - how large is the new library? What would it mean for the filesize of  our distribution?
Currently around 90 files, ca. 1MB of source code. But I think I can
reduce that significantly. I'd like to get it working first, then
I'll start a big cleanup.

> - Will it be static compiled in, or an extension like Yafray?
Linking it statically is probably the easiest way... Ok I'm lazy, but
I the dynamic yafray linking looks a bit complicated :) I think the
solver code shouldn't slow down things like
loading blender...

Regards,
-> Nils

-- 

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.                                                                     .
.          Nils Thuerey                                               .
.          LSS, Inf10 - University of Erlangen Nuremberg              .
.          http://www.ntoken.com                                      .
.          http://www10.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~sinithue/         .
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