Insydium releases X-Particles 3
Originally posted on 14 October 2014. Scroll down for updates, including news of the commercial release.
Insydium has released details of X-Particles 3, the forthcoming update to its increasingly versatile Cinema 4D particle simulation plugin, adding a FLIP solver for true smoke and fire and some interesting new modifiers.
True gaseous fluids and liquids; neat new modifiers
The main new feature in version 3 is the new FLIP solver: a hybrid particle/volume-based simulation method often used for liquid simulation, but also intended here for gaseous fluids like smoke and fire.
There’s also a new ‘Elektrix’ object for generating lightning bolts, plus fairly self-explanatory Branching, Network and Tendril modifiers.
The Flock modifier has been reworked; and there are “at least” eight more new modifiers yet to be announced.
Updated 19 January 2015: Insdydium has just released open beta 3 of X-Particles 3, adding some interesting new features, including spline meshing, trails from constraints, viscosity and surface tension.
You can see spline meshing and constraints in action in this video demo.
And not to be outdone by Houdini 14’s new position-based dynamics system, which permits a range of multiphysics effects, X-Particles 3 will have its own PBD system. You can see it creating sand in the video above.
Updated 18 March: X-Particles 3 is shipping. You can see the official demo video above.
The software is compatible with any 64-bit edition of Cinema 4D R13 and above, on Windows and OS X. A node-locked licence costs £340 (around $540); a floating licence costs £440 ($700). Prices exclude tax.