Looking for right method for a simulation

[pradipta]

I am working on a recent project that is giving me some new challenge,

 

The site got around 5 residential towers along with some 40 villas. The problem is the site sits in a low land and during haavy rain, the neighbouring water enters the site and follows the natural slope and joins with the main waterbody that runs within the site. The water is very efficiently moved from the site with the help of the waterbody and finally it reaches a river thats few mile away.

 

I have to simiulate this natural phenomenon through an animation, I am not yet sure what methods I should adopt to show the water accumulation in the site, then water flowing down towards the waterbody, thus, raising the water level, and finally the site becomes dry again. I dont have put the details building/villas models, just an dummy mode would gie the idea.

 

Can anyone have any idea how this simulation can be done effectively and in less time. Any help will be appreciated, thanks

[kippu]

i am guessing particle effects would work but it will take a bit of breaking your head if you dont know it already

[pradipta]

yes, thats an way. But it will take good amount of time to make the simulation work. Even i was thinking of incorporating Real Flow. I have one of my friend who is good in RF, may be I should discuss with him as well.

[alrawli]

If you know somebody who has and is proficient in real flow then i think that would be the most accurate and straight forward approach. Its ideal for this type of work.

Edited June 15, 2008 by alrawli

[amer abidi]

definitely realflow.. has a not so steep learning curve as well... you could learn it in a couple of days..plenty of tutorials all around.. you might want to plan ahead though for complex solution renderings as it does tend to take a long time to render if you have no farm.

[johnvid]

Never thought realflow was easy, and without knowing it inside out, I would expect it to crash on simulation on a scene like the one proposed... you might have to build a special Low Poly Version of the main landscape and simpler building blocks or cyl' to represent the walls of the buildings.

 

would GLUE be a simpler but perhaps cruder method?

[Claudio Branch]

RF will do the job nicely, but don't assume that it will do it quickly or easily. If you have no experience using RF, then trying to execute an important project using it is FOLLY.

 

What you're facing is exporting your terrain and building geometry from Max via the SceneData Saver into RF, setting up your scene with an appropriate scale and strategically placed particle emitters and daemons (forces), running several test sims to get the water behavior correct, and finally building the water surfaces' mesh geometry (more testing as well) to be imported back into Max via the RF Loader.

 

All of this also assumes that you have a VERY powerful computer to handle the primary simulation, and access to a renderfarm with the appropriate render management software (Deadline) to "net-mesh" the water surface geometry, and actually handle the scene once you get it back into Max for final output.

 

FUN STUFF?

 

Yes, but only after you get your feet wet...

 

Here are a few frames from a water sim that I did recently...

[pradipta]

thanks for all the comments here,

 

Rawlinson: yes, i also think that way. I need to get someone who is really good in RF since its a quite tricky applications but the results if done properly will be best.

 

amer : i tried RF couple of times since it was in version 2. But never got must used to in it. May be i couldnt get to use it in project in big way. But, its a software i would love to explore. I will see if I can manage RF in this situation.

 

John : you are right, I would use a much simpler low poly model to simulate the RF if I am at all using it. Then some compositing will put the final thing look good I guess.

 

Claudio : yes, it seem squote tough, the stakes are high, the scene can be bit complex and RF can make any system to crawl! I would prefer to have this done in somehow using RF but have to do ground work before that. The water test simulation you did, looks good.

 

Thanks for all the inputs here, I would now see and explore the various ideas that has croped up in m head now and will keep you all updated here...

[Claudio Branch]

Best luck to you on your project. I am looking forward to hearing more about how it progresses.

 

Here is an excellent RF resource: http://www.realflowforum.com/

[pradipta]

Thanks Claudio for the links, its a great resources of RF materirals.