Render Settings Panel

Use the Render Settings panel to adjust quality parameters for rendering your fluid simulation.

Solver To Render rollout

Solver list
Selects the current solver to render from the drop-down menu. Click the Lock icon to lock the selected solver so it does not change when you switch to other solvers.

Channels rollout

Add Channels group

Add Channels list
Adds and removes specific channels to be used in the render, allowing you to use data from the simulation in maps and masks, for example. Click the + button to open the Add Channel dialog where you can specify the channel and map number. If you add a channel with an existing map channel value, the added channel will replace the existing entry using the same value. Click the - button to remove selected channels from the list.
The supported channels are:
  • air
  • airDistance
  • churn
  • curvature
  • density
  • droplet
  • expansionRate
  • position
  • stictionBandwidth
  • stictionStrength
  • uv
  • velocity
  • vorticity

Liquid Settings rollout

Render As group

Render As
Sets how to render the liquid component of the simulation. Depending on the option selected, the liquid settings will appear accordingly. Selecting Cache Mesh renders a cache mesh for the simulation, while selecting None will not render any liquid.

Plane, Cross, Box, Sphere, or Custom

Size group
Size Channel
Selects a channel to be used to drive the size of the rendered particle.
Size (Static Only)
Sets the absolute size of the particle.
Size Min
Sets the minimum size of the particle.
Size Max
Sets the maximum size of the particle.
Size Min Domain
Sets the minimum channel value to use when remapping the particle.
Size Max Domain
Sets the maximum channel value to use when remapping the particle.
Get Size Domain button
Samples the value range of the selected channel on the current frame. It is recommended to sample multiple frames to get a better idea of the range in the simulation. You can use these values to determine the Size Min and Size Max Domain values, which will then be remapped to fit into the range of the min and max size.

Arnold Surface

Surface Controls group

Surface Type
Sets the surface type as either mesh or implicit. This surface is generated at render time so it will not appear in the viewport.
Render Component
Sets whether the surface is generated by the voxel or particle component.
Droplet Reveal Factor
Creates and preserves detail around splashes when generating and smoothing the mesh. Lower values result in smoother meshes, while higher values increases fine, high-frequency detail.
Surface Radius
Sets the radius of each particle blob used to create the surface, in multiples of the master voxel size.
Droplet Radius
Sets the radius of each droplet relative to the master voxel size.
Resolution Factor
Sets a scaling factor for adjusting the particle resolution before the mesh is generated. Higher values create more high-frequency detail, but take longer to calculate.
Hole Kill Threshold
When increased, eliminates meshed holes in the interior of the fluid. Such holes can occur especially when using high Resolution Factor values with spatially adaptive simulations.

Filtering group

Dilate
Increases the volume of the mesh.
Smooth
Smooths the mesh.
Smooth Mode
Sets the Smooth mode to either Laplacian Flow or Curvature Flow.
Smooth Iterations
Sets the number of smoothing steps performed on the mesh.
Erode
Decreases the volume of the mesh.

Mesh Controls group

Subdivisions
Adds a specified number of subdivisions on the mesh when rendering.
Smoothing
Enables smoothing on the mesh.

Foam Settings rollout

Render As group

Render As
Sets how to render the foam component of the simulation. Depending on the option selected, the settings will appear accordingly. Selecting None will not render any foam.

Arnold Point

Points Control group
Radius Channel
Sets the radius channel to either Static or Density.
Radius
Sets the radius of the Arnold points.
Step Size
When rendering with a surface material, set this value to 0.0. When rendering using a volume material, increase the value above 0.0.
Chunk Size
Sets the number of particles to use as a chunk. You can reduce the size of the chunk if you are running out of memory.

Plane, Cross, Box, Sphere, or Custom

Size group
Size Channel
Sets a channel to control in the size of the rendered particles.
  • Static (no channel is selected)
  • airDistance
  • churn
  • curvature
  • density
  • droplet
  • expansionRate
  • position
  • stictionBandwidth
  • stictionStrength
  • uv
  • velocity
  • vorticity
Size (Static Only)
Sets the absolute size of the particle.
Size Min
Sets the minimum size of the particle.
Size Max
Sets the maximum size of the particle.
Size Min Domain
Sets the minimum channel value to use when remapping the particle.
Size Max Domain
Sets the maximum channel value to use when remapping the particle.
Get Size Domain button
Samples the value range of the selected channel on the current frame. It is recommended to sample multiple frames to get a better idea of the range in the simulation. You can use these values to determine the Size Min and Size Max Domain values, which will then be remapped to fit into the range of the min and max size.

Arnold Surface

Surface Controls group
Surface Type
Sets the surface type as either mesh or implicit.
Droplet Reveal Factor
Creates and preserves detail around splashes when generating and smoothing the mesh. Lower values result in smoother meshes, while higher values increases fine, high-frequency detail.
Surface Radius
Sets the radius of each particle blob used to create the surface, in multiples of the Master Voxel Size.
Droplet Radius
Sets the radius of each droplet relative to the Master Voxel Size.
Resolution Factor
Sets a scaling factor for adjusting the particle resolution before the mesh is generated. Higher values create more high-frequency detail, but take longer to calculate.
Hole Kill Threshold
When increased, eliminates meshed holes in the interior of the fluid. Such holes can occur especially when using high Resolution Factor values with spatially adaptive simulations.
Filtering group
Dilate
Increases the volume of the mesh.
Smooth
Smooths the mesh.
Smooth Mode
Sets the Smooth mode to either Laplacian Flow or Curvature Flow.
Smooth Iterations
Sets the number of smoothing steps performed on the mesh.
Erode
Decreases the volume of the mesh.
Mesh Controls group
Subdivisions
Adds a specified number of subdivisions on the mesh when rendering.
Smoothing
Enables smoothing on the mesh.