Napalm ...is it good?

[Beamtracer]

Another Napalm question...

I'm thinking of buying Napalm or some other particle system, in order to get particles moving along a path.

Has anyone here used Napalm?
Is it good? Worth buying?
Are there other products that are as good or better?

I've got no idea how Napalm works, so I'd be interested in anyone's opinion of it.

Lightwave's particles seem OK if you don't need them to follow a path, and don't need more than 2000 of them (the system then seems to bog down).

Also problematic with Lightwave particles is that the fx_Linker plugin seems to only copy an object about 1930 times, even though you may have requested many more.

Does Napalm still require fx_Linker? Is it also limited to less than 2000 clones of an object?

[Mylenium]

Well, personally I do not like PStorm/ Napalm (Did you try the demo?). I worked with it the last time about 1.5 years ago (when it was PStorm 2.5 or something like that) and it was not more satisfying than PFX. It's not really faster (but at least there are no limitations and particle recycling)and setting it up is as tedious as PFX. The bad thing is that it is not halfway interactive - while in PFX you can play around, in Napalm you always have to start the simulation explicitly to see results. In the long term this can be more time consuming than mastering the odds and ends of PFX. Perhaps using DStorms plugin might be a better choice (plus you get rigid dynamics). I have never tested it, though. Until there are some decent (native) dynamics in LW i prefer Maya for complex setups.

Mylenium

[Jedi21]

Beam im in the same boat as you, i was thinking of buying it too but ive been using the demo for a few days now and i still cant get the dam thing to work. i know im missing steps god forbid they sould include a tutorial with the thing.

[Beamtracer]

The Napalm online documentation is hidden away on Dynamic Realities site.

It's funny... I managed to find it by guessing the URL and typing it in. Here it is:

http://www.dynamic-realities.com/support/onlinedocs/Napalm/

God only knows why this stuff is not linked to on the Napalm page... I couldn't find it.

I've downloaded the demo...just trying it out now.

[trick]

First, I don't understand how someone can say that Napalm is harder to use by just having tried the demo. Sure, it is a more complex plugin (not like the easy "mainstream" PFX), but once you know it to the bone, it can do everything you want with ease. It's just the best If you want ALL control on particles.

At the end you can (almost) do everything with PFX, that napalm can do; but then PFX is a lot harder to use for the very complex stuf.

Suppose you want an explosion with large and small debris, smoke and dust. All these components react very different with respect to ground bouncing, interaction and air resistance. Setting this up realistically in Napalm is very easy. Its easy to setup the debris in PFX too. The smoke and the dust is a lot more difficult. The "drag" modifier in Napalm can simulate viscuous media that can influence particle decelleration on specific directions and rotations. This greatly enhances realism for smoke and dust behaviour, especially when using Hypervoxels or JetstreamFX (DStorm).

I must say it is a tool for the perfectionist and you still need a few days to understand all its possibilities, after you will be able to combine these into spectacular effects !!!! In combination with Impact you can assign loads of (different) objects to each particle (ID) which gives you endless possibilities LW just can't reach.

(This is no PR for DR, just a users opinion...)

[Beamtracer]

Thanks for your opinion, Trick. I'm going to order Napalm.

[trick]

When I first tried the demo, I thought the same as some guys above. Since I had a project which required more control on very light dust and smoke particles combined with small and large debris I bought the Impact/Napalm combo together with the Metanoise (http://www.lumenumbra.com) shaders, which offer better smoke fractals for hypervoxels.

I didn't regret it so I guess you wont either...

Good Luck !!

[Hervé]

Hello Beam, good advice.... if it's to manage smoke stuff, chimneys, cigarette smoke
and the like... and off course fires, I bought "Fire &Smoke Generator from here

http://www.polas.net/

It is so good and furious fast, no bugs, and not expensive... and it has a special opacity procedural to use in HV that make your smoke delicatly fade away.... great...

.... but that may not be what you need.... dunno


oooo, and for putting things on fire, it has a propagation stuff... so cool...

[Jedi21]

Herve i was looking at the fire and smoke generator. is it really as good as it looks? how easy would it be to set up something like afterburners or rocket exaust?

thanks

[Hervé]

Download a demo, you'll see by yourself, soooooo easy I tell you.. !!

I did a "afterburn" candle (the moment where you blow on a candle when the flame disappear and there is a little tiny column of smoke for a couple of seconds....) in almost no time... it was totally impossible with HV the way it is now.... it was like blob blob....

[trick]

Originally posted by Hervé
Download a demo, you'll see by yourself, soooooo easy I tell you.. !!

Don't confuse FS with Napalm. FS is perfect for billowing fire and smoke (as its name suggests), because of the automated turbulence you see in cigarette smoke for example. For the project I mentioned above I did an FS evaluation, and it seemed not that allround !!! But as Hervé says: try the demo !!

Maybe you have seen the video for the new Renault Megane that is driving on a moon landscape. Look at the dust that rises when the car stops. These guys are known as one of the best in the industry, but the dust still looks crap. They probably did this in Maya. Specifically this effect surely is not easy, so you still have to tweak a lot, and that is when Napalm comes in...

[jimnokc]

Napalm is a very powerful particle system, and very complex. I don't mean it's necessarily complicated, but it's one of those "if you can imagine it, you can make it" type programs. It is very extensive and has a lot of options, the manual does help clarify quite a bit. It is a definite nice feature to add to Lightwave, but like any other plug-ins you probably want to ask yourself if you can get by with the stock Lightwave particles (HV's can do some awesome stuff).

Napalm was my second plug-in purchase, Impact 3 was my first (mainly because I was kinda disappointed that LW didn't have a decent rigid body system). Impact 3 is just perfect for that. I was so impressed with the ease of use of Impact 3, I picked up Napalm too. Napalm is not as easy to use as Impact, but as I said, it's very powerful.

DR has some other great products. I would have to put Worley, Dynamic Realities, and Evasion 3D at the top of my list. I've got all of their LW 7.5 compatible plugs and they're all top notch.

Incidently, Napalm and Impact can act upon each other. There's only one tutorial on it, and that's the main place I see where it's come up short.

[pixelmonk]

if you need "advanced" particle parameters over the next 5-6 months, get Napalm. If you can wait till next month to see what Newtek announces in LW8, do that. It's better to see what's going on for the next version, imo.:D

[jimnokc]

I'm taking a wait and see approach too. I've got most everything for 7.5, so needless to say I'm kinda hoping NOT to see some of the high-dollar plug-ins being included! :)

I expect the particle system to improve, and hopefully some speed up in the HV and volumetric code.

If nothing else, I hope to see better backward compatibility here. I mean, it would be nice to have built in rigid body dynamics, but if they don't fully support Impact features it would be nice to have that as a choice. Same with Napalm and many others.

But, if you absolutely want Napalm, get direct from DR. Some of the resellers still have ancient prices. For example, I think I paid $295 for NatureFX2 from DR, but have seen it for sale for 760 at another retailer.

Personally, I can't wait to see the list of 8 features.

[rapscallion]

Hey...Hi...i figured I'd just throw a comment in here
cuz I wanted to make sure that my recent posts about DR Tech Support and Spawner problems didn't go with about some balance...for the record, I love Napalm. It has so many awesome features and so many great ways to tweak what your doing...for complicated crowd simulations you just can't beat this thing on Lightwave...and for all your tricky water and fire and smoke stuff you'll find that this is much more of an "artist's tool" than what comes stock with Lightwave...but at the same time, I agree with all those who suggest possibly waiting if you can, because Newtek is a very smart company and I'm sure they have taken a lesson or two from many of the good plug developers when considering what to improve on the LW8...so buy what you need, not what you think would be cool, unless (like me) sometimes coolness gets the better of you...hehe...wishing the best...from the void...j.p.rapscallion...

[jimnokc]

Impact is usually the one that nails me. Like maybe I have beeb careful to model a track so that a ball fits perfectly in it, but somewhere along the way made one area just a tad bit narrower. So far I've learned, with Impact at least, almost every simulation error has been something about this ridiculous.

We've all probably used some old 3D tools too long, we expect it to behave more "computerly" and not so realistic! :)