What happens to Nextlimit?

[tapple73]

Too many years without an update, it's something I just don't understand .. competition takes flight every year, with new tools and software enhancements. We need new tools, a new foam module and a new algorithm for the calculation especially of Hybrid particles. I have never seen such deafening silence from a software

[ChristianZ]

I used to think more optimistically about the development of Realflow (for example that they are replacing the standalone with the plugin-versions of the software), until they removed the position that Tsn had. Since then, all the webinars, blog posts or panel presentations at conventions have stopped

[tapple73]

realflow has stopped since 2015, some updates have come out, but nothing important .. if you try houdini you understand how far back Realflow is and it's a real shame. They could have kept up with updates every year, so I think there is something wrong. On instagram they are active, but with all due respect if you see the posts make you laugh, content that could have been done with the first release of Realflow

[ChristianZ]

Yes, I agree. The competition is not sleeping, be it Houdini or the more 3D-App specific software solutions such as Phoenix or X-particles etc.
You still can see Realflow sometimes used by some professionals, usually for small-scale simulations in advertisement or motion graphics because it can be useful for rapid iterations.

[tapple73]

Believe me, I'm starting to use houdini and the comparison with realflow is embarrassing, which with updates could have kept up, so I really don't understand what happens

[tsn]

Next Limit has simply lost any interest in RealFlow and it's no longer actively developed or supported, since all fluid developers have left the company or moved on to other positions within the company. Maybe it'll be resurrected one day, but until then competition will be at least 10 years ahead and nobody will trust in NL anymore.

You can see that with NL's Maxwell Render: they literally f***ed up MR4, and now they're desperately trying to bring it back, but users went on to VRay, Corona, Octance, etc. many years ago. Why should they come back? Their old users spent lots of money and time on new render engines in the meantime, and they should throw away all this again for a half-baked engine with 0.1% market share? No way.

There's absolutely no doubt that you'll be better off with Houdini.

[tapple73]

this is not good news for those like me who bought the software, it is not correct by Nextlimit if it really was what you say

[Oldcode]

For me, the problem is they've dropped Lightwave from support for their Connection Software, and there's no Lightwave version of Real Flow. When I go to he Next Limit portal, the Lightwave connection plugin is not even listed anymore. If my hard drive crashes and I lose it, it's gone forever!

There's a guy on the the Lightwave forum who created his own Flip fluid software to work inside Lightwave!

https://www.deepfxworld.com/deep-rising-fx.php

It's not as capable as Real Flow, at least not yet, but it's getting there. And considering it's much less expensive than Real Flow, why would you bother with a software that's out of date and for all that it has, is still buggy as Hell.

I just recently started trying to Learn Lightwave 2019, which has their new render engine and has a lot of changes under the hood. I'm planning on doing some experiments to see it if the Connection software will work in 2019. That will prolong its life for a while. So far so go. I was able to load a mesh sequence the other night from a previous project. Now, if I can export and import the SD files, we'll be okay, I hope.

[tapple73]

For me, the problem is they've dropped Lightwave from support for their Connection Software, and there's no Lightwave version of Real Flow. When I go to he Next Limit portal, the Lightwave connection plugin is not even listed anymore. If my hard drive crashes and I lose it, it's gone forever!

There's a guy on the the Lightwave forum who created his own Flip fluid software to work inside Lightwave!

https://www.deepfxworld.com/deep-rising-fx.php

It's not as capable as Real Flow, at least not yet, but it's getting there. And considering it's much less expensive than Real Flow, why would you bother with a software that's out of date and for all that it has, is still buggy as Hell.

I just recently started trying to Learn Lightwave 2019, which has their new render engine and has a lot of changes under the hood. I'm planning on doing some experiments to see it if the Connection software will work in 2019. That will prolong its life for a while. So far so go. I was able to load a mesh sequence the other night from a previous project. Now, if I can export and import the SD files, we'll be okay, I hope.

I think it is useless to learn software that will always remain toys. Houdini runs, every 5 months he releases important additions. By now the gap is too big, thanks to the fact that RF has not been able to keep up, abandoning its users. Bidogna study Houdini and that's it

[tapple73]

Meanwhile blender which is a free software has reached realflow, they do the same things ... isn't it a shame since RF was the leader? the thing I really don't understand is that it seems that these questions only ask me or maybe the Rv community is passing by without telling Houdini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df2f_mcZhkE