First test, and few questions

[d4rk3lf]

First of all, thanks for the great plugin. 
I am following Tyson work 10+ (years), and was a member of Simply CG forums. 

So, here's my first test, done in 20 minutes, few hours, after plugin beta was released. :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhWTENkvYLo

I think it's a first Tyflow test uploaded on youtube.
I know it's not much, but I was just testing regular Pflow stuff (find target + wind), and it worked 100 times faster an more stable then regular Pflow. 

Questions: 
(3DS Max 2018 - Vray) 
1) I can't seem to make materials working with particles. If I drag material operator (and instance mat from mat editor), it just ignore it. If I make shape instance, and tell it to reuse instance mesh material - it just ignore it. I've tried placing Mat ID operator... tried various stuff. 
It always render particles as color as tyflow icon 
JUST found the solution (but I'll leave these here, if someone have a similar problem). 
I only need to change in mesh operator from triangle to vray instance. now it works.

2) Can we make grain simulation using sprites, but render 3D shape (box, sphere, chunks... etc). So, I only want shape to be rendered, not simulated again with the new shape I select. 

3) Vortex spacewarp behave strangely. I see there is a Tyflow vortex, and it's great, but I am kind of used to regular vortex. Will it be supported in the future? Also, do you plan adding some new spacewarps? 

Suggestions: 
- When we drag and drop material operator, it re-simulates all over again. Even if we change material color, it re-simulate. It would be good if simulation just ignores the changes that doesn't really affect simulations.

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P.S.
Crash report.

When I drag and drop material with tybitmap, into the material operator, it crashes (both with standard and vray material).
I replicated this problem in this video.
https://youtu.be/NdAcNLG9TjA

[tyFlow]

Hey d4rk3lf! I remember you

Yes you're right...the material operator only works with VRay Instances (as it says in the little info panel on it). To get materials to work with regular mesh particles, just assign the material to the tyFlow object itself. From there, if you want different sub materials for different particles, you can assign material IDs to particles in various ways and then just add the corresponding material to the Multi-Subobject material applied to the flow.

You can make a grain simulation with whatever mesh you want. Just adjust the grain radius in the Particle Physics operator to match whatever size you actually want your grains to be. My default the radius will contour to your particle scale, but you can make it fully independent with the 'absolute radius' spinner.

You can use the max vortex spacewarp but there are some issues with default max spacewarps that make their influence a little strange at times. That's why I included the tyVortex force.

Thank you for the crash report! I'll look into the issue and try to get it fixed. For now, you can try just using the Copy/Paste right click menu on the material button....those should work.

[d4rk3lf]

Hey mate, thanks a lot.

The only thing we need now is default 50% viewport particle, like Pflow have.
HA! Got ya!
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I am playing with find target operator. Do you have any tips? 
I am trying usual find target -> object bind, but on animated mesh. 
Even when I make 1/32 substeps, still some particles are "chasing" the target mesh for a very long time. 
I realized that the acceleration is actually "time to settle", and when I increased it, it settles faster, but still not enough. 

Also, I have some wind and age test, before particle have "find target" in the next test, and usually, I try to match speed of the wind, with find target speed, so it's more natural. 
Any tips on how to make transition from one event (wind) to next event (find target) as smooth as possible? 

Cheers!

[tyFlow]

Maybe instead of the age test, use a Property Test and have it test the particle velocity, so it doesn't get sent to the next event until it's near the velocity you want. Then in the Property Test "timing" rollout, set the timing to match whatever your age test settings were.

As for particle chasing...that's a tough one because as you see there are some situations where particles can't travel fast enough, based on your settings, to close the gap necessary to reach the surface. You could try adding a surface force with a small distance/falloff, to give them an extra boost towards the surface when they get close...make the distance/falloff very small so it only affects particles near the surface. That might help that snap to it better, in a smooth way.