cebas Visual Technology announced that it has released thinkingParticles 5, the first tool to deliver three physics solver in one product. Release 5 introduces, for the first time ever, a dedicated true soft body rope and vehicle dynamics system that is purely procedural. Special effects like tearing ropes or cables, cars driving in a city or a forensic crash simulation can now be done with one affordable and powerful special effects tool.

thinkingParticles 5 is compatible with 3dsMax versions 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010, and is currently available for ordering and shipment from www.cebas.com. Release 5 ships with one simulation license plus an offline manual that self-updates. thinkingParticles 4 owners can order their update for a reduced price. Users who purchased thinkingParticles 4 after April 27th, 2012 qualify for cebas’ free upgrade to thinkingParticles 5.

What's New in thinkingParticles 5

Interoperability: Realflow and Krakatoa
Movie production is an immense task, which involves many individuals and collaborated efforts during the making-of process. Nowadays, movies are known for their advanced and sophisticated technicalities -- making visual effects an increasingly challenging job to perfect. As a result, a single special effect now requires a multitude of software products to be involved in its creation and development.

ImportFile Node
The new ImportFile node in thinkingParticles offers now file compatibility with Next Limit's Realflow .bin files and Krakatoa .prt files -- products widely used in the industry for their specific strengths. Both .bin file types (Mesh and Particle) can be directly loaded and displayed in thinkingParticles -- better yet -- written out particle or mesh simulations can be fully used and interacted with.

thinkingParticles 5 implements the open standard Bullet Physics Library, a widely used physics engine, offering advanced features; such as, multi-threaded physics solvers as well as soft body rope dynamics. While PhysX from NVIDIA will still remain a core feature of thinkingParticles 5, latest advancements in dynamic simulation effects will be based on open standards and proprietary cebas technology.

The following new dynamics simulation Nodes are now part of the new release:

BulletVehicle -- This new Node enables the creation and simulation of all vehicle based physics within thinkingParticles, leveraging all the power of procedural particle effects.

BTVehicleData -- Following the main credo of "You can turn On/Off mother nature at will," this BTVehicleDatat node is the perfect example for procedurally adjusting vehicle parameters at any given time within a simulation. In addition, this operator can also be used to query vehicle status as well as modifying some interesting physics simulation-related variables.