FumeFX – Fire & Smoke Simulation Plugin for 3ds Max and Maya

A visual effects software company

Elevate your artistry and experience the difference that a quarter-century of expertise and passion can bring. From GPU-accelerated fire, smoke and explosions to cloth, liquids, ocean and soft body dynamics, our tools are designed for the diverse needs of visual effects professionals — with a constant focus on realism and versatility.

2–5×

Faster simulation with NVIDIA CUDA GPU acceleration

170+

Ready-to-use NodeWorks nodes in 17 functional groups

7

Simulation modules in FumeFX for 3ds Max

25+

Years of experience building visual effects software

FumeFX for 3ds Max

One package. Every element.

GPU fluid dynamics meets NodeWorks — a node-based multiphysics system for liquids, ocean, particles, rigid bodies, cloth, soft bodies and voxels.

FumeFX overview

01

Fire & Smoke

NVIDIA CUDA accelerated fire, smoke and explosions with two-way rigid body coupling and native OpenVDB support.

02

Liquid

Fast, volume-preserving GPU liquids with foam, phases and ISurf meshing.

03

Ocean

GPU spectral ocean with foam, spray, boat wakes and buoyant two-way dynamics.

04

NodeWorks

Node-based multiphysics with over 170 ready-to-use nodes in 17 groups and built-in C# scripting.

05

Particles

PhysX rigid bodies, Voronoi fracture, swarms, splines and Alembic export.

06

Voxels

Direct voxel access, custom force fields and advection of millions of particles.

07

Cloth & Soft Body

Particle-based cloth, soft and inflatable bodies with precise tearing and plasticity.

New in 7.6 for 3ds Max

Faster solves. Editable caches.

FumeFX 7.6 for 3ds Max brings a new multigrid solver, caches you can up-res and retime as they load, and a rebuilt NodeWorks ocean. FumeFX 7.5 with GPU simulation is also available for Maya.

Multigrid PCG solver

Up to twice the GPU speed of the previous solver, with the biggest gains on the largest grids.

Up-res and retime on load

Change a cached simulation as it loads — no re-simulating, no re-caching.

Rebuilt NodeWorks Ocean

GPU Kelvin wakes, a 2D flow solver and whitewater foam and bubbles.

Explore FumeFX 7.6

Products

Tools for every pipeline

FumeFX is available for 3ds Max, Maya and Cinema 4D. A single Workstation subscription covers both 3ds Max and Maya.

v7.6GPUNodeWorks

FumeFX for 3ds Max

The complete VFX package: GPU fire and smoke plus NodeWorks liquids, ocean, particles, cloth and voxels.

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v7.5GPU

FumeFX for Maya

GPU-accelerated fire, smoke and explosions for Maya, with Arnold rendering.

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v5.0

FumeFX for Cinema 4D

High-end fluid dynamics for Cinema 4D with native Arnold, Redshift and Octane support.

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Free

ScatterVL Pro

A free volumetric light shader for 3ds Max with precise control over atmospheric light.

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Production proven

Trusted on blockbuster films and game cinematics

Over two decades of development FumeFX has become an integral part of major studio pipelines — from Dr. Strange, Thor and Roland Emmerich’s 2012 to game cinematics like StarCraft II, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and the Warhammer series.

Blizzard
Blur Studio
Luma Pictures
Pixomondo
Iloura
Hydraulx
Mr. X
Uncharted Territory

Showreel

Feature film and games reel

Studios such as Blur, Luma Pictures, Pixomondo, Iloura and Hydraulx have relied on FumeFX for blockbuster films and game cinematics — from Thor and Dr. Strange to StarCraft II.

Video clips courtesy of Blur Studio, Iloura, Hydraulx, Luma Pictures, Mr. X, Pixomondo, Ruairi Robinson and Uncharted Territory.

Testimonials

What the industry says

Fume FX is our goto package for all of our atmospheric needs. Fume's quality and speed are unparalleled in any other package. Our cinematics rely on Fume's ability to provide amazingly realistic, highly detailed, fantastic simulations which help bring Blizzard's worlds to life.

FumeFX's speed, usability and quality made it our tool of choice while working on “Thor”. Its cross platform API allowed us to create a suite of tools to visualize and render our simulations within Maya. This flexibility allowed us to utilize our existing lighting pipeline while integrating Fume into our studio.

Using FumeFX since version 1, I have watched it grow from something great to something truly amazing. Every project I use it on it proves itself more and more to be hands down the fastest and most economical fire/smoke solver out on the market.

Fume FX is already the industry standard in Hollywood for recreating realistic pyrotechnics such as fire, smoke and explosions and other atmospheric FX. It is used by many of the leading visual fx houses around the world for movie and game production.

FumeFX has been an essential part of our pipeline since it was first released. We rely on FumeFX to create everything from the most demanding fire and smoke simulations to more subtle atmospheric effects such as dust and sand.

FumeFX 2.0 is a huge step forward. The new post-processing features enable artists to re-time and add extra detail through wavelet turbulence greatly reducing the time needed to create simulation iterations. FumeFX 2.0 improves on a tool that was already best-in-class.

In our production, we are using Fume FX since version 1.0 and we found it to be highly reliable and optimized fluid simulation software. Not to mention that it's highly versatile and really enjoyable tool to work with.

FumeFX is an amazing plugin for fire and gas simulations. It works perfectly for us at the Calgary Fire Department. A lot of the fire fighters here have noticed how much more realistically the fire and smoke moves and how well it reacts to environments.

Interviews