7.0
Released on 20.August.2025
New Features and Improvements
FumeFX 7.0 introduces NodeWorks Ocean, a physically accurate, GPU-accelerated ocean simulation system built natively for 3ds Max. Designed to meet the demands of a broad user base-from VFX professionals to architectural visualization artists-it brings real-time ocean generation, secondary particle effects, and dynamic object interaction into a unified, artist-friendly workflow.
FumeFX 7 Ocean features video
At the heart of the system is the Ocean Sim node, responsible for generating high-resolution ocean geometry and driving foam, spray, and bubble effects. Whether you`re simulating gentle shorelines or storm-driven seas, this node provides the foundation for realistic, cinematic water surfaces. For large-scale scenes, adaptive meshing focuses geometry detail near the camera, ensuring optimal performance without sacrificing visual fidelity. Powered by spectrum-based wave models and inverse Fourier transforms, the system replicates natural wave behavior by distributing energy across a wide range of frequencies and directions.
Artists can layer multiple Ocean Spectrum nodes to combine long swells, choppy wind-driven waves, and localized turbulence. Built-in Perlin noise blending allows smooth transitions between wave types, enabling precise control over surface variation. Additional tools such as tile variation and height masking eliminate visible repetition, delivering natural, non-uniform wave patterns across the entire ocean surface.
The Foam & Spray node generates particles in real time based on wave motion and crest curvature. Foam, bubbles, and spray are rendered efficiently as Arnold points or Arnold volume points, with full support for Arnold User Data such as age, velocity, and density-allowing for dynamic shading effects like foam transparency and dissipation over time.
Ocean-object interaction is handled by the Ocean Dynamics node, featuring true two-way coupling between objects and the water surface. Objects generate ripples and wakes upon contact while being influenced by buoyant and frictional forces in return. These interactions can emit secondary foam and bubbles, adding depth and motion to the simulation. Using the Ocean Object node, artists can introduce scene geometry or particles into the simulation, with granular control over object type (static, kinematic, or dynamic), buoyancy behavior, friction, inertia, and wake generation.
Seamlessly integrated into the NodeWorks procedural environment, with full support for PhysX rigid body dynamics and Fiber simulations - enabling buoyant forces to interact naturally with fiber constraints. Whether you`re crafting massive open-sea shots, or stylized water effects, NodeWorks Ocean in FumeFX 7 delivers the control, speed, and realism you always needed-directly inside 3ds Max.
- NodeWorks: Particle group now includes an option to render points as Arnold volumes, replacing the previous global setting that applied to all particles.
- NodeWorks: The Object Properties node now includes an Object TM input, allowing users to control scene object transforms using particles.
- NodeWorks: Particle display now includes an option to reduce the number of displayed particles.
- NodeWorks: Memory caching now stores user-selected attributes, just like disk caching. As a result, both Disk and Memory caching are unified under a single dialog, sharing the cached attributes settings.
- NodeWorks: The particle group caching option now applies to memory caching as well.
- NodeWorks: Previously, simulation stopped once memory cache was full. It now continues to compute but skips storing to memory when the limit is reached.
- NodeWorks: Object Properties node now supports memory caching, allowing object properties to be restored even when the simulation is played back from memory cache.
Fixes
- NodeWorks: Changing particle group point display type or color did not refresh the viewport display.
- NodeWorks: The Explosion preset failed to create all required nodes.
- NodeWorks: Rendering particles as Arnold points could result in extra, unintended particles in render output.
- NodeWorks: Issue where simulation computation can automatically restart just after it has finished.
- NodeWorks: Fixed an issue where the Import Shape node miscalculated object mass when Set Mass was active.
- NodeWorks: When NodeWorks particle display was set to none it also didn`t display particles shapes.
- ISurf: Crash when the mouse pointer hovered over its viewport icon in 3ds max 2026.
- ISurf: Producing incorrect results when using BoundingBox mode with FumeFX.
- ISurf: Crash when using Smooth Mask with FumeFX.
- ISurf: Meshing of FumeFX volumes was not working correctly.