Hello,

I want to show my first tests in GPU.

Here are to videos showing two different tests.

The first one shows 4 simulations using 4 different simulation methods and 4 different speeds. Here is the link : https://youtu.be/Ba6zxR_-oFw

The second one shows the correction of a hair (Sunny hair). Its goal is to show that a correction of a complex hair made using a simulation becomes to be fast enough. Here is the link : https://youtu.be/JPQ8IfXOroo

Tell me what you think about these videos. I am not ready to send a final version because some simulations don't work correctly yet.

Have a great day.

 Gérald

wonderful news, thanks so much for the update!

@headwax : this version is not ready for the update. I have to stabilize it. Currently, there are some problems with some clothes or hair. I don't understand why. The two graphic cards seem to react differently in some cases.

Just for tests, I made another simple simulation on Sunny hair using a static simulation. This shows the speed of the simulation in static mode. It is important to remember the screen capture slows down the simulation speed. Here is the link : https://youtu.be/FuKL6DqphVk

Hello Gérald just saw the video: that look promissing! You just made me more impatient to play with this version and to see how my graphic card react (GTX680)
Good work!

Hello,

Here is a first realtime simulation in VWD using the GPU computing. All the parameters have been defined to have the best speed. There are some parts of the program which are not parallelized yet. Here is the link : https://youtu.be/4vq1UjlUkZ4

These are fantastic news! Thanks again for your hard work, it really comes through in the final product.

Oh wow, this is fantastic. Bravo! I cannot wait for this to be released!

I can't wait for this to be implemented. This is wonderful!

Thank you for your encouragements, I ask you just a bit of time. Currently, the version is not stable enough. I try to accelerate it again by mixing GPU and threads during the GPU computation.

Great work. Thank you. Maybe one day it will be possible to use both, cpu and gpu at the same time.

Hi Gérald, Did you see Daz Studio 4.10 with dForce !? it use GPU also. Not tested yet...

I played around with it in the beta and it wasn't much faster than VWD (maybe in the setup of the scene, but certainly not in the simulation of the few simple drapes I managed). It didn't seem nearly as complete nor versatile as VWD: hair was right out, some outfits just wouldn't work at all and others required some work that I do faster on VWD (obviously, I mean, I have had more experience with it). The advantages are that it is integrated and allows morphing and tweaking of the clothing objects after the simulation, introduces a wind emitter similar to a spotlight that allows more than one source of wind in a scene and it lets you simulate more than one object at a time with different weights in different surfaces (so that you can have, for instance, a veil with metal beads on a fringe). Even so, VWD is a more complete solution, with dynamic adjustments on the fly, some functions to simulate volumes, far better support, a greater range of simulable objects and, well, even if it is more complex that just translates into more options and freedom for the end-user. As usual, plug-and-play solutions lack in versatility. Though d-force is supposed to introduce a greater range of dynamic effects in the future and it would be awesome to see it handle soft-body collisions and the like, at the moment VWD is by far the superior tool.

Semi-publicity rant ended. I am honestly satisfied with my purchase, though I will try and see if mixing both tools can give me more interesting results.

these look great Gérald !

Thanks for your support. No, I didn't look at Dforce. @Kalosei: when you say Dforce wasn't much faster than VWD, you want to say that the GPU Dforce version is not very much faster than the CPU VWD version? I think to a solution to increase a bit the speed of the simulation. I would like to be at realtime for simple clothes. Not for hair, but I would like to reach 5 fps for complex hair. I just need time to stabilize the GPU version.

This looks great; I like though, that I can still use CPU cores - I bought a Threadripper (16 core) and it is marvelous for VWD. I simulate in VWD whilst renderings are running.

Dforce so far has some good aspects, but is not quick and has issues. Personally, I like having more than one option.

That's just it, Gérald: the speed of a Dforce Gpu simulation running on a GTX 1080 was comparable to VWD running on a core i7 4790. Of course, my system is bloated and not running at a 100%, but I would say that would go double for the CPU over the GPU. At first blush, I wasn't that impressed with Dforce and the only thing that really peaked my interest was the way the simulated object retained its rigging and morphing capabilities, but I think VWD had made its own advances in that direction with the intersection function? I am still waiting for that tutorial (not rushing you, just highlighting that, once again, you've captured my attention).

Hello Kalosei,

I had to work on some other projects. I want to restart the GPU development the next week. I would be interested by working on this subject soon.

I ask you a bit of time.

Have a great day.

  Gérald

Of course! I meant it when I said I am not rushing you: everything you are working on is something relevant to me, so I am not about to play favorites and, lest of all, asking you to drop GPU coding. Thank you for your efforts.

Hello Kalosei,

I had to work on other projects. As said Philippe, "the ones paying the bills".

I restart the GPU development in the coming days.

There is a good news, GLScene which is the library I currently use in the program has a new version (1.5) which is 64 bits. The next version will perhaps be compiled in 64 bits. This will resolve many memory issues.

It will be important to avoid simulations with several hundreds millions of springs. Even on GPU.

Have a great day.

  Gérald

Gérald,

GLScene updating to x64 is great news. I would love if you are able to compile to x64 for future versions, but take your time, and work on the projects that are making you money.

VWD is still the best thing offered for dynamics simulation in Poserverse, and I am sure there are still a lot of users who appreciate your work, and support you. Even though we had an agreement for my work, I still purchased a separate copy of VWD through Rendo to further support you (as well as Philemo's bridges too).

Keep up the terrific work, and don't work too hard and get burned out.

Take care...

Ken

Hello Ken,

Excuse me to reply so late.

Thank for your support. The 64 bits version is not necessarily my priority but it is a very important project. For now, I want to finalize the GPU version. I have some problems with the self-collision. I want to optimize the speed of the simulations by mixing CPU and GPU.

I want to take my time to update the current version of VWD. I think I will finalize the GPU version for the new year.

Thank you again for your help.

Have a great day.

  Gérald

I can't wait for the GPU accelerated version. Very exciting! Thank you for your continued work. :)