Hello everyone!
Anyone knows if it is possible to use GPU power to calculate fluids?
I am asking since these take a long time on even fast systems, and it seems to me that GPU would be perfect for that type of computation!
Thanks for any answers.
Gilles
For the current blender ? No
No, and it’s definitely not simple. As far as I know, even in top of the line fluid simulators GPU acceleration is still in the experimental stage. Maybe Naiad or Realflow have it?
Thanks to both!
I dunno about Naiad or Realflow, but several 3dsmax fluid simulation plugins work with GPU, like this one!
http://3daliens.com/joomla/index.php
Actually makes sense to use the GPU for that type of computation, lets hope it will come to Blender one day!
Gilles
Realflow 2013 will have GPU support, but no news for Naiad that I can find!
Gilles
Ahh, see, that is an SPH particle-based fluid solver. Blender currently has one of these and it’s quite fast already. The only issue is that we don’t have a way of skinning the particles at the moment. SPH solver wouldn’t be too hard to get working on the GPU. An actual fluid simulation, like the one in Blender currently, is a completely different beast, and there’s a reason it’s just now being added to Realflow. GPUs only really calculate well when you can run many concurrent, similar processes at the same time, and grid-based fluid solvers don’t fit so well into this criteria.
Took over 6 hours to bake a 350 frames fluid on a 2700K with 16 gb of ram.
Blender could use a gpu boost for that type of computation, maybe in the future We will get it!
In the mean time, I just might get some extra cpu power, thanks for the replies! 
Gilles
Found something interesting: http://www.foliativ.net/book/index.php?post/2011/03/04/Cuda-Fluid-Solver-Plugin
Maybe this can be adopted? It’s open source: https://bitbucket.org/vinz9/cudasims/
I’m not a programmer so I can’t say.
@scyguo
while visiting that site (foliativ.net) I got a virus so chances are it came form there.
So heads up to everyone
-Thanks