Overview

One installer covers 3ds Max 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027. It detects which of them you have and installs only those — there is no version to pick.

Steps

1. Close 3ds Max. The plugin files cannot be replaced while Max is holding them open.
2. Run the installer as administrator. Right-click the .exe → Run as administrator. It writes into C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 20NN\Plugins\, which needs elevation.
3. Windows may warn you. The installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen has no download history for it. The SHA-256 published under the download button is how you confirm the file is ours.
4. Start Max. The solver and the render maps load at startup.

Overview

A licence is tied to one computer by that machine's firmware ID. It is a signed file — nothing contacts a server while you work.

Steps

1. Create an account at vanguardfx.pro and request the free 7-day trial — one per email address. The trial runs everything; it exports 40 frames.
2. Open the ABOUT / LICENSE rollout in Max and copy the hardware ID it shows.
3. Give that ID to the site or to @Vanguard_MyLicense_Bot, and you receive a licence file.
4. Save it to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VanguardFX\. The rollout then shows your plan and the days remaining.

Overview

Nothing needs to be in the scene. The domain fills itself, so the shortest path to moving water is four steps.

Steps

1. Create a VanguardFluid object and drag out its domain. Everything happens inside that box.
2. Open DOMAIN & GRID and set the resolution. Start low — at this stage you are looking for the motion, not the detail.
3. Set FILL HEIGHT under FLUID. That is how full the box starts, as a fraction of its height.
4. Press play. The solver runs on your GPU and the viewport shows the particles as it goes.

Overview

Any mesh in the scene can be made solid. The water is cleared out of its interior and flows around it.

Steps

1. Select the object you want the water to hit.
2. Open COLLISION and add it. Colliders are held by scene handle, so deleting the object never leaves an invisible wall behind.
3. Turn on SOLID INTERIORS for closed objects. The inside is cleared by testing each column against the mesh itself, which is what makes a rotated box genuinely solid rather than a shell with water trapped in its seams.
4. Turn on COLLIDERS DISPLACE THE WATER if you want the level to rise the way it does when you drop something into a full tank.

Overview

Six classes, each with its own lifetime and shader: foam, spray, bubbles, mist, embers and smoke. They are born where the water is actually breaking, not sprinkled over the top of it.

Steps

1. Open WHITEWATER and turn it on. Emission follows convergence and speed, so it appears where a wave folds.
2. Choose the classes you want. A calm pour wants bubbles and foam; a breaking wave wants spray and mist as well.
3. Set FOAM LIFE — how long foam survives once it has reached the surface.
4. Use CARBONATION for dissolved gas rather than entrained air: a settled drink does not move and still fizzes.

Overview

Render in place, or hand the simulation to another tool. Both paths live in the same rollouts.

Steps

1. Turn on SURFACE MESHING to build the render surface, or leave it off and render the particles directly.
2. Open SHADER PRESETS and build a V-Ray or Corona material. The Fluid Map reads the channels the solver writes into the mesh, so the shading follows the water instead of sitting on top of it.
3. For a horizon, use INFINITE OCEAN, or drop the Ocean map on a plain plane — it needs no simulation at all.
4. To export, open PRO EXPORT: .PRT sequences for Krakatoa and tyFlow, layered foam/spray/bubble passes, velocity domains, wetness-carrying sand beds, .OBJ meshes, and the layered .VAN re-sim cache.

Best practice

1. Resolution last. Get the motion right on a coarse grid, then raise it. Doubling the resolution costs roughly eight times the work.
2. NARROW BAND for deep water. Depth is stored as depth rather than as particles, so a big tank costs what its surface costs.
3. Save the scene. Every setting, every keyframe, and every object you pointed the solver at is written into the .max file.

If something looks wrong

1. A preset seems to do nothing — PRESETS KEEP MY DOMAIN + RESOLUTION is on by default and suppresses half of what most presets tune.
2. Water inside a collider — turn on SOLID INTERIORS, and read COLLIDER OCCUPANCY rather than the particle count.
3. Still wrong? Press WRITE DIAGNOSTIC LOG and send us the file. It records what the solver actually did, which is faster than describing it.