3D Nation
AquaForge is a liquid simulator for Blender, in two editions here: Pro bakes on the GPU, with whitewater and the libraries, and Studio adds objects that float and liquids that layer by weight. Want to try it first? AquaForge Lite is free on BlenderKit.
KEY FEATURES
COMPARE THE EDITIONS
| Lite | Pro | Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (BlenderKit) | $27 | $49 |
| Solver | CPU | GPU, 14× faster | GPU, 14× faster |
| Resolution up to | 150 | 400 | 1024 |
| Fluid, Obstacle, Inflow, Outflow | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Background baking, pause and resume | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bake estimate, volume correction, motion blur | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Liquid presets | 3 | 30 | 30 |
| Ready-made scenes | 5 | 40 | 40 + Studio scenes |
| Live Preview in the viewport | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Whitewater: spray, foam, bubbles | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Force fields and wind | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Surface tension | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Own viscosity for each Fluid or Inflow | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Vorticity and age attributes | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Alembic export | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Floating objects (buoyancy, two-way) | — | — | ✔ |
| Multi-fluid: liquids that layer by weight | — | — | ✔ |
| Each liquid in its own object and material | — | — | ✔ |
Bought Pro here? Choose Studio and pay only the difference. Pro and Studio are the same add-on: Studio installs over Pro, and your scenes and bakes keep working.
…AND IN EVERY EDITION
| Pause / Resume | Stop a bake any time and carry on from the last finished frame, even after Blender crashed or the power went out. |
| Background Baking | Blender stays usable while it bakes. The panel shows the frame, the speed and the time left, and frames appear as they're done. |
| Bake Estimate | Particles, memory, disk space and bake time, before you bake. |
| Moving Obstacles | Keyframed, parented or deforming obstacles push the liquid as they move. |
| Inflows and Outflows | Taps, pours and drains, switched on and off and aimed with keyframes. |
| Any Shape | Any closed mesh fills with liquid, with a starting velocity if you want to throw it. |
| Volume Correction | The liquid keeps its volume over long bakes. |
| Motion Blur | The surface carries the liquid's velocity, so Cycles blurs splashes the way they move. |
| Attributes | Velocity, speed, vorticity and age on the particles and the surface, for shaders and Geometry Nodes. |
| Alembic Export | The surface (with velocity) and the whitewater, every frame. |
| Clear Messages | A mesh with holes is named and refused instead of baking wrong; the panel says when settings changed since the last bake. |
| Fault Tolerance | If the GPU fails part way through a frame, the bake carries on on the CPU. |
LEARN IT IN MINUTES
- Studio: promo · tutorial
- Pro: promo · tutorial (the basics: tank, roles, resolution, bake, whitewater, materials, rendering)
- Lite: promo · tutorial
REQUIREMENTS
- Blender 4.5, 5.1 or 5.2
- Windows 64-bit (macOS and Linux builds are planned)
- A multi-core CPU; for GPU baking, a graphics card with OpenCL 1.2 (any recent NVIDIA, AMD or Intel GPU) and enough video memory for the bake. High resolutions need a lot of memory: check the bake estimate first.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Fluids, obstacles, inflows, outflows and floating objects must be closed meshes; walls thinner than about two grid cells can let liquid (or a fast floating object) through.
- Force fields accelerate the liquid for as long as they act: small strengths go a long way.
- Surface tension shows at small scale; in a bathtub-sized scene it does almost nothing.
- Install one edition at a time: Studio replaces Pro, and Lite should be disabled when Pro or Studio is installed, so there's one AquaForge tab.
INCLUDED
- Your edition's zip: aquaforge-1.0.2.zip (Pro) or aquaforge_studio-1.0.2.zip (Studio). Install with Edit › Preferences › Get Extensions › Install from Disk.
- Video tutorials for each edition (above)
- 12 months of updates and support
LICENSE
GPL-3.0-or-later.