Volume Forge is an addon that lets you create VDBs using code directly in Blender, providing the maximum level of flexibility for creating volumetric effects.

Create Volumes with Code

Volume Forge lets you generate any sort of volumetric effect you can imagine through GLSL code. It provides a very flexible way to create volumetric grids that would otherwise be cumbersome or impossible with the standard shader nodes.

GPU Powered

Volume Forge leverages GPU compute shaders to generate VDB grids rapidly - directly in Blender! We currently support OpenGL, and Metal back end support is planned in the future.

Make VDBs Directly Inside Blender

Volume Forge uses OpenVDB, an industry standard technology for efficiently storing sparse volumetric data. With Volume Forge, you can generate VDBs directly inside Blender without the need for third-party software.

Animation Ready

Volume Forge supports VDB sequence exports allowing you to parameterise your volumes over time.

Multiple Grids Support

Write to multiple grids within the same compute shader. Volume Forge currently supports float and vec3 grid types.

Simple

Volume Forge simply takes your compute shader and generates the .vdb file(s). It works best with an external IDE like VSCode for GLSL linting.

Templates

Save your compute shaders and grid configurations in template files to reuse in your projects. Volume Forge also comes with some template presets that will be expanded over future updates.

lightning.glsl

fire.glsl

magic_orb.glsl

clouds.glsl

Documentation

PDF Manual

Requirements

- Blender 3.6 or greater

- Don't forget to restart Blender after installing!

- An OpenGL 4.3 Compatible Graphics Card

- Apple Users: Metal back end is not currently supported and we don't officially support Macs yet. You can try to change your back end preference to OpenGL, but this will be removed from Blender 4.0.

Before You Buy

Volume Forge comes with a few premade templates, but is is recommended that you understand how to write basic shaders using GLSL. There are lots of useful resources on the web for this. Shadertoy is a great resource for learning GLSL fragment shaders, which are highly transferable to 3D volumetric compute shaders.

The template library is planned to be expanded over time and these updates will be free if you have purchased Volume Forge!

Feedback

Feedback is really appreciated, feel free to get in contact if you encounter any issues or have any suggestions.

Blender Development Fund ❤️

A small cut of the sales revenue for Volume Forge contributes to the Blender Development Fund.