FlareSim v1.1.0

A CUDA-accelerated Nuke plugin for physically-based lens flare simulation. FlareSim traces rays through real lens prescriptions to produce ghost reflections, diffraction starbursts, and veiling glare that respond correctly to source position, wavelength, and aperture shape — no textures, no painted elements.

Built on the foundational work of Eamonn Nugent (blackhole-rt).

What's new in v1.1.0

• Linux support — FlareSim.so builds for Nuke 13–17
• Nuke 13 support on Windows

What's included

• FlareSim.dll / FlareSim.so — the Nuke plugin
• menu.py — registers FlareSim under Filter in the node menu
• FlareSim_LensBrowser.py — dockable lens browser panel
• lenses/lens_files/ — 1,300+ real lens prescriptions (Nikon, Canon, Zeiss, ARRI, Sigma, Sony, Fujifilm, and many more)
• lenses/convert_ob.py / convert_p2p.py — converters for adding your own lenses from photonstophotos.net

Requirements

• Windows or Linux
• Nuke 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 (download the zip matching your version and OS)
• NVIDIA GPU, compute capability 5.0 or newer (Maxwell architecture, GTX 750 / Quadro M-series or newer)
• NVIDIA driver 525 or newer

Installation

Windows

1. Download the Windows zip for your Nuke version
2. Unzip everything into %USERPROFILE%.nuke\plugins\ (create the folder if it doesn't exist)
3. Restart Nuke

Linux

1. Download the Linux zip for your Nuke version
2. Unzip everything into ~/.nuke/plugins/ (create the folder if it doesn't exist)
3. Restart Nuke

FlareSim appears under Filter in the node menu. To open the lens browser: click the pane menu (top-left corner of any panel) → FlareSim Lens Browser

Features

• Ghost reflections traced through real optical prescriptions — correct positions, chromatic aberration, and aperture shape automatically
• Fraunhofer diffraction starbursts computed from aperture geometry — spike count and colour dispersion emerge physically
• Veiling glare / haze simulation
• Configurable spectral sampling (3–11 wavelengths)
• Polygonal aperture support (3–16 blades)
• Per-ghost-pair enable toggles
• Stratified and Halton pupil sampling with auto-animated seed
• Source clustering, capping, and per-frame source limits
• Separate output channels: flare.rgb, source.rgb, haze.rgb, starburst.rgb

FlareSim v1.0.0

FlareSim v1.0.0

A CUDA-accelerated Nuke plugin for physically-based lens flare simulation. FlareSim traces rays through real lens prescriptions to produce ghost reflections, diffraction starbursts, and veiling glare that respond correctly to source position, wavelength, and aperture shape — no textures, no painted elements.

Built on the foundational work of Eamonn Nugent (blackhole-rt).

What's included

• FlareSim.dll — the Nuke plugin
• menu.py — registers FlareSim under Filter in the node menu
• FlareSim_LensBrowser.py — dockable lens browser panel
• lenses/lens_files/ — 1,300+ real lens prescriptions (Nikon, Canon, Zeiss, ARRI, Sigma, Sony, Fujifilm, and many more)
• lenses/convert_ob.py / convert_p2p.py — converters for adding your own lenses from photonstophotos.net

Requirements

• Windows
• Nuke 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 (download the zip matching your version)
• NVIDIA GPU, compute capability 3.0 or newer (any NVIDIA card from 2012 onward)
• NVIDIA driver 520 or newer

Installation

1. Download the zip for your Nuke version
2. Unzip everything into %USERPROFILE%.nuke\plugins\ (create the folder if it doesn't exist)
3. Restart Nuke
4. FlareSim appears under Filter in the node menu

To open the lens browser: click the pane menu (top-left corner of any panel) → FlareSim Lens Browser

Features

• Ghost reflections traced through real optical prescriptions — correct positions, chromatic aberration, and aperture shape automatically
• Fraunhofer diffraction starbursts computed from aperture geometry — spike count and colour dispersion emerge physically
• Veiling glare / haze simulation
• Configurable spectral sampling (3–11 wavelengths)
• Polygonal aperture support (3–16 blades)
• Per-ghost-pair enable toggles
• Stratified and Halton pupil sampling with auto-animated seed
• Source clustering, capping, and per-frame source limits
• Separate output channels: flare.rgb, source.rgb, haze.rgb, starburst.rgb