Fumaris Brings GPU-Accelerated Smoke and Fire to Blender Without Leaving the Viewport

Fumaris, a new GPU-accelerated smoke and fire simulation extension for Blender created by Michael Venous, eliminates a production step that has long slowed archviz iteration: the export to an external simulator and back. The extension costs $39 and requires Blender 5.1+ on Windows and Linux, or Blender 5.2+ on Mac.

The toolset combines a Python add-on for the UI and scene export with a native GPU runtime. On Windows and Linux, it uses NVIDIA's Flow solver via Vulkan. On Apple Silicon (Mac M4 and later running macOS 26+), it uses Metal through bundled MoltenVK. Intel Macs are not supported. Tested GPUs include NVIDIA cards, Intel Arc, and Apple M4; AMD support is not yet qualified. Windows and Linux users need a Vulkan-capable GPU with current drivers; Linux also requires glibc 2.35+.

The simulation runs in the Blender viewport at interactive speed, and you can pause and resume as needed. Fumaris lets you adjust smoke and flame appearance after the sim is done without rebaking—a significant advantage over Blender's built-in Mantaflow solver, which uses different parameters and requires a restart if you want to tweak looks. When ready, you export to OpenVDB format, which integrates with volume rendering in both Cycles and EEVEE.

Emitter types include meshes, particles, Geometry Nodes points, and OpenVDB sources. You can store multiple bakes in separate cache slots. Version 1.3.0 added Air Margin and wider pressure solve features, plus Move With Object functionality for animated emitters. The viewport preview uses simplified shading; the actual bake restarts the simulation rather than saving the live preview.

Video: 80 Level

One Workflow, No Round Trips

For Blender-based archviz studios, Fumaris addresses a real bottleneck. The traditional smoke and fire pipeline means setting up in Blender, exporting geometry or particles, running an external simulator (or waiting for Mantaflow to finish), then importing the cache back to set up rendering. Fumaris collapses that into a single environment: simulate, tweak appearance, and render—all without leaving Blender.

The $39 price makes it accessible even to solo artists and small shops. Broad GPU support across NVIDIA, Intel Arc, and Apple Silicon means most modern hardware qualifies, though AMD users will need to wait for qualification. If you work in Cycles or EEVEE and spend time on smoke or fire effects, this workflow gain could recoup the cost quickly.

For context on rendering smoke and fire in Blender, see our guides on how to render fire, render smoke, and compositing smoke into Cycles.

Video: Superhive

Sources

• Gumroad
• Superhive
• 80 Level

Lead image: Superhive