OK, I understand that some people haven't worked out how to use Aura yet. This is mainly because the help file that somes with it is rather small. Ohh yes, if you didn't know there IS a help file for Aura that should have been installed to ...\3D Max 6\help\AuraManual.chm

Instructions for loading bCurves into Aura

1) If you haven't done so already download some sample curves.

2) Unzip them to somewhere on your computer

3) Load up 3D Studio Max (v5 or 6)

4) Go to Rendering->Environment then click 'add' under the Atmosphere tab and then select ' Aura for 3DSMax'

5) The Aura dialogue box should pop up. After adding the objects and initialising them (making sure they they are creating Fire and or smoke), set up the grid size (number of cells).

6) In the Solver tab make sure that Enable Flames and Enable Smoke is ticked, change any parameters you need to set your time slider to 0 then hit Run From Current (0).

7) Wait for a while until the solving has finished, if it's going to take a long time and you are using WinXP I suggest you set 3DMax's thread priority to "Below Normal" in the task manager, that way you can surf the net while it does it's thing (although if you have a slow PC just go watch some TV or do some exercise).

8) Play the animation and you should now see a heap of triangles depicting where the smoke/flames will be. From here hit the Render tab and add a Smoke Shader and Flame Shader : Colour Curve as required.

9) Now here is the fun part, determining what your flame looks like. Right click on the top graph in the Flame Shader tab and select Load. Now load up one of the .bcurve files that you unzipped before. The graph should now look different. If you are using a smoke shader do the same to the smoke (using either the Black-White.bcurve, Qualm2.bcurve, Galaxy.bcurve, chimney-smoke-shader-color-curve.bcurve, the defualt curve, or just create your own).

10) Render out an image. You can use any renderer you want. Max's Scanline, Vray, Brazil, or whatever, and if you use Global Illumination in your renderer then the flame will create a (rather dull) light.

11) Tweak your settings. I suggest you set the Flame Shader brightness to at least 2, and set 'Alpha from Brightness' on.
If your solving of calculations is taking forever try lowering the number of Cells. You will end up with very long calculation times and high ram useage if you have lots of smoke billowing out everywhere. Try using only fire first, tweaking the settings as you like, then you can try other scenes with lots of smoke when you can leave your PC for a while to solve the calculations.
For some really long calc times but some spiffy animation try using a vortex modifier to whip up your smoke.

If you would like me to post some screen shots here, or just want to clarify something, email me at kublermdk@gmail.com