Krakatoa

#881

It actually works although there’s a small problem: it renders the whole sequence, but saves it on only one file.

#882

You will have to build the file name for each iteration of the loop yourself.
Thankfully, since you are rendering in Krakatoa, you can use a function provided by our Interface:

FranticParticles.ReplaceSequenceNumber @"G:\renderfiles\render_.tga" 10
  -->"G:\renderfiles\render_0010.tga"

So the code could look like


 (
 theBaseFile = @"G:\renderfiles\render_.tga"
 for i in 1 to (animationrange.end.frame as integer) do
  (
  	outFile = FranticParticles.ReplaceSequenceNumber theBaseFile i
  	render outputfile:outFile cancelled:&wasCancelled outputHDRbitmap:true
  	sliderTime += 1
  	if wasCancelled then exit
  )
 )

Also, it is better to save to .EXR instead.

#883

Thank you very much! I will try it this way!

#884

can some one tell me how do i open the krakatoa ui?
for some reason it didn’t make a krakatoa toolbar in the customize

#885

sigh open the render dialog and look around in there.

#886

If you don’t see a Krakatoa CATEGORY in the Customize UI Dialog, or there is no Krakatoa entry in the Render dialog (where you assign a renderer), then it is quite likely that the plugin.ini was not modified correctly (it can happen on Vista and Win7 if UAC is on).

Have you looked into your plugin.ini file?
Have you read the Installation instructions here? (see the bottom of the page for manual steps to fix this).

#887

I hope this isn’t a dumb question, but I’ve been fiddling with Krakatoa for about a week and am wondering what materials does it support?

Like does/can it support regular Max Materials? And, if so, how do I apply? Is it going to take the material values from my PFlow event?

I watched some tutorials on it, but I’m working with 1.5.1.BFE and the interface is VASTLY different than what is shown in the tutorials.

I’ve been a Maya user for the past 6-7 years, and have just now started to get back into the groove of Max. That being said, I’ve lost ALL of my Max skills. I can see the Krakatoa Category in the Customize UI Dialog…but how do I make that into a toolbar?

#888

Sorry for being dense myself, but what the heck is “BFE”? :slight_smile:
This was of no help: http://www.acronymfinder.com/bfe.html

Also, the Online Manual reflects the current 1.5.1.38002 build. The video tutorials from 2007 are indeed quite old already, but I had not time to do new ones this time around. Possibly after the next release of 3ds Max next year…

Regarding materials and shading in general:

*Krakatoa accepts the Standard Material of Max, at least some aspects of it. The Diffuse color is used as the Color Channel source, the Self-Illumination is used as Emission Channel source, the Opacity slot is used as a Density multiplier, and the Filter Color is used as the Absorption Channel source. When Krakatoa is in Phong Surface shading mode and the >Allocate SpecularLevel and SpecularPower checkbuttons are checked, the Specular Level and Glossiness values of the Standard Material will also be used to populate the per-particle channels that control the specularity.
All these channels support map trees of arbitrary depth, including all procedural 3D maps and 2D maps as long as the particles provide valid UV coordinates. Even the Falloff map is supported with all its modes.
The Standard Material can be assigned to a Material Operator of PFlow (so it can be assigned per-event). It can also be assigned to a legacy particle system, geometry object (when reading vertices as particles), and to the Krakatoa objects - PRT Loader and PRT Volume. So you can save your PFlow to PRT files, load in a PRT Loader and assign a material to it as usual.

*Krakatoa also provides a simpler Krakatoa Material which can be applied ONLY to Krakatoa objects (PRT Loader, PRT Volume) since it operates on the particle channels directly.

*Speaking of particle channels, you can wire your own shaders using Krakatoa Channel Modifiers which can read and write all channels like the Color, Emission, Absorption, Normals, SpecularLevel/Power, Eccentricity, Density etc. In fact, you can implement new shading models (or existing ones, as with the Blinn Shading example here). We are working on expanding the number of nodes available in MagmaFlow in the future, but you should be able to do some typical shader development there.

*Krakatoa assumes the Vertex Color channel (Mapping Channel 0) is the Color channel, so any particle source that provides a valid Vertex Color channel will render that data as Color automatically, so you can even write shaders as PFlow Script Operators or Box #3 DataOps (as shown insome of the tutorials in the Krakatoa manual).
Using a Vertex Color Map in any Standard Material slot, you can also convert any of the 100 Mapping channels into a color and feed into any map slot (or MagmaFlow), but it is slower than a comparable simple MagmaFlow that just reads the Mapping channel and writes the data to the target channel.

*Krakatoa itself provides several shading modes (Phase Functions) that change the way light is processed as it passes through space filled with particles. Isotropic just scatters light in all directions uniformly, Phong Surface calculates (even volumetric!) specular highlights based off the particles normals and per-particle specularity channels, Schlick and H-G calculate variable scattering based off the viewing angle and an eccentricity component which can be defined per particle for advanced sub-pixel-quality effects, and we are working on more for future versions. These modes modify how the data provided by the materials and KCMs is used in the shading process.

*Krakatoa supports some basic environment reflections using the global environment map, but I am pushing for per-material support of the Environment slot and for more control over the intensity of the effect.

In general, Krakatoa is a “toolkit”. Most tools have their limitations, but you can combine some of the tools in new ways to get what you need. Since Krakatoa renders only particles, a lot of the “surface shading” abilities of other renderers had to be abandoned because they make little sense in volumetric terms. But with low-level access to all relevant shading (and other) channels, you should be able to achieve most effects you need.

http://software.primefocusworld.com/software/support/krakatoa/macroscripts.php

Quote:
Installation and Customization

[ul]
[li]The MacroScripts can be found in the Main Menu > Customize User Interface… > Krakatoa category.[/li][/ul]Then just drag and drop to a toolbar (you can create a new one if you want).

#889

Hey. Yeah I read all of that about the materials. I just need to know how to apply it to the particle system and have it show up in the render. That’s the part I can’t figure out. I’ve been copying and instancing like crazy and still can’t get it.

NOTE: BFE means Btt Fcking Egypt. It was too many numbers to type after that.

#890

*Start a new scene
*Open Particle Flow
*Drag the Standard Flow preset to the Particle View, adjust the Birth Amount to 200000 or so.
*Drag a Material Dynamic operator to the Event.
*Open Material Editor, drag the first slot onto the button “None” button of the Operator.
*Set the Diffuse Color of the Material to something recognizable like Red
*Add an Omni light to the scene to illuminate your particles (otherwise they will render black), or alternatively set the Self-Illumination color to something and enable Emission in the Krakatoa GUI to render without lights.
*Go to a frame other than zero, like 21 for example.
*Open Krakatoa GUI with default settings and hit Render.

Result: I am getting a solid rectangular red column of particles.

*Now add a Cellular Map to the Diffuse slot of the Material and hit Render again - I get the particles shaded with cellular patterns. Change the colors or assign more maps inside this map to create fancier looks. (Don’t use 2D maps like a bitmap since your particles currently have no Mapping Coordinates assigned).

Do you get the same results? What step were you missing?

Hope this helps…

#891

I’ll give this a go in a bit. Does it have to be an Omni? I’ve been using directional lights and spot lights…and the particles were rendering out shades of white and gray. If it had to be an omni instead, then that may be why I was getting those results.

#892

Any light will work. He was saying use an omni just so the particles don’t render black. A simple omni in the scene will act as just a general default light if you will.

#893

It doesn’t have to be an omni, but for a quick test, it is a Single Click Operation as compared to targeting a direct or free or target spot light. :slight_smile:
In fact, Omnis are not supported in Voxel mode, only in particle mode, so I should probably not suggest using them on forums :wink:

But since I was describing a simplest case possible starting with a blank scene, adding a light is a prerequisite in 1.5.x for rendering something visible…

#894 
Okay I found out something interesting. My simulation had 3.75M particles in it. When I did this exact material application...nothing happened.

Now...I tried what you told me and it worked! BUT...I tried increasing my values more and more and found that after 150k particles in the birth field they STOP RENDERING with the applied material which explains why I couldn't see them.

So I'm guessing I had to override the particle color to even be able to see them. Any idea why this is happening?

[b]I'm using:[/b]
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
3ds Max 2010 x4
Krakatoa (Latest Release)

Update:

For some reason I had to turn my speed down in order to see the shaded particles when over 150k. Again, the tower-o-particles renders fine when the number is 150k or under, but as soon as I bump it up, it’s like the speed goes up too which is why I thought I couldn’t see them and this is…odd.



#895

PFlow has an artificial limit of 100K particles found in the Emitter’s “System Management>Particle Mount>Upper Limit” rollout/spinner.

Krakatoa, when opened after a PFlow is created, is supposed to bump up this value to 100 milllion or so, but it is possible that the auto-increase was disabled in the Krakatoa Preferences, or that you created the PFlow after Krakatoa GUI was opened.

If you are emitting from frame 0 to frame 30 with 150K in Amount, around frame 20 you will have 100K particles and they will stop showing up.

If that value is higher than 100K and is thus not the problem, then I will have to see at least a screenshot of the flow that has the issue, or even better, get a ZIP of the scene to look at.

#896

Hmm yeah I just did a test and it didn’t up the limit automatically…so I pressed the “Do it now!” button and it did. No problem here anymore.

#897

I have made it a habit to check/increase that value when I create a PFlow.
Here is a page we wrote about it before releasing Krakatoa 1.0:
http://software.primefocusworld.com/software/support/krakatoa/3dsmax_settings.php

#898

This just in:
Krakatoa was used to generate some of the holographic displays in Avatar. (You can ask PsychoSilence for more details on the workflow ;))

http://www.primefocusworld.com/work/portfolio/avatar-twentieth-century-fox

#899

Just saw it! And I was talking to the other people sharing impressions after, and at a moment I glanced the screen and saw you dudes’ names - Bobo, Laszlo, Anselm :slight_smile: Yuppie! A most impressive film, this one was :slight_smile: Even with the hippie overdose :slight_smile:

#900

Hey, congrats on that, really spectacular works.