During the install there is a “pick the Max you want to use” dialog… just curious why it cannot configure both Max 8 and Max 9 in one go?
and confirmed TP is also getting “unknown exception” in Max 9 (with both TP 2.5 and TP 3 alpha 21).
thanks
The “configure Krakatoa for Max” option where you pick the location of the 3dsmax.exe file is an external helper program which is supposed to add the Plugin.ini entry to the Krakatoa home folder.
It looks at the exe properties and figures out the Max version based on the version string embedded in the exe. It then goes to the plugin.ini file in the same folder and adds the Krakatoa=… path.
(As mentioned in the download section, there is a bug that might misconfigure the Max 8 path. This will be fixed before release. )
It is run just once during the installation because otherwise we would have to provide some checkboxes to ask you what versions you want to install for and run the helper multiple times, BUT you might have multiple installations of both Max 8, 9 and whatever version comes next that require even more runs of the helper than we could anticipate - you might have multiple versions like alphas and betas and so on running in parallel from different folders.
This is why we provide access to this Helper utility from the Start>Programs>Frantic>Krakatoa>“Add Krakatoa to 3ds Max”. (and a “Remove…” option, too).
If you want to install to ten different locations, you could run it manually at any time and it will point the plugin.ini to the folder containing the corresponding Max 8 or Max 9 DLR. You could even add the path manually if you are so inclined - it’s all it does.
Thanks for confirming the TP problem in Max 9! We also confirmed internally that Beta 13 was rendering correctly and we will try to figure out what has changed between now and then, but it is really a side effect of something, not an obvious bug one could easily spot - TP uses the same interface as PFlow to expose its particles, so it would be logical to get the crash in both, but it is not the case…
ah… I understand now, thanks, Bobo!
also thanks for the TP info – but can I ask what kind of methods can be used to expose paricles? Are these methods MXS or something I can read about in the SDK? Thanks!
but can I ask what kind of
methods can be used to expose
paricles? Are these methods
MXS or something I can read
about in the SDK? Thanks!
In the SDK,
The Interface is called IParticleObjectExt.
It can be used to expose a 3rd party particle system in the same way PFlow was exposed.
Thinking Particles provides its own SDK for those who want to go deep, but it supports the basic IParticleObjectExt interface which lets us get particle positions and velocities without using the SDK.
The "Other Particles" button in the Main Controls rollout allows you to render any other 3rd party particle system that is not PFlow or TP but supports that interface.
Right now, there is probably no such system, but we are playing it safe.
ah, thank-you, Bobo!