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This is a first Beta build of Krakatoa v1.5.2.
It is intended mainly as a bug fix release, addressing all known issues reported since 1.5.1 was released.
At the same time, some minor new features have also been added, mainly at the UI / script side.
A list of bug fixes and new features will be posted separately.
We are releasing this beta mainly because some customers required a fix for the integration with Thinking Particles 4 (the TP SDK had changed since the early days of 1.5.0). We encourage all beta sites currently on 1.5.1 to evaluate this new build and report any outstanding issues.
We still have a list of known defects to address, but the main crashes and incompatibilities have been fixed.
[size=150]BUG FIXES[/size]
* (2009/11/10): An old property for “Use Lighting” was still used deep inside the renderer. The property still exists at UI level for backwards compatibility and is being set by the “Ignore Scene Lights” button, but it could get out of sync under some circumstances, causing particles to render without illumination. This has been fixed.
* (2009/11/24): Fixed support for the 3ds Max Volume Select modifier. In previous versions, it was not selecting correctly. Note that Mesh-based selection is not supported and will cause a crash.
* (2009/11/26): Added a popup message at loading time when the Helium DLX is not loaded. In the past, Krakatoa would fail to load with lots of MAXScript errors in the Listener, now the loading of the respective modules will be skipped.
* (2009/11/26): Global Channel Override KCMs were evaluated top to bottom instead of bottom to top. This has been fixed.
* (2009/11/30): Fixed a bug in the motion blur calculations where the wrong units were used for the time value.
* (2009/12/02): Fixed support for Cebas Thinking Particles 4 by compiling against the latest TP SDK.
* (2009/12/03): PRT Loader was producing an empty native channel map when the stream contained no particles, causing problems with PFlow. This has been fixed to always return the correct channel map even when the PRT file is empty.
* (2009/12/07): Voxel Mode + DOF could cause a crash when voxels were behind the camera. This has been fixed.
* (2009/12/10): Matte Object Rasterization was wrong in Perspective views. This has been fixed.
* (2009/12/10): Fixed the crash when saving attenuation maps in Max 2009 and earlier (this worked in the 2010 build). This was caused by compiler settings and wasn’t directly related to the Krakatoa code.
* (2009/12/17):Fixed wire color support on streams that don’t have a color or material. (e.g. PFlow which was showing as white instead of wirecolor)
* (2009/12/17): Added flags for Absorption and Emission channels so caching them does not force their use. Previously, caching these channels then turning off the Use Absorption or Use Emission caused the data to still be used. Now, the options control whether the channels will be used. If unchecked, they will be ignored even if already in Cache.
[size=150]MAGMAFLOW[/size]
* (2009/10/05): Added a dedicated SquareRoot Operator node which is faster than the Power Operator.
* (2009/10/19): Added Quaternion Operators
o ToQuat converts three Vector inputs to a Quaternion.
o FromQuat converts a Quaternion to one of the three axis vectors based on second Integer input.
o TransformByQuat transforms a Vector or another Quaternion by a Quaternion.
* (2009/10/28): Added a button to manually refresh Exposed Parameters from the KCM’s UI.
o In v1.5.1, copying a PRT Loader or PRT Volume with one KCM updated the Exposed Parameters would update them correctly, but if there were two or more KCMs to update, their flows would get mixed up due to the Editor being closed.
o Fixing this automatically would be tricky, so we let the user fix it with a click. Opening the Editor will also fix the current modifier’s exposure if needed.
* (2009/11/23): Added the ability to fully specify type and arity of custom Output channels in MagmaFlow.
o If an existing channel is selected, only the data depth can be changed (type and arity will be preserved).
o When an Input in later KCM references that channel, the type of the channel will now be shown as [Custom] as it cannot be easily determined by the UI, but the compiler will handle it correctly.
* (2009/11/23): Changed the behavior of Input Nodes Drag&Drop - when a new Input is dropped, the existing selection will be removed to allow the Input’s Parameters to be displayed immediately. This does not apply to Keyboard creation where existing selections will be preserved to allow for faster flow auto-connecting. This new behavior can be turned off in the Display Options rollout.
* (2009/11/26): Added Notes Node for adding general notes to the flow that are visible without selecting a node.
* (2009/11/26): Added the ability to display the notes of any node (except for the Notes node) as a popup by holding Ctrl while rolling over.
* (2009/11/26): Fixed a bug that prevented the storing of the Depot width setting to the INI file.
[size=150]VFB EXTENSIONS[/size]
* (2009/10/28): Using InterActive Mode and Resize Output from the the extended VFB would cause a FULL version of the rendering to be generated instead. This has been fixed.
[size=150]SCHEMATIC FLOW[/size]
* (2009/11/27): Updated Schematic Flow to display info dynamically, added the ability to highlight nodes on roll-over and fixed some descriptions.
[size=150]USER INTERFACE[/size]
* (2009/11/24): The Iterative Mode would cause Save Particles To File Sequence to save a single file in Max 2009 and higher. Now
Iterative mode will be turned off when switching to Save Particles mode to avoid this.
* (2009/11/27): Added Presets Management to the Save Channels list, allowing the saving and loading of channel configurations and the setting of a default set of channels to save. It also respects the channel depth.
* (2009/11/30): Moved the Shader Parameters to a dedicated dynamic rollout which will change depending on the Phase Function selected in the Main Controls rollout.
o The new rollout can be docked, floated and will load and save as all other rollouts and will allow more complex shaders to be exposed in the Krakatoa GUI in the future.
o Supported property types currently include
+ Channel with Allocate checkbutton and Float or Color/Vector type.
+ Boolean Property (Checkbutton)
+ Float Property (Spinner)
+ Integer Property (Spinner)
+ Color/Vector Property (Color Picker)
+ String Property (Drop-Down List)
+ Group Control (no property connection)
+ Label Control (no property connection)
* (2009/12/01): Added RenderTime and SaveTime comparison to the Presets and History rollout - if two records contain a time stamp, the difference will be shown in brackets next to the absolute time.
* (2009/12/01): Added tooltips (3ds Max 2009 and higher) to the drop-down lists in the Presets and History with the full file name and data since it is often too long to see.
* (2009/12/15): Added Left and Right Strips for browsing multiple thumbnails at a time and fast scrolling through the history.
o Left-clicking a strip thumbnail will load the corresponding record in the left or right slot.
o Right-clicking a strip thumbnail will open the original image.
* (2009/12/15): Added thumbnail caching to the History rollout.
o In the past, the left and right thumbnails of the rendered image were using a rescaled version of the saved rendered image.
o With the new cache, a JPG rescaled version will be saved the first time a thumbnail is requested and used for future display of the history record. The same cached JPG will be used for faster display in the Left and Right Strips (see above).
* (2009/12/17): Fixed display problems of thumbnails with white pixels which appeared transparent by providing a correct custom mask with no transparency.
* (2009/12/18): Created a new icon set that is better visible in both light and dark UI color schemes.
[size=150]KNOWN OUTSTANDING ISSUES[/size]
* Saving Attenuation Maps is still not supported in Voxel mode…