Please download and play with the Beta 4 of what will soon become Krakatoa v1.6.0. (if you look closer at the amount of new features in the release notes, you will probably figure out why 1.5.2 simply does not cut it).
Below is a short list of the changes made to Beta 4. For the full list, go to
software.primefocusworld.com/sof … _notes.php
Also note that the Documentation is being reworked and is in a WIP state right now.
Most existing topics remain and new are being added, and we are adding a new default User Manual navigation page software.primefocusworld.com/sof … ntents.php which is now just a long list of topics. You can switch between the two views using the links on top of both pages.
RENDERING AND RENDER ELEMENTS
*Added Krakatoa Render Elements to the Render Elements tab of the 3ds Max Render Dialog:
**Currently there are three types of Render Elements that can be configured to output various types of data:
***KrakatoaRendererElement - outputs data calculated by the renderer. Currently outputs last light’s Lighting and Shadow data and world space MatteZDepth pass from the matte geometry.
***KrakatoaShaderElement - outputs data calculated by the shader. Currently only Phong Surface - Specular and Diffuse. More to come in the future.
***KrakatoaDataElement - outputs arbitrary data available at render time via a custom MagmaFlow.
*Added buttons for adding and removing Shader Render Elements from the Shader Parameters Rollout.
SHADOWS ON GEOMETRY
*The Krakatoa Shadows Generator in Beta 3 was not updating the Attenuation Maps if the scene had no animated objects (not counting Cameras). This is an old optimization from 3D Studio DOS days to allow fast rendering if lights and geometry are no animated by caching the shadow maps. This has been fixed.
*Krakatoa Shadows Generator in Beta 3 was performing out-of-order checks which could cause error messages in some cases. This has been removed, trusting the sorting to have produced correct order anyway.
*Krakatoa Shadow Generator was enhanced to support two paths:
**The Save Path can be absolute or can be defined using $renderdir and $objectname as placeholders for the current Render Output path and Light name.
**The Load Path will be absolute and can be set either manually or automatically whenever the save path is written to. An Auto Update On Save option controls whether the path will be dynamically update to the latest saved EXR or frozen at the specified path.
*Added a Krakatoa Shadows Manipulator which can be used to visualize the Sampling Ranges and manipulate them directly in the viewports.
*Added an option to use Exponential Sample Spacing (default is on) or the old Linear Spacing. Exponential produces better results with low Sample Count.
MAGMAFLOW
*When opening from KrakatoaDataElement, the Input Node Channel List will contain the Lighting channel.
*Output node will default to “RenderElement” channel when used in a KrakatoaDataElement.
*Added pan and zoom info to Output nodes. When switching BlackOps editing levels up and down, each level will remember its pan and zoom settings.
SCHEMATIC FLOW
*Added display of Render Elements. Right-click menu can be used to toggle all Render Elements on and off or toggle individual Render Elements on and off.
*Added option to open Render Elements dialog from the RCmenu of the Render Elements.
USER INTERFACE
*Added buttons to the Main Controls rollout and bottom VFB Extended panel to open the Log Window.
*When an object is added to a Matte NSS group, it is also marked in its user properties. This lets Krakatoa restore NSS after a merge of objects that have this property set.
*Expanded the Preferences dialog to a Floater with 3 rollouts: System, UI and Color Preferences.
*Added options to open Common and Render Element tabs from the RENDER button RC menu in Main Controls rollout.
*Added new Camera and FumeFX Modifier MacroScripts and exposed them to the Krakatoa Menu.
*Added Preferences for behaviors when restoring paths on switching the renderer.
*Changed the Camera Modifier to default to DOF f-stop override and added arrow icons.
*Added Preferences for the behavior when creating a PRT Volume - source geometry can be left untouched, switched to bbox, bbox and non-renderable, just not-renderable, or hidden.
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KNOWN ISSUES[/size]
*Render Elements don’t like the PCache right now - rendering with PCache on will produce incorrect results in the Render Elements buffers. This has been logged as a bug.
*Render Elements cannot be generated in Iterative mode.
*Adding a KrakatoaDataElement and rendering without opening the MagmaFlow editor will cause a crash before the Final Pass. This has been logged as a bug and will be fixed in the next build.
*Adding a KrakatoaRendererElement, setting it to MatteZDepth and trying to render with >Use Matte Objects unchecked causes the renderer to hang before the Final Pass. This has been logged as a bug and will be fixed in the next build.
*REGRESSION: Support for the Vol.Select modifier is somewhat broken again. To work around, enable “Use Soft Selection” and set Falloff to 0.
*Saving Attenuation Maps currently expects the output path to exist. In the future, it will be created if it does not exist. There is an option to make the Save Paths in the Krakatoa Shadows Explorer that can be used as a temp. workaround.
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