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Krakatoa beta 7 is now available

Deprecated Krakatoa MX Beta Builds
#1

Krakatoa beta 7 is now available.

[EDIT] Krakatoa beta 7 has been temporarily withheld.  It appears we included outdated DLLs in the installer, and behavior will be inconsistent or broken in certain versions.

In this build, we have enabled Depth of Field.  Also, the GUI contains several workflow enhancements and new intelligent behaviors.  There are several major bug fixes.

Details will follow in subsequent posts.

 

#2

Note:  We have dropped support for 3ds Max 6 and 7 in the current beta release.  If this impacts any beta tester, please let us know.

#3

Changes from Beta Build 0.9.6 to 0.9.7 (as of January 24th, 2007)

LOG WINDOW (NEW!)

  • The Log Window will be used from now on to output different feedback info from Krakatoa instead of printing to the MAXScript Listener.
  • The Log Window can be opened automatically on output or manually via a button in the Preferences rollout and dedicated MacroScript.
  • The output can be filtered in several levels:
    • None
    • Errors
    • Warnings
    • Progress
    • Statistics
    • Debug
  • The full output of the log file is currently saved in the Max root folder (until a Krakatoa home directory is exposed).

DEPTH OF FIELD

  • Krakatoa's Native Depth Of Field is now enabled for Max and Brazil cameras.
    • In a Max camera, add a "Depth Of Field mental ray" multipass effect and enable it. Set the F-Stop value.
    • In a Brazil camera, check Depth Of Field, set Focus Distance and F-Stop.
    • DOF Sample Rate controls the quality of the effect, 1.0 is low, 5.0 is nice, 10.0 is smooth but slow.

NOTE: The [>Enable Depth of Field] button is currently disabled. To enable/disable DOF, just toggle it in the Camera.

HISTORY ROLLOUT

  • When a Preset or History is selected in the Left column of the Comparison dialog, pressing "Load Preset" or "Load From History" will position the drop-down list in the load dialog to the same file.
  • New [Scroll Lock] button lets the user lock the relative offset of the left and right lists and scroll both at the same time to compare consecutive renders.
  • Default setting for right list is now also History.
  • New "Compare Images in RAM Player" button allows the history samples to be compared using A|B mode.
  • Delete Preset/Thumbnail buttons moved above the image samples to avoid clicking them when opening RAM Player.
#4

Changes (continued)

MAIN CONTROLS ROLLOUT

  • The [...] button for selecting the Save File Name is always enabled. If a valid file is selected, the Particle Render Mode will be set automatically to "Save Particles To File Sequence".
  • Replaced the >PFlow None option with >Other Particles which enables rendering of any particle systems implementing the IParticleObjectExt Interface.
  • Changed the name ">Specular Highlights" to ">Use Normals"
  • Changed the name "Render Pass" to "Final Pass"
  • When >Use Lighting is OFF, the ">Use Final Pass Density For Lighting Pass" button is disabled.
  • Moved the [...] button of the save file name field to the left, the [E] button to the right as it is more logical: pick->see->explore.
  • New advanced file saving controls with the option to revert to the Simple form from earlier builds.  (Note: Turn off >Simple File Controls to access new Advanced file settings.)
  • Advanced mode provides
    • The old full path field with the addition of the [H] History button to show any paths used previously to save particles to.
    • Separate fields for Base (Root) Path, Project directory name, Sequence directory name, Take directory name and PRT file name.
    • Each field has its own [H] History button to use previously created paths.
    • Each field except for the file name has an [E] button to open the Windows Explorer to the given level
    • The Take field provides 3 buttons for incrementing the take by 1, 10 or 100.
    • The Take field supports ANY take name that finishes with at least one digit.
    • If nothing is entered for the Take, no take folder will be used.
    • The File Name provides an [M] button to set to the Max File Name.
    • If no name is entered or the Max File Name is Untitled and the [M] button is pressed, the default name particles_.prt will be used.
    • Each time the path is changed, a prompt will ask about creating the path if it does not exist.
  • Right-clicking the QUICK RENDER / SAVE PARTICLES button will now open the Render Scene Dialog.
  • NOTE: A new [> Enable Motion Blur] option was added but not hooked up yet. It is disabled for now and will be used in future builds toggle motion blur off without changing the Segments value to 0.
  • When rendering Geometry Vertices, Shapes will be considered geometry only if the Enable in Renderer is checked.
    • If Enable in Renderer is checked but Enable in Viewport is not, the Knots of the spline will be rendered.
    • If both Enable in Renderer and Enable in Viewport are checked, the Vertices of the cross-section mesh will be rendered, respecting the Radial/Rectangular settings.

PARTITIONS AND DEADLINE

  • New [>>] buttons added next to the Job Name and Comment fields. When pressed, a context menu will provide options to fill in the field with max file name, project/sequence/take or default comment.
  • Same menu lets the user specify the default content of these text fields when Krakatoa GUI is opened.
#5

Changes (continued)

PARTICLE SYSTEMS ROLLOUT (NEW!)

  • This rollout is similar to the Particle Loaders management area, but is dedicated to all other particle sources incl. PFlows, Geometry Vertices, Thinking Particles, Max Legacy Particles etc.
  • Features include
    • synching scene selection
    • displaying all sources or just one category
    • displaying only categories enabled for rendering/saving
    • Showing the Hidden / Visible state as -- or +
    • Showing the name and number of particles in the source
    • Buttons to select/deselect and invert the selection
    • Buttons to hide/unhide and select the hidden sources
    • Callbacks to update the list when objects are created, deleted, hidden, unhidden etc.
    • Respects the Matte Objects Named Selection Sets, showing only non-matte geometry

PARTICLE LOADERS

  • Switched the GUI dependency - Viewport settings are now dependent on the Render settings
    • Viewport Loading mode can use the Render Mode or use its own.
    • Colors Loading mode can use the Render Mode or use its own.
    • Viewport Percentage is a FRACTION of the Render Percentage and defaults to 1%
  • Render Percentage is 100% and the only animatable parameter of the bunch.
  • Render Load Mode is set to "First N Particles" as it is faster in the viewports.
  • Enable in Render and Enable in Viewport are independent.
  • Limits are unchecked by default for both Render and Viewport.
  • The File List now allows multiple selections for easier removal of multiple files.
  • Added new checkbox "Load Particle Densities" (not working yet). Densities are saved to the PRT file, so there should be an option to load from file or use from the node's material opacity. If both material and load from file are enabled, the material will modulate the saved densities.
  • Loader Icon is now drawn as wireframe regardless of viewport shading level.
  • Particle size is now set to small dot. In SZB, it draws as a single dot. In DirectX it is 2x2 like PFlow's dots. This is to test the new mode, we will add a selector for small, large dots and lines later.
  • The Particle Loaders rollout of the Krakatoa GUI will show the actual percent in the viewport in addition to the fraction percent.
  • Added buttons to Enable/Disable Viewport and Render Limits in the "Mass-Changing Utilities" section of the Particle Loaders rollout. Also switched the order of the columns here - Render left, Viewport right - to reflect the changes to the PRT Loader UI.
  • Added spinner and button to change the Viewport % value of selected loaders.

MATTE OBJECTS

  • Added a class filter to the Create/Update Matte Selection Set feature to avoid adding non-geometry objects as matte objects to a named selection set.
  • Added [E]xplore button next to the load from disk field.
  • Moved the matte object loading/saving controls to the bottom as they are the second option in the drop-down list too.
  • Regrouped the controls in two separate groups for Loading Matte Object Files and Saving them.
  • Moved the [...] button to the left, the [E] button to the right as it is more logical: pick->see->explore.
#6

Changes (continued)

GUI PREFERENCES (NEW!)

  • Added a Preferences rollout to allow users to customize the behavior of certain advanced features.
  • Added control over the changing of Lighting and Post-Divide By Alpha settings when switching to/from Blended color modes. Options include
    • warning and changing,
    • changing without warning
    • not changing.
  • Added control over the Partitions rollout open/close when switching to/from Save Particles to File Sequence. Options include
    • Open and close when switching the render mode
    • Open when switching to Save mode, do not close when switching back to Render mode
    • Do not open when switching to Save mode, close when switching to Render mode
    • Do not open or close when switching the render mode
  • Added control over the Particle Loaders creation behavior. Options include:
    • Open File Dialog after Loader Creation
    • Do not Open File Dialog after Loader Creation
  • Added preset buttons to switch to Beginner (or Lazy User?), Advanced and Expert mode.
  • Added an option to automatically or manually increase the System Limit of PFlows to 10 million.

MAJOR BUG FIXES:

  • Particle Loaders can now be used when saving PRT to disk, except when saving to a file already used by a loader (no recursive saving!)
  • Particle Loaders hit testing is now enabled for both the icon and particles.
  • Particle Loaders do not cause an error when rendering in Blended Z Depth or Blended Camera Distance color mode.
  • Particle Loaders now correctly scale density using the visibility controller.
  • Fixed Specular Highlight which was overblown - it was scaled 100x as the UI was sticking to 3ds Max values, while the code was using 0-1 range internally.
  • Matte Objects Named Selection Sets are now correctly filtered for renderable geometry by the renderer.

MISC:

  • Created a Krakatoa MacroScript to toggle the Scripted GUI on/off from the Max UI. This allows the Krakatoa GUI to be accessible via keyboard shortcuts, QuadMenus, Menus and Toolbar buttons. The script can be found in the "Krakatoa" category of the 3ds Max "Customize User Interface" dialog.
  • If Krakatoa is not the current renderer, the MacroScript will prompt the user about setting Krakatoa as the current renderer.
  • Created two other MacroScripts to toggle the Log Window on/off and to Toggle Auto-Open on Output behavior of the Log Window.
  • Created icons for all MacroScripts featuring the Krakatoa volcano.

NOTE: The icons are currently NOT copied to the UI/Icons folder of 3ds Max when installing, please copy them there manually until the Installer gets fixed.

#7

We have temporarily withdrawn build 0.9.7 due to an installer problem.

Incorrect versions of the DLLs were inadvertently included in this installer.  Functionality may be inconsistent or broken in certain versions.

We will post an updated build as soon as possible.

If you have downloaded 0.9.7, we suggest reverting to build 0.9.6.

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