Is it possible to use a PRT birth operator with a PRT loader that has partitions?(5 partitions) I am getting flickering when I add the partitions it works fine when its just one of the sequences . Wasnt sure if this was a limitation or something wrong with the workflow.
Thanks
The PRT Birth operator depends on consistent and unique ID channels to recognize the particles. When a PRT Loader has 5 partitions, each ID exists 5 times, so it might have some troubles telling them apart.
However, I just saved a system with 10 partitions where particles die by age and by collision, and when I created a new PFlow with Krakatoa PRT Birth, Krakatoa PRT Update and Krakatoa File ID Test sending out to Delete, every PFlow particle matched the corresponding PRT Loader particle, and died at exactly the right time…
In Krakatoa 2.6, you can add a Magma modifier to the PRT Loader and use the new PartitionIndex value to add an offset to the ID (InputChannel ID --> Add (InputChannel PartitionIndex * SomeLargeIntegerOffset) --> Output: ID). This way, every particle will have a unique ID. SomeLargeIntegerOffset should be larger than the highest number of particles in a partition.
However, the first thing to check is that you have a valid Krakatoa FileID Test sending out particles to an event with a Delete operator. This is what most users forget to add…
Thanks for the explanation. My saved files dont die or move actually. I am using them just to have the particles position. I think I have the right IDs.
If the particles are not changing over time (no particles moving or dying), then what is the PRT Update for? The PRT Birth will give you the initial position. After that, you don’t really need to update anything IMHO, unless you need other channels like Color etc… If you are seeing flickering, it could be because the order of the particles in the PFlow is changing (sending out particles via the Collision test messes up the internal order of the particles, and if the IDs are not unique, it gets confusing).
If you have 5 partitions, the same IDs will repeat 5 times. Assuming the frame you showed has about 2000 particles, there must be about 400 particles in 5 partitions. So if you scroll down the Particle Data Viewer, after the first about 400 particles you should start seeing 0,1,2,3… again. If you are seeing a problem with flickering, try the Magma I proposed and see if it changes anything.
