hey guys, i am doing some bin caching to sequence from xparticles and im running into problems…when i cache and render to picture viewer, i can bring in the files and they line up with my cams/lights no problem…but, when i do it with the batch renderer, they either a) dont show up or b) are int he wrong spot…any way to check or fix this, or is this a known problem? thanks!
Hi Ben, we will take a look at the issue. Do you have a simple scene that can demonstrate the problem? Or if not, can you provide instructions on how to set one up?
My first guess is that the batch rendering is “jumping” to a certain frame within the X-particles simulation, and is therefore not properly simulating the frames before it. I will attempt to reproduce it.
yeah im having mega problems now caching to picture viewer…when i cache to bin or prt, it writes the same file to my disk and here is the output from the terminal:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.570s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.570s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.004s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.004s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.451s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.451s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.433s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.433s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.262s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.262s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.338s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.338s
Krakatoa: [ERROR] cvt_channel_accessor() - Cannot convert channel: “Spin” from type: float32[3] to float32[4] due to differing arity
[Krakatoa | INFO] Render cancelled
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.379s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.379s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.001s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.001s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.357s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.357s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.001s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.001s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.385s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.385s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.340s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.340s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.282s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.282s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.004s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.004s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.357s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.357s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.355s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.355s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.393s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.393s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.552s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.552s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.557s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.557s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.551s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.551s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.397s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.397s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.289s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.289s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.001s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.001s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.335s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.335s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.003s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.003s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.358s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.358s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.300s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.300s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.317s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.317s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Retrieving Particles”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.002s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.002s
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total number of particles to be rendered: 0
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total Memory Allocated to particles: 0 bytes
[Krakatoa | STAT] Particle file written: /Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot02_FeathersPRT_v01/Shot02_Feathers_v01_0480.bin
[Krakatoa | STAT] Section “Total frame render time”:
[Krakatoa | STAT] Total 00h 00m 00.308s Called 1 times Avg 00h 00m 00.308s
i also got this error, see attached…krakatoa was so reliable with xp 2.5, now with xp3 it has gone down the crapper…what happened?
oh and on top of everything, i did a cache to disk and went to reimport the cache, and i got this error in my console:
[Krakatoa | WARNING] particle_file_istream_factory: The input file “/Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot03_Feathers_v01/Shot03_Feathers_v01_0322.prt” does not exist.
[Krakatoa | WARNING] particle_file_istream_factory: The input file “/Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot03_Feathers_v01/Shot03_Feathers_v01_0347.prt” does not exist.
[Krakatoa | WARNING] particle_file_istream_factory: The input file “/Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot03_Feathers_v01/Shot03_Feathers_v01_0345.prt” does not exist.
[Krakatoa | WARNING] particle_file_istream_factory: The input file “/Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot03_Feathers_v01/Shot03_Feathers_v01_0329.prt” does not exist.
[Krakatoa | WARNING] particle_file_istream_factory: The input file “/Volumes/Cache Drive/XPContest/XP_Caches/Shot03_Feathers_v01/Shot03_Feathers_v01_0327.prt” does not exist.
the files a) def exist and b) shoed a particle output when i cached them in the terminal…again, what the hell is going on…nothing ever works wrong until a deadline comes 
here’s another problem…i cached my particles to bins and reimported into prt loader, but the particles are waaaay off…see screenshot…the object on the right is where all the particles should be connected to…see how far off it is? what the hell did i do wrong?
It looks like the scaling of the BIN files is off - I tested with XP saving as BIN, the scene was set to Centimeters, and when I loaded the BINs with a PRT Loader, they were 100 times smaller. I had to scale the PRT Loader 100 times to get them to align.
We are looking into whether we are reading the BIN metadata incorrectly, or whether XP is saving the data in an unexpected way…
Should I be doing prt files exclusively? The last time I tried to cache to prt I got no output (despite it showing an output of particles in the console), so that’s why I switched…I might change my workflow to cache my particles to disk via xparticle cache objects and bring them in via xp objects, but I’m trying to use the workflow you showed us at nab a few years ago and, well, it’s been a uphill battle…
At this point I am not suggesting any specific workflow. We need a clear list of the individual problems you are having, with exact and detailed explanations of every step, what you expected, and what the actual outcome was.
For example, in my case:
- I created an X-Particles System, added a Cache and baked it to classic BIN files (not 2013 BIN files) using C4D R15.
- I created a PRT Loader at the World Origin 0,0,0, picked one of the BIN files to load the sequence
RESULT: The PRT Loader’s BIN particles were 100x smaller than expected.
EXPECTATION: The PRT Loader’s BIN particles should align to the XP system’s particles.
SOLUTION: I scaled the PRT Loader 100 times along X, Y and Z and it matched the XP particles.
If you can give us similar steps, mentioning every detail (is the Emitter animated? How is it animated? Did you bake using BIN files from XP or from Krakatoa, etc.), we might be able to follow.
Right now, all we know is that you have a bunch of problems, a deadline, and you are in panic mode. But we do not know where to start as we have no simple scene to reproduce (our attempts to reproduce the PRT baking problem produced correct results), and no exact steps to follow.
Please help us so we can help you! 
If if you would find it helpful, we could do a remote screen sharing call and you could take us through the steps that are causing problems.
Also, if you are able, a copy of your scene file would be very helpful in us tracking down the issues you’re experiencing.
We are committed to supporting X-Particles properly, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.
EDIT: I got your email with the uploaded c4d files. Taking a look now.
Ok cool, I didn’t delete my bin cache so if that’s the case I can try to make it work with the cache I have rendered…one of those little gotchas that I didn’t see in the documentation…
And as far as the screen share, I’ll email you guys tonight about setting it up tomorrow if I’m still having problems…but thanks for the quick response, hopefully I’ll have this worked out by tomorrow
I wasn’t really aware of the BIN scaling issue, as I had never saved BINs from XP in C4D. It is now a known bug we are looking into, so thank you for pointing it out!
The fix I found for the particles not caching is to just copy and paste the render settings into a new scene and render from there…when I check the console it shows a particle count, so that helps a bit as well
yeah i need to have a call…i think there are just a ton of xp3.0 bugs that havent been worked out yet…
hey another question…in some scenes I am able to see an output pretty easily (with little tweaking in the settings), and some scenes nothing renders despite having lots of light and a very high density/exponent value (in an attempt to just render something)…any idea what might be causing this to happen?
Sorry to interrupt the last question.
Just had to get some clarification on the XP3 to Krakatoa C4D compatibility and did not want to start a whole new topic since it was mentioned here.
Humbly, Will there be an official Krakatoa C4D supports XP3 note in the forum or general announcement and is there a possible eta on that, if there is? Or should we just send in issues as they come up? I can work through the workarounds currently necessary for xp3 to Kc4d on my project but I have the option to move my timetable of what to work on, if I know a more concrete support for xp3 message is coming sometime soon.
Much thanks for your amazing plugin as always.
We have a bunch of people looking into these issues right now - with both KMX and KMY 2.4 already out, KC4D is on the top of the list of the Krakatoa team. However, we are looking for more clarity…
We are trying to reproduce all the issues being reported. Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes it just works, so we have to get back to the original reporter and figure out the difference between his setup and ours, or try to understand what the problem really is.
Originally we assumed that the mere switch to XP 3.0 caused all problems because KC4D 2.3.1 was not compiled against the XP 3.0 API. But then we tried to reproduce one of the reported problems and it turned out we did not even require the involvement of Krakatoa to reproduce it. I believe we have a plan to introduce some fix that would solve that issue with forcing a pre-roll of XP when a later frame than the first is requested by the renderer, but I will leave this to the developers to describe / implement.
Also Insydium ensured us that any plugin compiled against the XP 2.5 API should work with 3.0 without changes. They also tested Krakatoa C4D 2.3.1 with XP 3.0 and could not find any obvious issues. We are of course going ahead with a recompiled version of Krakatoa C4D (probably 2.4) using the new XP 3.0 API, but I cannot give you an ETA when that build might be available for testing or when it will be released, and I cannot even promise it will magically fix everything.
So at this point we would be very thankful for precise problem descriptions and (if possible) simple sample scenes illustrating the issues. We are having a hard time reproducing some of the problems, or even understanding what the reported issue really is without a detailed step-by-step description. Remember, we are a software company, not a studio using C4D in production - all of us learned C4D while porting Krakatoa to it after all. 
We need all the help we can receive from avid C4D / Krakatoa users to get a clearer picture of what problems exist and how to reproduce them in order to fix them!
Both this forum and our Support Ticket system (email: Support AT Thinkboxsoftware DOT com) are a good way to report issues.
We thank you all in advance for your patience and support!
Thanks so much for the information, much appreciated.
i have been having c4d crashing problems, maxon said all my crashes are being caused by krakatoa…attached are some crash logs, let me know if theres anything that you can fix in the meantime…
crashLogs.zip (253 KB)
bobo one of the problems is that the problems are sporadic…one minute the particles cache, the next they dont…one minute they render, the next they dont…its very difficult to predict when things will work and when there will be problems…once this project is done on the 30th i can send you guys all the scene files, or if you contact me via email again i can send them to you there, i dont want to post them on this public forum until im all done with the job