Krakatoa User Manual
Last Updated: 2010/09/08 as of Build 43192
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Offline Documentation Download
- This document can be downloaded for offline reading in Compiled HTML (CHM) Help Format.
- If you are still using Krakatoa v1.5.x, you can download the Krakatoa v1.5.1 Documentation in Compiled HTML (CHM) Help Format
Getting Started
Quick Start
This chapter provides a short list of steps to perform to quickly start using the basic functionality of Krakatoa. Nevertheless, it is recommended to read the rest of the documentation before using Krakatoa in production.
Introduction and Setup
This chapter will introduce you to the Krakatoa Particle Rendering and Manipulation Toolkit and
provides step-by-step installation and configuring guidance for both the Licensed product and the Evaluation version.
Quick Overview of Major Krakatoa Features
This topic discusses the major features of Krakatoa without going into technical details. It is a useful read if you want to know what Krakatoa can do before you start learning the precise workflows.
Using Krakatoa
3ds Max Integration
The chapter discusses the components of 3ds Max supported by Krakatoa, including objects, lights, cameras and materials.
Particle Sources
The chapter discusses the various particle data sources supported by Krakatoa for both rendering and saving to particle sequences.
Particle Workflows
The chapter discusses the saving, loading, deforming, culling and re-processing of particles.
Rendering In Krakatoa
The chapter discusses the various particle sources used by Krakatoa, the Volumetric rendering in Particle and Voxel mode, the available Shaders, Camera effects like Motion Blur and Depth Of Field, the integration with other renderers via Matte Objects and Deep Opacity Map Shadow Generation as well as the Iterative and Relighting techniques available in Krakatoa.
Learning Krakatoa
Tutorials
This chapter provides a number of tutorials covering various Krakatoa workflows.
Frequently Asked Questions
This chapter provides questions and answers taken from the Krakatoa Support Forums and other internet forums.
Resources And Examples
External Krakatoa Resources
This topic contains links to external resources related to Krakatoa including videos, articles and plug-ins.
Work In Progress Examples Gallery
This page contains various tests and examples produced by Beta testers during the development of Krakatoa.
Krakatoa User Reference
Krakatoa User Interface
The chapter discusses the various User Interface elements of Krakatoa - Floaters, Dialogs, Toolbars and Menus. It also covers the customization of the User Interface including the startup and user defaults systems.
Krakatoa Objects
The chapter discusses the special geometry objects provided by Krakatoa: The PRT Loader that can be used to load PRT, CSV and RealFlow BIN particle data files from disk, and the PRT Volume that can be used to convert geometry objects to particle volumes.
Krakatoa Modifiers
The chapter discusses the dedicated modifiers provided by Krakatoa to modify particle channels, delete particles, control the settings of cameras and source objects and apply skinning to particles.
Krakatoa Materials And Maps
This chapter discusses the support of standard 3ds Max Materials and Maps as well as the dedicated Krakatoa Material applicable only to Krakatoa particle objects (PRT Loaders and PRT Volumes).
Krakatoa Magma - Particle Data Channel Editing
The chapter discusses the node-based MagmaFlow Editor used to create and modify particle data channels.
Krakatoa Render Elements
The chapter discusses the Krakatoa-specific Render Element types which can be used to output shader, particle data channels and internal renderer data as additional rendered images.
Krakatoa Particle Flow Operators
The chapter covers the operators Krakatoa adds to Particle Flow to allow the loading of particle files, control the saving of custom channels and accelerate the interaction with geometry objects.
Particle File Format Specifications
The chapter deals with the various particle file formats supported by Krakatoa and provides specifications of the PRT and CSV formats which are open to 3rd parties to read and write. It also provides guidelines for the naming of arbitrary particle data channel.
Krakatoa and MAXScript
Krakatoa for 3ds Max is tightly integrated with MAXScript, the scripting language of the host application. Large portions of the Krakatoa User Interface have been implemented using MAXScript, and it is possible for 3rd parties to access Krakatoa settings and modify the existing scripts to enhance Krakatoa and better integrate into their pipelines, as well as to read and write particle data using MAXScript. The chapter documents the major script interfaces exposed by Krakatoa.
Interoperability with Other 3ds Max Plugins and 3rd Party Applications
The chapter discusses the ability of Krakatoa to integrate with other 3ds Max plugins and with external applications.
Release History
Release History And Release Notes
This chapter contains descriptions of the changes to Krakatoa and well as lists of new features and bug fixes added to Beta builds.