MagmaFlow - Krakatoa Particle Channels Editor

 Available in Krakatoa 1.5.0 and higher

Introduction

• The MagmaFlow Editor is a node-based environment for designing custom Flows hosted by a Krakatoa Channels Modifier.
• The Krakatoa Channels Modifier (KCM for short) lets you create, load and perform mathematical operations on data channels of PRT Loaders and PRT Volumes in the viewport and at render time.
• KCMs can also be applied globally at render time to all loaded particles regardless of their source using the Global Channel Override Sets managed through the Global Render Values rollout.
• The MagmaFlow Editor uses the free Helium Schematic Control available from www.lumonix.net which is installed as part of the Krakatoa installation process.

Overview

• The MagmaFlow Editor is implemented as a floating dialog containing
  • a Main Menu bar,
  • a Schematic Control area for creating and connecting nodes,
  • a Command Panel on the right side displaying the editable properties of nodes,
  • several View Navigation and Undo buttons in the bottom right corner,
  • a Debug Window at the bottom.
• The dialog can be minimized and maximized, resized and closed using the typical Windows controls.
• The dialog will remember its last position and size between sessions.

Using the MagmaFlow Editor

Tutorial

• Introduction to MagmaFlow

Reference

• Default Node Colors
• List of Node Types
• Node Creation Workflows
• Using The Node Depot
• Editor Navigation And Node Editing
• Manual And Auto Updates
• Exposing Inputs To The Modifier's UI
• Main Menu Options
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Display Options Rollout
• BlackOp Compound Nodes
• Examples of MagmaFlows
• Performance Benchmarks

Known Limitations

• There is no Script Operator implementation because it would be too slow to evaluate once per particle when using millions of particles. The Input Script evaluates just once for all particles and is thus much faster.
• Time Values are not supported yet. All operations are performed at the current time of the scene/renderer and there is no way to query particle data from other frames than the current one.
• The Vector controller used by an Input Value node MUST contain three sub-controllers. Manually assigning a single controller without sub-controllers will cause problems. You can assign single custom controllers to the existing sub-tracks though.
• Connections to scene nodes will be lost when saving a flow to disk as a .KMF (Krakatoa Magma Flow) file. The connections will be preserved if the .MAX file containing the KCM is saved.