Save Particles Rollout¶

Available in: Krakatoa v1.1.0 and higher.

Simple Save Path Controls
Detailed Save Path Controls
After a Partition is saved Action
Particle Channels To Save To Disk
- Channel Presets menu
Save Lighting As Emission
- >Calculate Lighting And Copy Lighting Channel Into Emission Channel When Saving
Edit Custom Save Channels
SEE ALSO

../../../_images/krakatoa_save_particles.png

Simple Save Path Controls ¶

The Simple Save Path Controls provide a single field for specifying the path and file name to save particles to:
- The folder icon 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”.
- The Path field can be used to specify the complete output path for saving.
  - You can type into it, paste an existing path from Windows Explorer or other sources etc.
- Each time the path is changed, a prompt will ask about creating the path if it does not exist yet.
  - If an attempt to create the path has been requested and has failed, the path will be reverted back to the last known good path to avoid specifying a non-existing and non-creatable path.
- The History icon to the left of the folder icon will open the Krakatoa Save File History dialog which will scan all History records from previous saving operations and let you select any paths used previously to save particles to.

Detailed Save Path Controls ¶

The Detailed Save Path Controls provide an alternative representation of the path and file name to save particles to. Krakatoa will automatically split the single path into multiple elements incl. a Root path, a Project name, a Sequence name, a Version (Take) name and the File Name and Extension, allowing you to quickly change any of them without dealing with the complete path. Entering data in any of the separate fields will update the full path field and vice-versa.
Each field has its own History (cabinet) icon to select a previously created path to fill in the desired portion of the current path via the Krakatoa Save File History dialog.
Each field except for the File name has an Explore (magnifying glass) icon to open the Windows Explorer at the given level.
The Take field supports ANY version name that finishes with at least one digit.

For example, “tk123”, “v001”, “take2”, “version321”, “42” are all valid Take numbers.

The Take field provides 3 buttons for incrementing the take number:
- i+ increments the take number by 1 (version increment)
- m+ increments the take number by 10 (minor revision)
- M+ increments the take number by 100 (major revision)
If nothing is entered for the Take, no take folder will be used.
Pressing the [.prt], [.csv] and [.bin] buttons next to the File name will change the extension and thus the save file type without changing the rest of the path.
- Saving to RealFlow4 Particle BIN files requires 5 trailing digits for the file name to be correctly recognized by RealFlow and its various importers into other 3D applications. By default, if no trailing digits are specified in the file name field, Krakatoa will add 4 digits. Note that Krakatoa can handle any number of trailing digits and does not assume a sequence would have a specific number of digits, thus it is ok to save BIN files with 4 or less digits - they would load in PRT Loaders and PFlow Operators, but would be unusable in RealFlow itself. Thus, Krakatoa will warn you by default about this 5 digits requirement of RealFlow and propose to fix the name by adding as many trailing zeros to the file name as necessary.
This behavior can be customized via the Preferences rollout - there are 3 different options:
- Warn and propose to fix
- Fix without warning
- Do nothing
The File Name provides an [M] button - press it to set the particle file name to the current 3ds 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.

After a Partition is saved Action ¶

Available in: Krakatoa v1.1.0 and higher; v1.1.2 and higher

Krakatoa v1.1.0 introduced the option to specify an alternative (backup) path for the saved particle files when performing Partitioning on the local machine.
Krakatoa v1.1.2 extended the feature to use the same alternative path when performing Partitioning on Deadline.
The action drop-down list provides the following options:
- LEAVE the file sequence at the Save Path listed above - do nothing, this is the behavior of Krakatoa 1.0.x.
- COPY the file sequence to the Backup Path defined below - after a partition has been saved, all files will be copied to the specified backup path.
- MOVE the file sequence to the Backup Path defined below - after a partition has been saved, all files will be moved to the specified backup path.
If a file cannot be copied/moved to the Backup Path for some reason (for example network connection is down, drive is full etc.), the files will be left at the primary Save Path location. Thus, it is advisable to use this feature by setting the Save Path to a local folder on the machine performing the partitioning, and specify the backup path on a network drive.
If the Partitioning operation has been canceled by the user, a prompt will appear asking about copying/moving the files saved so far. You can select to either keep the files at the Save Path or perform the copy/move operation.
The Root field corresponds to the Root field in the Save Path controls.
The Project, Sequence and Take components of the Detailed Save Path will be used together with the Backup Root to create the full Backup Path. Thus, changing the Project, Sequence or Take in the Save Path will automatically mirror the changes in the Backup Path without additional user intervention!
You can either use the Folder icon to pick an existing directory or enter the root path manually.
If the entered Root path does not exist, the field will be reverted back to the last known good root entry or empty string.
The full Backup Path will NOT be created automatically at the moment of definition but by the Partitioning feature at the moment of copying/moving files. Thus, the Explore icon next to the Backup Path field will only work after a Partitioning operation with copy/move action.
The Explore icon next to the Backup Root path can be pressed to open the current Root (if available) in a Windows Explorer.
The Backup Path field itself will always be grayed out because it cannot be edited by hand.

Particle Channels To Save To Disk ¶

Available in: Krakatoa v1.0.1 and higher.

../../../_images/krakatoa15_particle_channels_customchannel.png

Krakatoa can save to disk most particle channels provided by Particle Flow and other particle sources, thus allowing the use of particle files in place of the actual particle systems. This rollout provides control over which channels will be saved to disk and with what precision.
The Do Not Save Channels multilistbox shows all channels currently available but not set to save to disk, including their name and data format.
The Save Channels multilistbox shows all channels currently specified to be saved to disk, including their name and data format.
To move a channel from the one list to the other, double-click it or press the corresponding arrow button between the two lists.
To move multiple channels, select them using the usual Ctrl+Click and Shift+Click or use the All and Invert buttons to change the selection, then use the arrow buttons between the two lists.
To set the data format of one or more channels on the Save Channels list, select the channel or channels and press the 16, 32 or 64 button - the data format of all selected channels will be switched to the given number of bytes per component. The arity of the channel will remain the same.

Note: The Position channel is currently fixed to float32[3] and cannot be changed.

The label in the upper right corner of the rollout displays the total number of bytes per particle.
The left list will contain the typical particle channels. This list is mostly hard-coded, but you can add your own arbitrary channels to the list. See further on this page.
By default, Mapping Channels above 1 (2-99) will not be displayed.
- To show all Mapping Channels, check the >All Mapping Channels option.
- Once a Mapping Channel is moved to the right list, it will remain there even if the option is unchecked.
- Note that Mapping Channel 1 is named TextureCoord.
- The Vertex Color channel is not directly exposed, but if available and if no material is assigned, its content will be copied directly into the Color channel.

Save Lighting As Emission ¶

Available in Krakatoa v1.5.0 and higher

>Calculate Lighting And Copy Lighting Channel Into Emission Channel When Saving ¶

When checked, the Lighting channel will be calculated and copied to the Emission channel of the particles.
- The Emission channel will be added automatically to the list of channels to save if it is not on it yet.
- Krakatoa MUST be switched to Particle Rendering method since the Voxel Rendering does not allocate a Lighting channel!
- When saving particles with this option turned on, the illumination will be calculated for each light using the Particle Rendering Lighting method to provide a valid Lighting channel.

Tip: Since the particles will be sorted relatively to each light when saving, they will be saved according to the sorting of the last light calculated. Thus, if you need particles sorted relatively to the camera, you can simply align a single spotlight to the camera and save the particles with the above option turned on. As result, the particles will be sorted relatively to the light and thus to the camera, too.

Edit Custom Save Channels ¶

Available in Krakatoa v1.5.0 and higher

This group of controls allows the defining of custom named particle channels of any type to be used when saving and also in MagmaFlow Input and Output nodes.
The channels defined here will be stored in an INI file and remain available in later Krakatoa sessions.

(Add) button

Press this button to add a new channel to the list of channels. A valid name must be provided first.

Channel Name field ¶

Use this text field to enter the name of the channel to add.
The name must NOT be a standard channel name (like Position, Velocity etc.) that is already on the list.
If a custom named channel already exists with the given name, its definition will be updated.
You can also select a single existing channel from either Save Channels list - the custom channels are marked with an *asterisk - and the name of the channel will be put into the text field for updating and editing.

Channel Type and Depth drop-down list ¶

This list defines the value type of the channel - float, int, or uint - as well as the depth - 8,16,32 or 64 bit.
You can change the type of an existing custom channel definition by first selecting it from one of the lists, then changing the type list and finally pressing Add to update.

Arity drop-down list ¶

This drop-down list defines the Arity (number of components) of the channel - either 1,2,3 or 4.
You can change the Arity of an existing custom channel definition by first selecting it from one of the lists, then changing the Arity list and finally pressing Add to update.

X (Delete) button ¶

The X button can be used to delete a custom named particle channel from the INI file.
To delete a channel definition, first select it from one of the two lists, then press the [X] button.

Note:

No prompt will be issued when deleting a channel but since the last valid definition will be still set in the text field and the Type and Arity lists, you could undo the deleting by simply pressing Add to define the same channel again.

You cannot delete a hard-coded standard name from the list, only custom definitions marked with *.
You cannot delete multiple channels at once - exactly one custom channel must be selected.