Krakatoa MY Modifiers Editor¶

Introduction ¶

Krakatoa MY implements a channel modifiers system using native Krakatoa nodes connected to the Maya Particle Sources which are applied by the renderer to the particle data channels.
The Krakatoa Modifiers Editor provides a centralized interface for adding, removing, reordering and toggling channel modifiers.
To launch the Modifiers Editor, press the MOD icon on the Krakatoa shelf:

Press this button to refresh the list of Particle Sources.
The list will be updated automatically when the tool is first opened, but if you created/delete particle objects or loaded a new scene, pressing the button will allow you to refresh the list without restarting the tool.

The list displays all valid Krakatoa particle sources in the current scene, including Maya Particles and nParticles, PRT Loaders, PRT Volumes and PRT Fractals.
If one of the valid sources is selected in the scene, it will be also selected on the list when the tool is first opened.
Selecting an object name on the list will also select it in the scene / show its parameters in the Attribute Editor.
This is useful for fast navigation through the channel modifiers of all particle sources in the scene without using the Outliner or clicking in the viewport to select them.

Pressing this button will connect a new Magma modifier node to the selected Particle Source.
The Magma modifier allows complex channel editing operations using a dedicated node-based User Interface.

Pressing this button will connect a new Repopulate Particles modifier node to the currently selected Particle Source.
The Repopulate Particles modifier lets you increase the number of particles by seeing new ones in a grid based on the channels and influence of the source particles.

Pressing this button will connect a new Apply Texture modifier node to the currently selected Particle Source.
The Apply Texture modifier lets you evaluate a Maya 2D or 3D texture node for every particle and set a user-defined vector channel to the resulting RGB output.

Pressing this button will connect a new Copy Channel modifier node to the currently selected Particle Source.
The Copy Channel modifier lets you copy an existing float or vector channel into a new or existing float or vector channel.

Pressing this button will connect a new Scale Channel modifier node to the currently selected Particle Source.
The Scale Channel modifier lets you scale an existing float or vector channel by a float value.

Pressing this button will connect a new Set Float Channel modifier node to the currently selected Particle Source.
The Set Float Channel modifier lets you create and set a new float channel, or set an existing float channel to the same value for all particles.

Pressing this button will connect a new Set Vector Channel modifier node to the currently selected Particle Source.
The Set Vector Channel modifier lets you create and set a new vector channel, or set an existing vector channel to the same value for all particles.

The modifiers list displays the Krakatoa modifier nodes connected to the object selected on the Particle Sources list.
The list displays a + sign when the modifier is active, and a – when it is turned off.
To toggle a modifier on or off, double-click the line in the list.
The line contains the name of the modifier and the values of the major attributes like channel names and values to set or scale by etc.

These 4 buttons can be used to reorder the modifiers to change their evaluation order.
The modifiers are evaluated from top to bottom.
In other words, if you want to first set a channel, then scale it and then copy it, the modifiers must be added in this oder.
If you need to move one of them on the list, highlight it and press the corresponding button.

Pressing this button will delete the currently highlighted modifier by removing the corresponding Extra Attributes from the Particle Source object highlighted on the top list.