Cameras and Lights Supported by Krakatoa

Cameras

3ds Max Camera

• Standard 3ds Max cameras are supported, including
  • Field Of View
  • Perspective/Orthographic Projection Mode
  • Near and Far Clipping Planes
  • Target Distance for Depth Of Field Focal Depth control.
  • Motion Blur Multi-Pass effect can be used as alternative to the Krakatoa native Motion Blur effect. It would be slower to calculate, but would take into account deformations of matte objects which are currently not supported natively.
• The Krakatoa Camera Modifier can be used to override and extend the Camera settings:
  • Optional Sub-Pixel offset for fine-tuning the projection alignment to other 3rd party renderers.
  • Optional Lens Type override supports:
  • Perspective Lens
  • Ortho Lens
  • Spherical Lens (default) - supported in Particle Rendering Mode. Unsupported in Voxel Mode!
  • Optional Field Of View value override supports up to 360 degrees for Spherical lenses.
  • Optional Focal Depth value override can be used to specify a focal depth different from the target distance of the Camera.
  • Optional Depth Of Field f-stop value must be used to specify the f-stop value in 3ds Max Standard Cameras.

NOTE: In Krakatoa 1.0.x, the mental ray Depth Of Field multi-pass effect was used to provide the f-stop value. Support for this feature has been removed. You HAVE TO use the Krakatoa Camera Modifier for specify the f-stop.

Orthographic Views

• 3ds Max Orthographic views (Top, Front, Back, Left, Right, Bottom, User) are supported, but not recommended.

WARNING: Clipping Planes might be incorrect when rendering orthographic views!

Brazil r/s 1.x Camera

• Perspective, Orthographic and Spherical lenses are supported in Particle Rendering Mode.
• Perspective and Orthographic lenses are supported in Voxel Rendering Mode. Spherical is NOT supported in Voxel Mode!
• f-stop parameter is supported directly by the Krakatoa Depth of Field effect.

Brazil r/s 2.x Camera

• Perspective, Orthographic and Spherical lenses are supported in Particle Rendering Mode.
• Perspective and Orthographic are supported in Voxel Rendering Mode. Spherical is NOT supported in Voxel Mode!
• The Krakatoa Depth of Field effect supports the following Brazil Camera properties:
• The DOF ON parameter can be used to toggle DOF on and off.
• The f-stop parameter can be used to specify the f-stop value
• The Focal Distance parameter can be used to specify the focal distance.

V-Ray Camera

• The following V-Ray Physical Camera parameters are currently supported by Krakatoa:
  • Film Gate
  • Focal Length
  • Zoom Factor
  • Distortion and Distortion Type
  • Specify Focus and Focus Distance
  • Spotlight Views
  • Rendering from Spotlight viewports is supported.

NOTE: The Krakatoa Camera Modifier can be added to Spotlights to provide additional settings for lens type and FOV, DOF Focal Depth and f-stop, and sub-pixel offset.

Lights

Supported Parameters Of All Lights

• The following 3ds Max Lights parameters are being used by Krakatoa:
  • On - when unchecked, the light will not illuminate the scene.
  • Shadows On - when checked, the light will cast shadows from Matte Objects onto particles.
    • NOTE that all lights always cast shadows from particles onto particles in Krakatoa!
  • Multiplier - boosts the intensity of the light
  • Color - defines the color of the light
  • Decay (None, Inverse, Inverse Square) - defines the light decay over distance.
  • Near and Far Attenuation Start and End - define where the light starts and ends illuminating.
  • Shadow Map Size - will be used to determine the size of the attenuation map. If no shadow map can be acquired from the light, a default size of 512 will be used.
  • Shadow Density - modulates the particle density per light in addition to the global particle density settings in Krakatoa GUI. Setting this value to 0.0 effectively disables the shadows.

Omni

• Both Omni and mr Area Omni lights are supported in Particle Rendering Mode with the above parameters and the following differences:
  • The attenuation map of the Omni light will be calculated as a cube-face map covering the complete 360 degrees of a spherical projection. When this map is saved for shadow reprojection, it is converted into a latitude-longitude map.
  • Omni Lights are NOT supported at all in Voxel Rendering Mode!

Spot

• Both Free Spot and Targeted Spot as well as the mr Area Spot lights are supported with the following differences:
  • Circle/Rectangle Cone Type is supported.
  • Rectangle Cone Aspect is supported.
  • The attenuation map of the Spot light will be calculated as a single rectangular map taking into account the spot light’s Cone Type and Aspect.
  • The Overshoot option will NOT be respected, this means that particles will be illuminated and shadows will be cast only within the cone of the light regardless of the Overshoot parameter’s state.
  • Hotspot and Falloff properties will be used to calculate a soft edge between the lit and unlit area regardless of the Overshoot setting.

Directional

• Both Free Direct and Targeted Direct lights are supported with the following differences:
  • Circle/Rectangle Cone Type is supported.
  • Rectangle Cone Aspect is supported.
  • The attenuation map of the Direct light will be calculated as a single rectangular map taking into account the light’s Cone Type and Aspect.
  • The Overshoot option will NOT be respected, this means that particles will be illuminated and shadows will be cast only within the cone of the light regardless of the Overshoot parameter’s state.
  • Hotspot and Falloff properties will be used to calculate a soft edge between the lit and unlit area regardless of the Overshoot setting.

Photometric Lights

• Photometric lights are currently supported as simple point/spot lights.The following properties can be used:
• Distribution
  • Isotropic - the light will be used as a point light (omni)
  • Spot - the light will be used as a spot light
  • Web distribution is NOT supported yet. If Web Distribution is selected, the light will be rendered with isotropic distribution instead.
  • Color (preset, Kelvin, Filter Color)
  • Intensity (lm, cd, lx at)
  • Multiplier
  • Shadow Density
  • Shadow Map Size - if the shadow type is not set to Shadow Map, a default Shadow Map size of 512 will be assumed.

Default lighting

• Default Lights are NOT supported by Krakatoa MX!
  • If no lights are found in the scene, all particles will render black unless >Use Emission is enabled and a valid Emission channel is supplied either via Material, local or global KCM or Emission Override.
  • You have to create AT LEAST ONE light to render in Voxel Mode.