Previous Topic (Depth of Field) Up (Contents) Next Topic (Ambient PME Feature)

Cameras and Lights Supported by Krakatoa

Cameras

3ds Max Camera

Standard 3ds Max cameras are fully 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.
  • New in version 1.1.0: 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)
    • 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. 
 WARNING: Clipping Planes might be incorrect when rendering orthographic views!

Brazil r/s 1.x Camera

  • Perspective, Orthographic and Spherical lenses are supported.
  • 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.
  • New in version 1.1.0: The Krakatoa Depth of Field effect supports the following 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. (v.1.0.1)
  • 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 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.

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!

  • By default, all particles will render as self-illuminated (unless a non-self illuminated material is assigned to them).
  • If no Self-Illuminated material is assigned and the >Use Lighting is turned on without any explicit lights in the scene, the particles will render black.