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Macroscripts

Krakatoa installs a set of MacroScripts to simplify the access to its most important features.

You can use them to customize your user interface toolbars, menus or shortcuts to speed up access to Krakatoa and some of its features.

  • The MacroScripts can be found in the Main Menu > Customize User Interface... > Krakatoa category.


  • The MacroScripts have icons and can be placed on Toolbars, but could also be used in Menus, QuadMenus or assigned to Keyboard Shortcuts.


The MacroScripts provide the following functionality:

  • Toggle Krakatoa Scripted GUI On/Off - this MacroScript turns the Krakatoa Floater on and off.
    • If Krakatoa is the current renderer, the Floater will open and close when you press the button.
    • Closing the Krakatoa GUI Floater with the [X] button will also uncheck the icon.
    • Opening the Krakatoa GUI Floater via the Render Scene Dialog > Renderer tab > Open Scripted GUI button will check the icon.
    • If Krakatoa is not the current renderer, it will also prompt you about switching from the current renderer to Krakatoa.
    • If Krakatoa has been used before on the system, you will be prompted about loading the last known Krakatoa settings, starting a new instance of Krakatoa with default settings or not switching at all.
    • When switching from a different renderer to Krakatoa, a 3ds Max Render Preset with the current renderer's settings will be saved as "backup_pre_krakatoa_assignment.rps". These settings can be restored using the Switch back... MacroScript described below.


  • Switch Back From Krakatoa To Previous Renderer - this MacroScript changes the renderer from Krakatoa back to the one saved in the "backup_pre_krakatoa_assignment.rps" render preset described above. For example, if you were previously rendering in Mental Ray and switched to Krakatoa via the Toggle Krakatoa Scripted GUI On/Off icon, pressing the Switch Back... icon will load Mental Ray. A preset called "backup_last_krakatoa_settings.rps" will be saved to allow the switching back to Krakatoa using the MacroScript described above without discarding all current settings. 

 Note: Switching the renderers using the regular 3ds Max method using 
 Render Scene Dialog > Common Tab > Assign Renderer rollout > Production 
 will NOT create such backup render presets! It is strongly suggested to always 
 use the Krakatoa icons to switch to and from the Krakatoa renderer!
  • Toggle Krakatoa Log Window On/Off - this MacroScript opens and closes the Krakatoa Log Window which can be used to keep an eye on the internal processes going on inside of Krakatoa.
  • Toggle Krakatoa Log Window Auto-Open On Output - this MacroScript can be used to set the Log Window to open automatically when Krakatoa is outputting information to it.
  • Krakatoa Shadows Utility - this scripted tool can be used to assign Krakatoa Attenuation maps to the 3ds Max scene and switch renderers for generating passes to be used together with Krakatoa passes.
  • Krakatoa PRT Scanner (Analyzer Utility) - this scripted tool can be used to scan the current scene and generate reports about the particle counts of various particle sources, detect missing PRT files etc.
  • Toggle Material Editor Renderer Lock On/Off - this MacroScript can be used to quickly lock/unlock the Renderer used for the Material Editor - by default, Krakatoa will be used as the Material Editor renderer, but often you would prefer to render using the Scanline Renderer to see basic color and texture settings better.

See Also: Krakatoa Toolbar

  • Krakatoa v1.1.0 provides an additional set of MacroScripts and icons for monitoring and manipulating the most important settings of the Krakatoa GUI. They are documented here.