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Krakatoa Rendered Frame Window Extension

 Available in Krakatoa v1.1.1 and higher when running 3ds Max 2009 or higher


Overview

3ds Max 2009 and 3ds Max 2009 Design introduced the ability to extend the Rendered Frame Window (also known as Virtual Frame Buffer or VFB for short) with additional rollouts and controls. These additional controls are enabled/disabled based on the class of the current renderer and are completely implemented in MAXScript.

Krakatoa provides its own set of VFB Extension rollouts which implement almost all Main Controls and also give some additional info about the rendering process as well as fast access to some of the other Krakatoa GUI rollouts and their most important features.

In addition, the extended VFB allows for fast preview rendering using a new InterActive option of the Iterative rendering control.

The VFB extensions are implemented as a set of three borderless rollouts - two on top of the image and one docked at the bottom. When the window is resized, the two top rollouts will stick to the left and right borders of the window and a gap will be introduced between them, while the bottom panel will always align to the left border of the window and will never resize.

To save space, most drop-down lists in the Krakatoa VFB have been exposed as buttons with context menus. The button will display the current value, and clicking or right-clicking the button will open a menu with the possible options. See for example the Draw Filter buttons.

For checkbuttons, the menu will open via right-clicking, while clicking will toggle the option on and off. See for example the Final Pass Density Mode checkbutton. 

 NOTE: To save space, the Checkbuttons in the VFB do NOT have the > prefix as in the rest of the Krakatoa GUI.

Top Left Panel

The top left rollout of the extended VFB duplicates the Particle Color Controls and Lighting Pass / Final Pass Density groups of controls found in the Main Controls rollout of the Krakatoa GUI.

Color Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to both the >Override Particle Colors checkbutton AND drop-down list in the Main Controls rollout.
    • Click the checkbutton to toggle the particle color override.
    • Right-click the checkbutton to open the context menu with the color override options.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

Color Swatch

  • This color swatch corresponds to the Custom Particle Color swatch in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

BG Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to both the >Custom Background Color checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

Background Color Swatch

  • This color swatch corresponds to the Background Color swatch in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

LIGHT Checkbutton 

 Note that if no Lighting channel has been loaded previously, 
 turning this option on in InterActive mode will cause a reloading of all particles,
 resulting in a relatively long loading time which will possibly prevent further InterActive updates 
 until the RENDER button is pressed manually again.

Normals Checkbutton 

 Note that if no Normals channel has been loaded previously, 
 turning this option on in InterActive mode will cause a reloading of all particles,
 result in a relatively long loading time which will possibly prevent further InterActive updates 
 until the RENDER button is pressed manually again.

/ Alpha Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the >Post-Divide By Alpha checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

Spec. Spinner

  • Corresponds to the Specular Level spinner in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the value via the >> preset button.

Gloss. Spinner

  • Corresponds to the Glossiness spinner in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the value via the >> preset button.

Specular Hightlight Curve

Light: Volumetric Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to both the Lighting Pass Density drop-down list AND the >Use Lighting Pass Density Settings checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • Enabled only when lighting is enabled.
  • Right-click for a context menu with the Lighting Pass Density options.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

Lighting Pass Density Spinners

  • The two spinners to the right of the Light: Volumetric checkbutton correspond to the Lighting Density Per Particle and Density Exponent spinners in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The >> presets button mirrors exactly the behavior of the Lighting Pass Density Presets >> button in the Main Controls rollout - it manages both spinners as one value.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the values via the >> preset button.

Final: Volumetric Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to both the Final Pass Density drop-down list AND the >Scale Density using Material Opacity checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • Right-click for a context menu with the Final Pass Density options.
  • The >> presets button mirrors exactly the behavior of the Lighting Pass Density Presets >> button in the Main Controls rollout - it manages both spinners as one value.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.


Final Pass Density Spinners

  • The two spinners to the right of the Final: Volumetric checkbutton correspond to the Density Per Particle and Density Exponent spinners in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The >> presets button mirrors exactly the behavior of the Final Pass Density Presets >> button in the Main Controls rollout - it manages both spinners as one value.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the values via the >> preset button.

Top Right Panel

The top right panel of the extended VFB provides the rest of the options found in the Main Controls rollout.

MB Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the >Enable Motion Blur checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported. 
 Note that if no Velocity channel has been loaded previously, 
 turning this option on in InterActive mode will cause a reloading of all particles,
 result in a relatively long loading time which will possibly prevent further InterActive updates 
 until the RENDER button is pressed manually again.

JT Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the >Jittered Motion Blur checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

Motion Blur Segements Spinner

  • The spinner to the right of the MB and JT checkbuttons corresponds to the Motion Blur Segments spinner in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The >> presets button mirrors exactly the behavior of the >> button in the Main Controls rollout, including support for setting defaults.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the value via the >> preset button.

Motion Blur Shutter Spinner

  • The spinner to the right of the Motion Blur Segments spinner corresponds to the Motion Blur Shutter spinner in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The >> presets button mirrors exactly the behavior of the >> button in the Main Controls rollout, including support for setting defaults.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the value via the >> preset button.

Matte Motion Blur Bias Spinner

  • The spinner to the right of the Motion Blur Shutter spinner corresponds to the Matte Motion Blur Bias spinner in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The >> presets button mirrors exactly the behavior of the >> button in the Main Controls rollout, including support for setting defaults.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the value via the >> preset button.

DOF Checkbutton

DOF Sample Rate Spinner

  • The spinner to the right of the DOF checkbutton corresponds to the Depth Of Field Sample Rate spinner in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The >> presets button mirrors exactly the behavior of the >> button in the Main Controls rollout, including support for setting defaults.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported, except when setting the value via the >> preset button.

Draw:BiLin Button

  • Corresponds to the Draw Point Filter drop-down list in the Main Controls rollout.
  • Click or right-click for a context menu containing the Draw Filter options.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

Shdw:BiCub Button

  • Corresponds to the Self-Shadow Filter drop-down list in the Main Controls rollout.
  • Click or right-click for a context menu containing the Draw Filter options.
  • InterActive Mode: Supported.

Use Particles From Checkbuttons

  • The 8 checkbuttons - Geo, Phan, BBox, Verts, Max, TP, PRT and Other - correspond to the Use Particles From options in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The >> presets button mirrors the functionality of the corresponding presets button in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: NOT Supported! This is because changing these options generally requires a reloading of particles, which is typically slow.

Load % Button and Spinner

  • The spinner corresponds to the Load Percentage Of All Particles spinner in the Main Controls rollout.
  • The button corresponds to the >> presets button in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: NOT Supported! This is because changing the percentage requires the reloading of particles.

LCache Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the LCache checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • Right-clicking opens the same context menu as in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: NOT Supported!

PCache Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the PCache checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout.
  • Right-clicking opens the same context menu as in the Main Controls rollout.
  • InterActive Mode: Changing the state of this checkbutton does NOT trigger InterActive updates, but it has to be checked for the InterActive mode to function!

Iterative/InterActive Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the >Iterative checkbutton in the Main Controls rollout, but provides advanced functionality only available in the VFB in 3ds Max 2009 and higher.
  • Other than the button in the Main Controls rollout, right-clicking the button will open a context menu providing controls over the InterActive Mode.
    • Enable InterActive Updates - when checked, the caption of the checkbutton will change to "InterActive". If PCache is enabled and the last frame time is below the specified threshold, changing values of supported controls will trigger an automatic rerendering from cache.
    • InterActive Update Threshold: N secs. - checking either of these options will set the Last Frame Time Threshold controlling whether an automatic redrawing will be performed or not to the given value.

Bottom Panel - Left Side

The controls on the left side of the bottom panel provide information about the last rendered frame and the cache/channels setup.

Last Frame Button

  • Displays the render time of the last rendered frame.
  • This value is also used but the InterActive mode to disallow auto-updates if the last frame took longer than a given threshold.
  • Click the button to cycle through several display modes:
    • Milliseconds - shows the time as an integer in thousands of a second. This is useful when render times are very fast, for example below a second.
    • Seconds - shows the time as a floating point number in seconds. This is useful when the render times are below a minute.
    • HH:MM:SS - shows the time as integer hours, minutes and seconds. This is useful when the render times are longer than a minute.
    • HH:MM:SS.XX - shows the time as integer hours and minutes and floating point seconds. This is useful when the render times are longer than a minute, but the precision of the Seconds mode is desired.
  • The last display mode will be stored in the local INI settings and will persist between scenes and 3ds Max sessions.

Bytes/Particle Button

  • Displays the number of bytes a particle will occupy in memory based on the currently active channels. Corresponds to the readout in the Channels rollout of the Krakatoa GUI.
  • Clicking the button currently has no effect.

Cached: Button

  • Displays the particle count currently in the Particle Cache.
  • Click the button to cycle through several display modes:
    • Number of particles as integer - useful when rendering few particles, typically less than 100,000.
    • Number of particles as floating point in Thousands - useful when rendering thousands of particles but less than a million.
    • Number of particles as floating point in Millions - useful when rendering millions of particles.
  • The last display mode will be stored in the local INI settings and will persist between scenes and 3ds Max sessions.

Cache Size: Button

  • Displays the memory currently used by the Particle Cache.
  • Click the button to cycle through several display modes:
    • Bytes - useful when rendering few particles and memory usage is below a Megabyte.
    • Kilobytes - useful when rendering many particles but the memory usage is blow a Megabyte.
    • Megabytes - useful when rendering millions of particles and the memory usage is above a Megabyte.
  • The last display mode will be stored in the local INI settings and will persist between scenes and 3ds Max sessions.

Channels List

  • The listbox mirrors the right (used) channels list in the Channels rollout. It gives an overview of the channels required for rendering and whether they are already cached (+) or not (--), as well as their data format and size.

Bottom Panel - Right Side

The right side of the bottom panel provides access to some important options in the other Krakatoa GUI rollouts except for the Main Controls already exposed by the two Top Panels.

  • In general, the >> buttons open a context menu allowing the fast navigation to rollouts in the Krakatoa GUI.
  • If a rollout is selected from the menu and the Krakatoa GUI is not open, it will be opened and the specified rollout will be expanded and set in focus, while all other rollouts will be collapsed.

Save History Checkbutton

Save Images Checkbutton

Main Controls Rollout >> Button

Channels Rollout >> Button

Particle Systems and Loaders >> Button

Use Matte Checkbutton

Depth Maps Checkbutton

Depth Files Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the >Use Depth Map File Sequence checkbutton in the Matte Objects rollout of the Krakatoa GUI.

Save Atten. Checkbutton

Use Ambient PME Checkbutton

  • Corresponds to the >Use Ambient Participating Medium Extinction (APME) checkbutton in the Ambient PME rollout of the Krakatoa GUI.

Preferences Rollout >> Button