To access this rollout menu, the Master DynamicSet must be selected from the DynamicSet Tree View.
Within the Master DynamicSet rollouts, you can tell thinkingParticles
how you want it to interpret your particle system's animation. You can
also globally turn the entire particle system on or off, by using the
controls within this rollout. The Master DynamicSet rollout also contains
a very important option: the Edit on the Fly button is
accessible from the Master DynamicSet rollout.
To access this rollout menu, the Master DynamicSet must be selected from
the DynamicSet Tree View.
ON - Activate this button
to enable thinkingParticles's rule processing and particle generation.
When this button is disabled, no rules will be processed and no particles
will be generated.
Edit on the fly - With the Edit on the Fly option
active, you are able to edit your particles system in real-time, without
having to wait for it to update. The particle animation will update only
at the beginning of the cycle, if you have the animation running. This
can provide a much more efficient tweak mode, when you have a rough animation
that you're looking to refine. However, if you are dealing with simple
settings that you want to see in real time, or when you're adding new
rules and conditions to your particle animation, you will want to turn
this option off.
Particle Shape - From this dropdown list, you can choose
from several particle visualization styles to show in the 3ds Max viewports
for the selected DynamicSet.
Besides the standard particle viewport display styles, thinkingParticles
offers a display option that shows the Particle ID for each particle.
This ID can be used in conjunction with the PSelection
Operator to delete specific particles, for example.
NOTE:
A Particle ID is only valid as long as the particle exists, and when it
dies, this number can be recycled for other particles. A test for a specific
particle ID should be performed within an appropriate time frame.
Show Mesh - Activate this
checkbox to display the particle mesh, in addition to the particle display
option, for the selected DynamicSet.
Force this Setting - When this checkbox is active, the global
settings will be used for all particle groups regardless
of their individual settings. In effect, it overrides all of the local
particle Group settings. This is on by default, so if your particle groups
aren't showing up as you expect, be sure to turn this checkbox off.
Show Every
Nth - defines how many particles are drawn in the view port, a
valuer of 2 will draw every second particle, only.
Debug Log Window - check this option to enable the port debugger of thinkingParticles. When active, individual ports may be enabled to output their values in a log window.
Show InfoTooltip - check this button to query information about any particle in the 3ds Max modeling viewport by hovering over it. A single left click on any particle will show a menu selection presenting the possible parameters to display when hovering over a particle..
As shown in the illustration above, several options are available.
Hovering over any particle created by thinkingParticles will reveal the information as defined by the selector menu.
Groups as Objects - Activate
this check-box to create invisible objects in 3ds Max that can be selected
and assigned standard 3ds Max Object Properties. These invisible objects
will be created for each particle Group that is generated in the Particle
Group Tree View.
finalRender Instance - when checked, particles can be treated
as real instanced objects. This is a highly efficient method to handle
millions of High-Poly objects in a scene. finalRender for 3ds Max is able
to handle this option, only. No other rendering system will or can benefit
from this option. The optimizations and protocols used to enable thinkingParticles
and finalRender to do what it does, prevents us from supporting any other
rendering system right now. This includes the 3ds Max scanline renderer,
as well as Mental Ray for 3ds Max.
Max Instances - instancing in 3ds Max is a "static process."
This 3ds Max system architecture prevents any tool or program to add render
nodes at render time. All render nodes must exist before rendering starts,
this is why complex protocols and data structures had to be invented to
make this feature possible in 3ds Max. This Parameter lets you define
how many objects (particles) will be instanced at render time. This value
must match your amount of created, instanced particle objects!
Animation - Select this radio button option when you want thinkingParticles
to evaluate rules and conditions for the particle system, during the entire
animation sequence.
User Defined - Choose this radio button option when you want thinkingParticles
to evaluate rules and conditions for the particle system, starting at
the frame specified in the spinner below.
Frame - This spinner value sets the frame, where you want thinkingParticles
to start the evaluation of its rules and conditions.
All of the settings below apply only to the viewport representation, for
the processing of the thinkingParticles rules and conditions.
Per Frame - Select this radio button option to make all particle
dynamic simulations update per frame. This is a very inaccurate choice
for shape-based collision methods. However, particle-based collisions
respond very well to this setting and will update quickly.
Per Half Frame - When this radio button is selected, the particles
and all rules in thinkingParticles will be updated each half frame. This
setting is a good choice for particles that have a medium speed.
Samples Per Second - Select this radio button option to enable
the Samples Spinner below. This lets you dictate how many samples per
second you would like to have thinkingParticles update. Higher values
will be more precise, but will take longer.
Samples - This spinner defines the number of sub-frame samples
taken to evaluate and update the rules within thinkingParticles. For proper
shape-based collisions (such as those that occur from the Fragment
Operator and accurate physics simulations), a value between 90-120
is recommended as a minimum.
All of the settings below apply only to the renderer's representation for
the processing of the thinkingParticles rules and conditions and only
if the Check Box has been checked, or else the Viewport settings will
be used!
Per Frame - Select this radio button option to make all particle
dynamic simulations update per frame. This is a very inaccurate choice
for shape-based collision methods. However, particle-based collisions
do respond very well to this setting and will update quickly.
Per Half Frame - When this radio button is selected, the particles
and all rules in thinkingParticles will be updated each half frame. This
setting is a good choice for particles that have a medium speed.
Samples Per Second - Select this radio button option to enable
the Samples Spinner below. This lets you dictate how many samples per
second you would like to have thinkingParticles update. Higher values
will be more precise but will take longer.
Samples - This spinner defines the number of sub-frame samples
taken to evaluate and update the rules within thinkingParticles. For proper
shape-based collisions (such as those that occur from the Fragment
Operator and accurate physics simulations), a value between 90-120
is recommended as a minimum.
Particle Simulation Caching
has been enhanced a lot and now offers more power than ever. thinkingParticles
cache files can now be easily transported to any other thinkingParticles
program of the same version or higher, without having to re-create the
scene setup. Loading a cache file into an "empty" thinkingParticles
setup is now supported, including re-timing it in certain boundaries and
with full control of transformation in all axis. DynamicSets has new input
options to support the newly gained freedom in a fully procedural way,
as known from thinkingParticles.
Simulate - when enabled, thinkingParticles will perform in standard
mode, all operators and DynamicSets will be evaluated and calculations
done at play-back or render time.
Play - activate this option to set thinkingParticles to playback
mode. When this button is active and a valid playback file is found, all
DynamicSets and operators are no longer evaluated! Keep this in mind,
changing values will not affect the particle system at all, because the
particle movement and shape changes will be read form the cache file.
Select Record File - when clicked, brings up a standard Windows
file dialog. This lets you define a name for the cache file or select
an already existing cache file.
Statistics - displays the statistics of the cache file. This might
be used as an indication of whether the file is valid for a scene or not.
Time Offset - sets the play offset of the recorded cache file.
This can be used to start at a certain frame when playing back the particle
system.
Position X,Y,Z - sets the position, in World Units, where the
cache playback should happen.
Rotation X,Y,Z - rotates the particle cache playback along each
of the individual axis, around its center point
Scale - defines a scale factor for the particle cache playback.
Link to Object - instead of specifying discreet X,Y,Z values as
explained above, you may also use any object to position the particle
cache playback in the scene. Even another particle system may be used
to position and place particle cache playbacks!
Out of Range Hold Particle - the following options define the
playback behavior of the cached particles. Out-of-range playback can behave
in the following ways
Off
- cached particles outside of "their" recorded time will not
be visible at all on playback
< - will show the first frame
of recorded particles when the cached particles are outside of "their"
recorded time
<<>> - shows and holds
the particles from their first cached frame from beginning of playback
and at end of playback, the last cached frame of particles is kept visible.
>> - at end of playback the
last cached frame is kept visible
Recording particle simulations is a very powerful workflow enhancement
and a great time saver with complex scene setups. In addition to "record
and forget," thinkingParticles allows the removal of specific particles
from the recording, afterwards. A simple list of Particle IDs defines
which particle should be removed from the particle playback.
DEL - deletes the selected Particle ID form the list view.
PICK - lets you pick a particle within the 3ds Max viewport. The
selected particle will be added automatically to the list of particles
that should be excluded on playback.
ADD - lets you manually add a particle ID to the list view. To
specify the particle ID, use the spinner control right underneath the
ADD button. To obtain the Particle ID of a specific particle, turn on
the particle ID visualization method.
thinkingParticles offers a global particle caching system that has been
introduced to the toolset of thinkingParticles. Particle Baking, Recording
or Caching enables the user to store a complete particle simulation to
a single file. After recording a complete particle system to a single
file, no more calculations and evaluations are needed when playing back
the result! In fact, all changes in the DynamicSets will be ignored, when
Playback is active.
Redraw Views - for better recording performance, you may turn
off the 3ds Max viewport redraw functions while running the simulation
for recording.
Viewport - check this option, if you wish to bake the particle
simulation, as seen in the viewport! Some modifiers, for example, have
different settings/behaviors in the viewport, compared to their behavior
at render time.
Render - check this option to obtain the exact behavior as you
would expect when rendering the animation with thinkingParticles effects
activated.
Record - press this button to start the recording session of the
particle animation that was created by thinkingParticles.