What's new in version 3.5




There have been a lot of internal changes for the particle and volume cloud shader.
The changes are
1) To improve the usage of the shaders (no marching step size, other removed parameters, some scale sliders, partly changed UI)
2) Eliminate limits to create a desired look (density limit, motion vector render, trails).



   Main Features
Cloud:
  • Marching step settings:
    The marching step was completely removed, everything is now controlled via the lookup table cell size.
  • Maximum memory increased:
    The Volume Cloud shader is able to access more than 2GB memory on x64 systems.
Particle Gradient:
  • A new shader to control the color/density gradient of the particles. Seperated from the particle shader to create more control and to use the maya ramp shader.
Cell Scalar:
  • A scalar version of the cell shader.
Particles:
  • Density limit:
    Parameter to improve the fading of particles. Exspecially for light smoke and steam.
  • Trail rendering:
    If you use cache files, then you can now render particle trails. With parameters to control the falloff to head and tail of the trail. UVW texture coodinates are stretched along the trail.
    Usage: Cigarette smoke trails, exact curved motion blur.
  • Motion Vectors:
    You can render motion vectors to post-blur your particles (Reelsmart motion blur). This does NOT require to turn on MRay motion blur.
PT_loader:
  • Particle Trails:
    The PT_loader is able to load multiple files at once to render particle trails. Example usage: Simulate with 150fps and render trails with 25fps to create nice motion blurred particle streams.
  • XSI .ptp cache format:
    Load your XSI particle cache files.
  • Maya create script:
    Script which picks a maya particle shape and automatically creates all required shaders.
Particle Info:
  • Maya: User data attributes:
    Simulate user data attributes per particle. These attributes can be used to control the shaders.






   Complete List of changes

643Volume CloudPreview marching step size: multilpication of main march size
644Volume Cloudsimplify, remove jitter sampling, always on
649Volume Cloudmax ray marching size= lookup table size
659Volume Cloudchange bahavior: if no lightr in light list, then use all lights
621Volume Cloudreplace mi_mem_allocate with malloc for >2GB scenes
668Volume Cloudglobal density slider
670Volume Cloudambience/diffuse intensity slider
673Volume Cloudsingle light ray to BBox uses wrong normal for shading
676Volume Cloudrestrict lights checkbox to hide light box
680Volume CloudRemove parameter for Cell size in Y and Z axis (use X)
681Volume CloudRemove parameter for *shadow* marching size
678Volume Cloudrequest particle size info from particle shader
682Volume Cloudremove marching step size parmeter
688Volume Cloudneighbour cells affect raymarching + ignore status + high dense status
691Volume Cloudremove one cell if marching step too low
692Volume Cloudneighbour only affect cells if more neighbours than threshold x
693Volume Cloudsimple mode: Low quality
697Volume Cloudset shadow segments in mi file
698Volume CloudTest volume shaders in 3ds Max 9, change error handling, autovolume
699Volume Cloudnegative marching step error
687Volume CloudHELP: upgrade info
700Volume Cloudmotion framebuffer with particle motion, converted to cam coord
703Volume CloudImplement support for multiple intersecting volumes as default, no checkbox
701Volume CloudambientFB texturable, rename
645Volume CloudMaya: Icons for hypershade
720Volume CloudManual BBox in combination with manual BBox: cropping ignored
721Volume CloudShaderball particle
711Volume CloudShaderball Particle Shader
712Volume Cloudsample scene mutliple clouds, sparks + smoke
714Volume CloudAdaptive marching threshold error (higher step than required used)
617VolumeScalar_ParticleMD: Rotation not read, data type changed
627VolumeScalar_ParticleID could be corrupted
631VolumeScalar_ParticleParticle age not working with A5
623VolumeScalar_Particlesimplify, remove align shaping with density
630VolumeScalar_Particleboolean switch if a particle should be used or not (catch particle type via attribute)
652VolumeScalar_Particlesimplyfy UI: remove density start, only available for bubble density
656VolumeScalar_Particlereduce number or particles if not all particles have been added
658VolumeScalar_Particlemi_shaderstate_set for md attribute shaders
660VolumeScalar_Particleintensity slider for texture and shape input
662VolumeScalar_Particlereorder and rename output type (normalized...)
663VolumeScalar_Particlenew density gradient not using partcle falloff
667VolumeScalar_Particlesecond input for global/gradient density
674VolumeScalar_Particleparticle trail parameters for scaledown/opacitychange
654VolumeScalar_Particleparticle trail rendering
677VolumeScalar_Particlesend particle size info to volume shader
679VolumeScalar_Particlesupport gradient control for max density parameter
613VolumeScalar_ParticleParticle age not working on x64 machines
690VolumeScalar_Particlenew MD attribute types
694VolumeScalar_Particletrail rendering: force align on velocity
702VolumeScalar_Particledensity limit: visual artifact in limit reached
345VolumeScalar_Particlemotion vector pass, piped to volumecloud for framebuffer
665VolumeScalar_Particletrail rendering: head and tail transp and size settigs
716VolumeScalar_Particleset intensity gradient color by default to 1
722VolumeScalar_ParticleShaderball
713VolumeScalar_Particlehelp info: for gradient less and bigger particles
724VolumeScalar_Particledefault shaping: 0.66
622BA_particle_gradientNew Shader for better particle gradient control
666BA_particle_gradientshaderstate MD attributes
709Particle_Gradientgradient presets
626VolumeScalar MeshdistID could be corrupted
565VolumeScalar Meshdistinvert 0-1 should output 1-0 not -1-0
615ObjectdistanceOutput scene unit height of pixel
616ObjectDistanceOutput scene unit height of image
628Volume SolidID could be corrupted
640BA_PT_loaderMaya: auto-get values from scene like particle cache
655BA_PT_loaderparticle trail: multiple file loading
671BA_PT_loaderTrail loader: copy all attributes
474BA_PT_loader3 User data attributes, which can be used in pt_info
685BA_PT_loaderLoad XSI particle cache files
707BA_PT_loaderXSI cache files radius/2
686PT_infoUser data Attributed from maya cache files
675Fractal4d_sclconstant time animation
726cell_sclremove smooth transition
727Cell_sclNew Cell Scalar shader