Krakatoa Magma (OBSOLETE)

Available in Krakatoa v1.5.0 and higher.

For Magma 2 available in Krakatoa MX 2.0.0 and higher, please see here.

NOTE: The original Magma system is still present in Krakatoa MX 2 and higher for backwards compatibility, but it has been supplanted by the completely refactored Magma 2 system.

The following chapter and sub-topics are provided for the users of Krakatoa 1.6.1 and earlier.

MagmaFlow Particle Channels Editor

List of Node Types

This topic will introduce you to the various node types currently available in the MagmaFlow editor.

Default Node Colors

The MagmaFlow Nodes are color coded according to their function and can be customized by the use via the Display Options rollout documented further on this page. This topic discusses the default colors.

Node Creation Workflows

The MagmaFlow UI has been optimized to allow very fast flow creation using various approaches including menus, keyboard shortcuts and drag&drop. This topic will introduce you to some useful techniques for quick building of flows.

Using The Node Depot

This topic will introduce you to the Node Depot which facilitates the Drag&Drop node building workflow

Editor Navigation And Node Editing

This topic discusses the various MagmaFlow Navigation methods and the node editing workflows.

Manual And Auto Updates

This topic discusses the use of the Manual Update and the Auto Update modes.

Exposing Inputs To The Modifier's UI

This topic explains how to expose Input Nodes' parameters to the Krakatoa Channels Modifier's User Interface in the 3ds Max Command Panel for faster access to important values.

Main Menu Options

This topic lists all Menu Bar options available in the MagmaFlow Editor.

Keyboard Shortcuts

MagmaFlow provides two set of hard-coded Keyboard Shortcuts for very fast node creation - Single-Stroke Shortcuts and Two-Stroke Shortcuts. This topic lists the Single-Stroke Keyboard Shortcuts twice - once sorted by key and again sorted by function. It also lists the Two-Stroke Shortcuts introduced in v1.6.0 which allow the creation of nearly every possible node.

Display Options Rollout

This topic documents the available Display Options controls used to customize the look and feel of the MagmaFlow UI.

BlackOp Compound Nodes

This topic discusses the creation and use of so-called BlackOp Compound Nodes which can be used to encapsulate often used flow fragments for easy reuse and sharing.

Basic Examples of MagmaFlows

This topic shows some basic examples of MagmaFlows created during the early development of the Magma sub-system pre-v1.5.0.

Performance Benchmarks

This topic shows some early benchmarks performed during the development of the Magma sub-system pre-v1.5.0