Several videos that were recorded during the Stoke MX Webinars broadcast live on May 16th and 17th, 2013 have now been posted on the Stoke MX product page.
The videos cover the basic usage and workflows of Stoke MX and its integration with various 3ds Max components, 3rd party plugins and other Thinkbox products. In addition, the theory and practice of the asynchronous caching and multi-threading used by Stoke are discussed and illustrated.
Thinkbox Software has released a plugin pack for Deadline 5.2 which adds support for the 2014 product line of Autodesk including 3ds Max 2014, Composite 2014, Maya 2014 and Softimage 2014. In addition, Modo 7xx and Vue 11 support has also been included.
Several other Thinkbox products have also been updated:
Frost 1.3.6 can now be installed in 3ds Max 2014 64 bit.
XMesh 1.1.7Saver and Loader can also be installed in 3ds Max 2014 64 bit.
Stoke MX 1.0.0 was already released with 3ds Max 2014 64 bit support.
Because 3ds Max 2014 does not provide a 32 bit version anymore, no support for that flavour was needed.
Adding other 3ds Max Plugins to 3ds Max 2014
Due to the SDK/plugin compatibility between 3ds Max 2013 and 3ds Max 2014, all other 3ds Max plugins including Krakatoa MX and Genome MX can also be used in 3ds Max 2014 64 bit, but require manual modications to the plugin.ini file. New installers of these products with 3ds Max 2014 support are planned for the near future.
In the mean time, users can follow these steps to load the 2013 versions of these plugins in 3ds Max 2014:
1. Locate the plugin.ini file of Max 2013 for your locale - for US English language, the path is usually "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2013\en-US\plugin.ini". If you are using a different language, the path will be different. For example, for German the path would be "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2013\de-DE\plugin.ini", for Japanese it would be "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2014\ja-JP\plugin.ini" and so on. Note that the Thinkbox installers add the plugin entries to all languages' plugin.ini files.
2. Open the file in a text editor like Notepad and find the desired plugin line. For Krakatoa MX 2.1.x, it would be
Select the desired line and copy it into the Windows clipboard.
3. Locate the corresponding plugin.ini file of 3ds Max 2014, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2014\en-US\plugin.ini"
4. Make sure you are allowed to modify it - you must have Administrator rights, right-click > Properties > Security tab > Edit... > Users group or user name > check Allow / Full Control > OK > OK
5. Open the plugin.ini file of 3ds Max 2014 in a text editor and paste the line from step 2.
6. Save the file.
7. Start 3ds Max 2014 - you should now have the plugin(s) working.
A set of videos recorded live during the first Krakatoa For Maya Webinar broadcast on May 7th and 8th, 2013 are now available!
The covered topics complement the written tutorials already available in the Krakatoa MY documentation, and go into more detail to further illustrate the typical basic workflows.
Thinkbox will be holding a Webinar to highlight the latest product release of Stoke MX.
Stoke MX is an easy to use Particle Simulator designed to simplify the creation of high volume particle clouds driven by Velocity Fields.
Supported Velocity Field sources include FumeFX and Ember simulations, other particle animations from Particle Flow, Thinking Particles or external particle file sequences in PRT or RealFlow BIN formats, 3ds Max Force SpaceWarps etc.
Register for a session now by clicking a date below:
Los Angeles, CA (May 1, 2013) - Thinkbox Software today announced Stoke MX, a particle simulator plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max designed to simplify and accelerate the creation of high-volume particle clouds driven by velocity fields.
Fast and easy to use, Stoke MX supports a large number of emitter and velocity sources, and introduces new workflows. Previously unavailable capabilities include multi-threaded particle advection, rapid memory-buffered playback, and asynchronous multi-threaded particle file saving, which enables significantly higher performance compared to existing workflows.
Key features of Stoke MX include:
Quick particle generation from other particle systems, geometry surfaces, volumes, vertices and edges including selection and soft-selection support, as well as from Sitni Sati's FumeFX simulations
Optional emitter channel acquisition with minimal overhead
Particle advection using velocities from other particle systems or files, 3ds Max force space warps, FumeFX simulations, Thinkbox’s Ember simulations, and other Stoke simulations
Velocity field mixing, scaling and optional divergence removal from particle-based velocity fields to produce uncompressible fluid motion
Flexible memory caching for fast simulation iterations and interactive viewport playback
PRT file saving using one or more background threads, decoupling the simulation from the particle saving process for even faster iterations
Integration with local and Thinkbox’s Deadline partitioning
Extensive MAXScript exposure enabling the creation of custom Stoke-based tools
Compatible with the Thinkbox’s Krakatoa MX high-volume particle renderer and its various components including PRT Loader and other PRT objects, Magma and delete modifiers, particle data viewer, etc
Compatible with Thinkbox Software’s Frost particle mesher (version 1.3.5 and higher)
“The flexibility of Stoke is phenomenal so we are super excited to see what artists can do with it,” said Chris Bond, founder, Thinkbox Software. “Stoke enables a completely new way of working. Instead of being stuck in a rigid linear simulation workflow, artists can essentially layer their particles and work backwards to mix, enhance or alter simulation data quickly and easily without having to re-simulate. It opens up a lot of possibilities.”
“Stoke MX gives us the opportunity to build layers of detail upon fluid simulations with the exciting speed, control and freedom of imagination that have become a trademark of tools by Thinkbox Software,” noted Hristo Velev, a visual effects artist with early access to the software. “A simple, well directed base simulation can be quickly developed into a complex modern effect. Artists get plenty of room to create with negligible learning curve, due to the use of very successful Thinkbox technology like Magmaflow and PRT caching. And with these, it fits tightly in existing pipelines hosting the rest of the Thinkbox portfolio, especially Krakatoa and Frost. Stoke is a force multiplier for simulation work.”
Visual effects artist Jason Crosby added, “For the wormhole shot in After Earth, Stoke allowed me to come up with a look in just a couple days. Creating iterations was a very quick process and the support from Thinkbox was amazing!”
Animation courtesy of Torbjorn Olsson.
The Stoke MX base package includes one workstation and two network simulation licenses. Additional network simulation licenses can be purchased individually. To request a 15-day evaluation license, or for more information about Stoke MX, including pricing, please call 1-866-419-0283 or visitwww.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales
About Thinkbox Software
Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa and render farm management software Deadline, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. As an artist-driven company, we create tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 8:29PM 
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