How to render particles as points?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if it is possible to do either:

1: Render out particles from a Pflow particle system to points instead of having a scale value on the particle (which makes them render as objects too small to see at a distance) or..

2: Export a Pflow animation to a point cloud which can then be re-imported to render as a point cloud ( which is how I want to particles to render )

[leeminardi]

I don't know if this would help but you can scale the size of the particle object (Event, Shape, Scale) as a function of the camera position using a Wire Parameter.

[Richard.Vivanco]

Check display operator, change the type to geometry

In the shape operator change to 3D sphere 80 sides.

Maybe it can help.

If not, can you post and image reference of what you want.

[Anonymous]

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@lminardigmail wrote:

I don't know if this would help but you can scale the size of the particle object (Event, Shape, Scale) as a function of the camera position using a Wire Parameter.

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How would you go about doing that on a per particle basis? It would probably be better doing this from the data operator rather than a script I would think.

It is not exactly what I am after but sounds like an interesting exercise.

[Anonymous]

The main thrust of the question is to avoid geometry and render point data like a point cloud. I am not expecting this to be possible but you never know...

The problem you have with geometry is that geometry  renders smaller as it gets further away and really big when right up close to the camera, this a problem with celestial objects like stars or even any particle stream where you are trying to visualise the stream clearly and see the particles over a reasonable distance.

The other question related to exporting the particles as data to a particle cloud that max could read in with:

1:    (prefered): max's particle renderer or...

2:    to a prt source that can be read with Krakatoa.

It would be interesting if a point could be given a material like the standard materials render wireframe but which operates on points.

[Anonymous]

Come to think of it Max already does render particles as points in the viewport - it is odd you can't do the same thing in a render.....or can you?

[leeminardi]

The points that are displayed in a viewport (no matter what viewport display mode, shaded, realistic,...) are not the same points that are rendered.  The density of points in a rendered image is much greater than the "+" symbols displayed in a viewport.  I do know if it is possible to extract location information for individual particles.

You might consider creating your own particle system that creates individual particles with a size based on its distance to the camera.  

[leeminardi]

I came across the following that indicates that you may be able to write a script that sets the size of individual particles.

http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/16/ENU/MAXScript-Help/index.html?url=files/GUID-6B55BDA6-7A44-4910-9...

You could potentially set particle size base on the distance it is from the camera.

~Lee

[Anonymous]

If you select your particle system and set the quantity multiplier to 100% you will get all the particles to display in your viewport, in addition there is a particle limit that needs to be increased in the particle flow system if you run out of particles.

There may be a ceiling to how many particles can be displayed in the viewport but I do not know what it is ( any contributors to this are welcome to fill us in here )

I tried an experiment to render out a preview with the viewport particles and it sort of worked - the limitation being that for some reason the create preview will not give the full render size output (full HD) at least for me. The other drawbacks are no alpha (so the bg needs to be keyed out or just comped with screen mode ) and no special camera lenses that cannot be used in the viewport.

Considering how fast the preview sequence came out even as a workflow tool to speed up the process it is a worthwhile exercise to employ. In addition you can output lines or other max display shapes which can come in handy. When I get a chance I will try looking into colouring individual particles through the data operator to achieve a fading over the life of the particle (anyone else done this?) Keeping in mind my primitive expertise with the Dop this may not actually work out...

[Anonymous]

Had a quick look at the link and got really distracted with all the goodies - did not even know that was there!
However I could not find the particular script you thought may help - it was just a general link.

[leeminardi]

There's a lot of good information about writing scripts that affect individual particles in the Autodesk 3DS MaxScript documentation.

Click on Scripting --> MaxScript Reference

Then do a search for "particle flow script examples"

I think the Age Test in Script Test Example script might have some interesting components for you.

~Lee