Color from PRT loader

[Martians]

Is it somehow possible to use the color from my PRT loader? It doesn't seem like the color channel can be loaded like it can in PFlow..

[shadowkiller]

Are you using the krakatoa prt loader? If so, i save my colors in tyflow via vertex colors and then export your prt with texcoords. It seems to work a bit better for solid colors than using an assigned material. If you want to mix the vertex colors you can use the properties transfer operator.

P.S. Just remember to enable the vertex color display on your tyflow object in order to see the correct colors in the viewport.

[Martians]

Thanks shadowkiller! That's super helpful. I will try it at once..

[Martians]

So, maybe I'm not getting something here - but what do you mean about saving with vertex colors? My original PRT loader (Kinect particles) are already colored.. I just tried resaving them as you suggested, but they just come out with a single color.

[shadowkiller]

In your flow, add a vertex colors operator. In that operator you can assign a color to your particles. The color wont display in your viewport unless you enable the vertex color display on your tyflow object.

Save your prt cache with the texcord channel and load it up in your krakatoa prt loader. Next you need to make krakatoa use the UVW from the texcoords as a color, so drop a magma modifier onto your prt loader, add an input channel node and set it to texcoords, then link it to an output node that is set to color. If you want it to display only in the viewport, but not the render,set the output node to prt cache viewport color. You can then use more magma modifiers to tweak the colors however you want, either changing them, mixing diff ones or just pumping up the contrast.

Krakatoa nativley supports using a vector channel as RGB. It makes going back and forth between krakatoa and tyflow fairly painless.

[Martians]

Thanks, but will that not simply override the color of my initial PRT's with the color assigned in the vertex color operator?

[shadowkiller]

With that current method yes it would. You could set up a true/false switch in magma based on some specific param to isolate certain particles. How are you getting the initial color and what exactly are you trying to do to the particles? What are you using tyflow for in this context?

[Martians]

The particles have been recorded with a Kinect sensor and contain position and color channels. It works in PFlow using PRT Birth and PRT Update with a vertex color map assigned to the material.

When attempting the same setup in TyFlow I get a message about vertex colors missing - I'm guessing that is because the TyFlow PRT update operator does not have a checkbox for loading color like the PFlow one does.

My goal is to emit and color Fume smoke based on my initial PRT loader - It needs to be converted to a script vector for Fume to be able to utilize it properly though.. I also have that working in PFlow, but am not quite sure how to go about it in TyFlow yet..

[shadowkiller]

Hmm, not quite sure about this one then. If tyflow is missing specific feature, you can put a quest in on the request forum. Tyson is great at taking feedback on things and implementing features requested by others. The turn around times are pretty quick too!  

[shadowkiller]

I did a few quick tests to see if i could get fumefx to inherit the vertex colors from tyflow but i didnt have any luck.

I followed the same setup that was used here....
https://www.deko.lt/fluid-colors-part-2/

The vertex colors is from the pflow setup section, except i used tyflow with a vertex color operator instead of the pflow data. If you click the button on the color settings in fume to assign the vertex colors, there is an option for tyflow float and tyflow vector. I chose vector and a channel name box popped up. With an invalid channel the smoke is black, but i put vertex color in the name and my smoke is white. So i think the setup is correct, but for some reason it isn't inheriting the vertex colors.

Tyson is this something you can look at?

Thanks!

[Martians]

Thanks for looking into it shadowkiller.. As mentioned earlier, I have it working in PFlow by converting to script vector and selecting PFlow vector in the Fume color settings..

[shadowkiller]

Yeah but pflow sucks, TYflow ftw!

I would like to see this same setup also working with tyflow particles. Its very useful to have the fume sim inherit the particle colors.

[Martians]

Yes! My thoughts exactly!!

[TubeSmokeGuy]

Yes I think in TyFlow there should be spend a little more attention to the color topic in general. Color is a very basic particle attribute, like position or velocity and shoud be handable as easy and comfortable as they are, together with a mighty toolset to do a lot of creative stuff with it.