[Bubbaloo]

Anyone here an expert on Max's Particle Flow system?
I am using Max Design 2009 and I am using PF Source for instancing grass blades onto a surface.
The problem is, I can't get Max to export/render more than 100,000 particles per PF Source.
I have changed the "Upper Limit" in the PF Source properties panel to 10,000,000!
If I set number of particles over 100,000 it still only exports/renders 100,000.
The only work around I have found is to create multiple PF Sources and give them different seeds, which is a pain.

[Bogdan Coroi]

What renderer?

[Bubbaloo]

Maxwell.

[Bogdan Coroi]

How many particles are actually in the scene? (Select PF Source object, switch to Modify panel and check "Selection" rollup, bottom label).

[rivoli]

that's weird, upper limit it's the only parameter that I know of that limits the particle emission. it should work as expected. how many particles are you birthing, and over how many frames? how are you checking how many particles are actually in scene?

[Bubbaloo]

Birth: Emit Start 0
Emit Stop 0
(I want all particles rendered at frame 0)

Select PF Source object, switch to Modify panel and check "Selection" rollup, bottom label

I think this only shows what is displayed on screen.
1,000,000 if viewport display is set to 100%.
With so many particles, I have viewport set to display 1%.

how are you checking how many particles are actually in scene?

Number of triangles rendered in Maxwell.
It stops increasing after 100,000 particles. Instancing is off in the plugin.

[Bogdan Coroi]

So, in Quantity multiplier you have 100% for render and 1% for viewport on a total of 1.000.000 particles?

Btw,

how are you checking how many particles are actually in scene?

Number of triangles rendered in Maxwell.

A particle is just a replacement for any geometry (lots of triangles), so I don't think that's an accurate method of checking. The actual number of particles to be rendered is set in Quantity Multiplier's Render setting.

[rivoli]

then it may very well be a plugin limitation. I guess.

and yes, as you say the selection rollout only shows particles visible in viewport.

[Bubbaloo]

So, in Quantity multiplier you have 100% for render and 1% for viewport on a total of 1.000.000 particles?

Yes.

[Bogdan Coroi]

then it may very well be a plugin limitation. I guess.

and yes, as you say the selection rollout only shows particles visible in viewport.

No, it's not a plug-in limitation. The plug-in asks PFlow for the total number of particles, it doesn't assume anything.

[Bogdan Coroi]

Instancing is off in the plugin.

What happens if you check "Use instancing"?

[Bubbaloo]

Ok, I closed Max and re-opened the file, and now it is exporting all particles! Sorry...

...But...
Checking "Use Instancing" has no effect on number of tris exported to Maxwell -or- amount of RAM usage.

200,000 particles x 8 polygons each = 3,200,000 tris.
Maxwell show 3,200,000 tris no matter if instancing is checked or not.
Both checked and unchecked results in the same RAM usage, about 1.3 Gb.

[Bogdan Coroi]

Could you copy/paste what MXCL says about the geometry in both case (instanced and normal mode):

Something like this:
Geometry:
- Num Meshes: 1
- Num Triangles: 136
- Num Vertexes: 136
- Num Normals: 261

[Bubbaloo]

Instancing unchecked:

Geometry:
- Num Meshes: 1
- Num Triangles: 3200000
- Num Vertexes: 8000000
- Num Normals: 19200000

Instancing checked:

Geometry:
- Num Meshes: 1
- Num Triangles: 3200000
- Num Vertexes: 8000000
- Num Normals: 19200000

[Bubbaloo]

"Shape Instance" is used in the PF, I just double-checked.