[Brian Jones]

With all the pieces in place it’s hard to know what it might be. Can you post an example test?

[Brian Jones]

Environment object with the PyroCluster VolumeTracer on it? Particle Geometry object with the PyroCluster material on it?

[Brian Jones]

No advantage to installing SLA, it is a part of the material system. Dirtynuts is now Dirt, I think. Also built-in

[Brian Jones]

Assuming it’s the tut I think it is, take the Particle Birth output from the PStorm node and pass it to a PShape node. Click on the PShape node and drag the shape you want to emit into the PShape’s ‘Object’ slot. Add a Particle Geometry object from Plugins/Thinking Particles.

Take a look at Objects/Object Library/TP Basic Emitter (and others from that menu) to give you an idea. They can be more complex than is easy to understand when you are first getting in to it but the general setup is instructive.

[Brian Jones]

Add points to the end of a spline you were doing before?

Choose the same spline tool as the spline’s type and control-click to add more points. It might not work on the first try so undo if necessary and try again it always seems to work on the second try. It also usually works if you choose the tool click an empty area in the OM (to deselect everything) then ckick the spline then control-click. It’s a bit odd, maybe I’m missing the real method…

[Brian Jones]

[Stu Pond] “it doesn’t look quite right as the points bunch at the top and bottom of the sphere”

Maybe a different type of sphere, try Octahedron or Icosahedron instead of Standard

[Brian Jones]

Take a look at the plugin POP2 (Place on Points) you can get it here

https://www.spot4d.co.uk/Plugins.asp

[Brian Jones]

[alan lacey] “Is it possible to render frame numbers to previews somehow?”

Check off Frame in the HUD settings and then set Render HUD in Render Settings/Options – or use Xpresso to send the frame number to a Text Spline (and obviously, put that in an Extrude or Loft).

[alan lacey] “Also how do I abort a preview render, some of these can be very prolonged”

Start another Preview (which will ask to stop the current one)

[Brian Jones]

Just some quick testing and I can’t make it not have colored shadows except at very small transparencies. Can you post a test file?

[Brian Jones]

https://www.c4dcafe.com/portal/dl_showall.asp?cat_id=40&parent_id=9&parent_name=C4D+Scene+files&sub_name=Rigged+Characters