Several nice videos were uploaded on YouTube by user named Phrogz42 (and further finding are indicating that Gavin Kistner, Product Designer for PhysX Max and Maya plug-ins, is hiding behing this nick) – they are showcasing usage of PhysX 3ds Max plug-in for simulation of several complex obejcts – mostly chains of various types.

But much more interesting details were revealed by autor today, as responce to our question – PhysX plug-in v2.06 Alpha (current version, available for public, is 2.01) was used to create those demonstrations.

Most simulations were running on sub-realtime performance, due to highly increased iterations count, but stability is impressive, not to mention that almost no joints were used – each chain link is compound obejct, consisting of several rigid body primitives/convex meshes.

Take a look at description of “PhysX Chain Braid” video – “each chain link is a single rigid body with eight automatically-derived convex hulls comprising 160 verts (per link)” – it seems convex decomposition algoritm has finally made it to PhysX plug-in.

We’ll keep an eye on Phrogz42’s channel and will let you know, if something interesting will appear.