Autodesk and NVIDIA continue their effort to create the universal physics simulation system for 3ds Max package – it is known as MassFX.

What has changed in new MassFX version, that comes with 3ds Max 2013, in comparison to the first release? We have tried to answer this question in our review.

One of the main new features of MassFX 2013 is the addition of mCloth – cloth simulation module, which was co-developed with Autodesk. Despite the rumors, mCloth uses PhysX 2.8.4 cloth solver for underlying physical calculations.

In comparison to APEX Clothing tools in PhysX plug-ins, mCloth is clearly oriented on VFX area: “one click” set up (no need to skin the mesh and apply movement constraints, as for APEX), full collisions with MassFX rigid bodies with two-way interaction, vertex group operations (like pin or attach to object), support for dynamic and kinematic cloth, ability to bake the simulation in keyframes.

Desired cloth behavior can be archived by tuning fabric settings, like density or damping, which can be saved and loaded as presets.

Additional parameters include rigid body collision responce and solver precision settings.

mCloth objects support per-vertex tearing.

Interesting option is ability to visualize material tension within given treshold.

Another feature is so-called “ballon behavior” – closed meshes can be inflated with internal pressure to imitate soft body, jelly-like objects or baloons themselves.

However, if hole in the baloon will be detected (as result of tearing, for example), it will deflate and force will be applied to the point of air outflow.

“Hardware acceleration” option can be enabled for cloth simulation, however, we were not able to spot any performance difference between CPU and “GPU” execution. It seems GPU acceleration is not fully operational yet.

To summarize: mCloth is a strong cloth simulation solution with decent pack of features and sufficient artist control over simulation, however, as a new tool it has not avoided some “childish” problems, like nonoptimal baking process (it is significantly slower than sim in viewports), unstable behaviour of baloon objects or overestimated cloth solver settings (they are set automatically, based on mesh resolution, but for real 3-5 times lower values are sufficient).

Another vital new feature – standart Forces (like PBomb, Vortex or Wind) can now affect MassFX objects, both rigid bodies and cloth.

Being developed in Autodesk, Forces interaction feature is not using forcefields mechanism from PhysX SDK, instead, custom forces are applied directly to actors.

Third major addition – stable auto-generated ragdolls from biped skeletons.

Instead of abomination – jiggling mess of rigid bodies and joints – that may be familiar you from original PhysX plug-ins, “create dynamic ragdoll” option now generates fairly adequate ragdolls, usable even without aditional tuning.

Note: unlike latest PhysX plug-ins, MassFX is only using one version of PhysX engine - 2.8.4.

Apart from all the features described above, MassFX 2013 also contains numerous amount of smaller features, interface changes and bug fixes. Here are some examples:

It is now possible to assign gravity to Forces (or even it completely) through MassFX Toolbar.

Convex decomposition (this tool allows MassFX to support concave objects) has been reworked – it is now using simplified interface and operates faster.

Physical meshes can now be displayed not only as wireframe, but as shaded hulls as well.

Multiple constraints can now be adited at the same time via Multi-object Editor tab (previosly only available for rigid bodies).

And.. more !

To summarize: MassFX has grew up, but still not enough to reach level of Reactor’s feature set. However, with continuing support from Nvidia and Autodesk, MassFX will eventually overcome previous solution from Havok.

Autodesk has officially presented 3ds Max 2013 and 3ds Max Design 2013 – popular 3D modelling, rendering and animation packages.

Among other changes and improvements, MassFX, PhysX SDK based physics simulation solution, was upgraded with a number of new features.

Artists can now enjoy a more integrated and accurate dynamic toolset, thanks to a wide range of enhancements and additions to the MassFX unified system of simulation solvers.

Highlights are a new mCloth module that features tearable fabric and support for dynamic ragdoll hierarchies. In addition, improved constraints, better handling of pivot points, and enhanced UI readability help improve overall workflow.

Autodesk has presented another video, showcasing some of the new features of MassFX – PhysX SDK based physics simulation system, that is replacing Reactor engine since 3ds Max 2012.

You can observe the process of mCloth object creation (and also it’s settings and interaction with rigid bodies), better support for concave meshes and updated interface.

It was also mentioned previously, that MassFX 2013 will also support standart forces, like PBomb and Vortex.

Basefount has announced release of Miarmy 1.2 – plug-in for Autodesk Maya that is capable of behavioral animation, crowd simulation, physics calculation and rendering.

Amond other features, physics engine in Miarmy 1.2 is now based on PhysX SDK 3.1 (in previous releases – 2.8.4), which provides faster and more accurate rigid body physics simulation even with high number of complex jointed objects.

In addition, usage of new PxCloth solver allows “100 times faster” simulation of cloth and clothing assets.

With new PhysX 3.1 Engine, The limit on the number of dynaimc agents is gone. On an average home PC, one can easily create a scene with more than 5,000 agents enable dynamics which contains more than 85,000 RBD objects and 80,000 dynamical joints. The cloth simulation will became almost real-time.

Along with APEX 1.1 release, NVIDIA has prepared new 2.71 version of PhysX plug-ins for 3ds Max (2009-2012) and Maya (2009-2012).

Update: 2.72 plug-ins available

2.71 PhysX Plug-in for 3ds Max – Release Notes:

• General: Fix a HW check issue for old driver causing crash for some users.
• General: Saving file at the end of a simulation will capture transform all objects in scene.
• General: Sprinting improvement for 3rd party plugins utilizing this plugin.
• General: Exporter locale issue. Force to keep as period instead of comma.
• General: Removed unused materials and shapes in exported XML files.
• General: Fix the crash with previewer, waving flag sample.
• General: Upgrade 3.x mode to use PhysX SDK 3.1.1
• General: Minor toolbar tweaks.
• General: Prevent some convex hull failure cases.
• General: Increase contact buffer for PhysX 3.x.
• General: Fix the bug that when in the middle baking, it restarts from time start. The reason is that Max does occasional preSave event and we prefer to rewind before saving.

• Rigid Body: Fix button based initial motion calculation.

• Ragdoll: Fix biped COM/pelvis matrix issues.
• Ragdoll: Modify constraint limits of new ragdolls to not be fully open and prevent forcing constraints into special mode.  This doesn’t fully fix biped though.  That will be coming in a later patch or next release.
• Ragdoll: Do no not add nubs on biped.

• Clothing: Latch to nearest doesn’t initialize properly.
• Clothing: Fix issue where bone order for LODs do not match. Remap bone IDs.
• Clothing: Wrong APEX colors by not support BRGA color format and expecting only RGBA.
• Clothing: Fix LOD exporting issues.
• Clothing: Fix crash when resetting scene with disabled modifier.
• Clothing: Fix some random crashes while painting certain models.
• Clothing: Fix baking clothing for some user models.

2.71 PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max is available for download at Developer Support Center. Follow the path:

[Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [APEX DCC Clothing Plugins] -> [Max 2.7.X (beta)]

If you are experiencing trouble with registration of PhysX Developer account, please refer to our registration guide.

2.71 PhysX Plug-in for Maya – Release Notes:

• General: PhysX SDK 3.1.0 => PhysX SDK 3.1.1 upgrade.
• General: If new file does not start at minTime then rewind.
• General: Remove unused materials and shapes in exported XML files.
• General: Remove broken export scale UI. It was only applicable to APEX Clothing and was located in the general section by accident. Generalized scaling will be supported at in a future release.
• General: Toolbar improvement by switching to single click pops up menu instead of right click. Double click executes default behavior. This change is because newer releases of Maya have trouble with toolbars overriding right-click.
• General: Samples make the sample MA file set to 2009 instead of 2012 (someone resaved accidently in newer version).

• Ragdoll: Fixed script errors with ctdm Tutorial file. Also fixed issue with ragdoll helper scroll text height.

• Clothing: Make clothing node start right after skincluster to make skincluster data match.
• Clothing: If topology modifiers are uses after clothing deformer then materials must be left out.
• Clothing: Fix for too many vertices by smart re-welding.
• Clothing: Loading ctw throws script error.
• Clothing: Fix crash when resetting scene with disabled modifier.
• Clothing: Cannot paint new Cloth on older versions of Maya.

You can download 2.71 PhysX plug-in for Maya from Developer Support Center. Follow the path:

[Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [APEX DCC Clothing Plugins] -> [Maya 2.7.X (beta)]

If you are experiencing trouble with registration of PhysX Developer account, please refer to our registration guide.

As always at the beginning of the year, Ken Pimentel (Director of Visual Communication Solutions within Autodesk) has revealed some details about new features and capabilities of upcoming versions of 3ds Max.

Few words were said about MassFX - PhysX SDK based physics simulation solution, introduced in 3ds Max 2012.

We introduced MassFX and mRigids (based on PhysX and our partnership with Nvidia) in 3ds Max 2012. It was a start on our march to a more unified dynamics experience. We’ve continued that effort with Nvidia and we think you’ll be pretty pleased with the results in general. We’re not done, but definite progress in the right direction, we hope you’re pleased with it.

“Results” will include, at least, the addition of mCloth module for cloth simulation (as revealed at SIGGRAPH 11) and forcefields functionality through standart Force objects (as you can notice from a “teaser” video below).

Update: official description for the video:

This scene is a MassFX simulation that includes mRigids (using a new concave meshes option), mCloth objects, breakable Constraints, and mCloth tearable cloth. A lot of the scene geometry (all the stacks of logs) were stacked running separate simulations, just to get a nice realistic distribution, and then baked into their final positions.

The highlight of the simulation is the use of standard Max forces. The forces used include a spherical Gravity, two PBombs, and a Vortex field. These affect the rigid bodies, and mCloth, which not only reacts to the forces, but is also capable of respecting pinned verts and tearing under the influence of the force.

More tighter integration with Particle Flow was also announced.

As part of MassFX, it was clear we had to do something about Particle Flow and making sure it is on a trajectory to support our unified story. I can now say that we recently formalized a multi-year relationship with Oleg (creator of Particle Flow) so that he can be much more involved in our roadmap.

To set expectations, don’t expect immediate results in the coming year and you shouldn’t be discouraged. This is definitely a longer-term effort and Oleg will continue to offer his solutions via his channel for a long time to come. We’ll announce more at the appropriate time. My point in mentioning this is that we see particle flow in particular as an area of investment and research.

Having something like PFlow Box #2 (which is also using PhysX SDK) as a basic feature of MassFX system would be nice.

We believe that more details will be released in upcoming weeks. Stay tuned !

Following the release of 2.7 PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max, NVIDIA has also uploaded new 2.70.1028.1400 plug-in for Maya (2009 – 2012).

Update [22.11.2011]: Maya PhysX plug-in was updated to version 2.70.1109.2230, that includes various bugfixes and minor updates.

UPDATE: 2.71 PhysX plug-in for Maya is released

2.7 PhysX plug-in for Maya – Release Notes:

• General: New unified exporter
• General: Improved PhysX shelf GUI
• General: Support for PhysX 3.1
• General: Support for APEX Clothing 1.1
• General: Compatibility with other plug-ins that use PhysX directly (e.g. Thinking Particles)
• General: Scene validation

• Rigid Bodies: Copy/paste multiple physical meshes
• Rigid Body: Kinematic to Dynamic Switching
• Rigid Bodies: Ragdoll improved mass distribution

• APEX Clothing: Support for latch to nearest regions
• APEX Clothing: Support for Graphical LoD and Contact Layers
• APEX Clothing: improved custom physical mesh handling

2.7 PhysX plug-in for Maya is available at Developer Support Center. You can find it under following path:

[Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [APEX DCC Clothing Plugins] -> [Maya 2.7.X (beta)]

If you are experiencing trouble with registration of PhysX Developer account, please refer to our registration guide.

Next major release of DCC PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max has arrived.

New 2.70.1028.1400 PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max (2009 – 2012, 32- and 64-bit) just have landed on download page at Developer Support Center.

Update: 2.7 PhysX plug-in for Maya is also available

UPDATE: 2.71 PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max is released

Additionally, updated 2.61.1028.0930 PhysX plug-in was released for 3ds Max - it includes minor bug-fixes for 2.61 version.

2.7 PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max – New Features Overview:

• General: Additional PhysX SDK 3.1 solver

Plug-in now features two different simulation engines – PhysX SDK 2.8.4 and new PhysX SDK 3.1, with an option to switch between them seemlesly, without necessity to restart 3ds Max.

Providing same simulation quality as SDK 2.8.4, SDK 3.1 solver is noticeably faster, especially in specific scenes which contain composite meshes with complex concave geometry.

As a test, we’ve measured a time that is needed to simulate 200 frames of “Chainmail” scene (430+ composite rigid bodies), in a viewport. As you can see, in this case SDK 3.1 solver is ~40% faster.

Notes: #1 APEX Clothing is not yet supported by SDK 3.1 engine.

#2 Current SDK 3.1 implementation has limited contact buffer, so it is not recommended to use it with large number of objects.

• General: Support for APEX Clothing 1.1
• General: Unified exporter

One universal “PhysX Export” window for exporting of PhysX scene content and APEX Clothing assets, depending on selected PhysX engine.

• General: Compatibility with other plug-ins that use PhysX directly (e.g. Thinking Particles)

• Rigid Bodies: Make shapes optionally wrap elements instead of entire mesh
• Rigid Bodies: Mirror rag dolls saves the prefix and suffix which was last typed in
• Rigid Bodies: Transform/copy/paste multiple physical meshes
• Rigid Bodies: Mirror physical meshes on same rigid body
• Rigid Bodies: double sided static rigid bodies/shapes
• Rigid Bodies: Automatic calculation for center of mass
• Rigid Bodies: Rag doll improved mass distribution

• APEX Clothing: Support for latch to nearest regions
• APEX Clothing: Support for bones attached to the skeleton that are not part of the skin
• APEX Clothing: Updated PhysX Visualizer with APEX Clothing visualization

• Fixes: Capsules in wrong location on character after previewing in external previewer
• Fixes: Mirror ragdoll shapes got orientation mirroring way off
• Fixes: LoD budget option is not working properly in Max but works in external previewer
• Fixes: Unable to execute export/import clothing template
• Fixes: Collision volumes are sometimes missing in external previewer
• Fixes: Collision capsules sometimes don’t export to apx

We remind you that 2.7 PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max can be downloaded through Developer Support Center. Just follow the path:

[Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [APEX DCC Clothing Plugins] -> [Max 2.7.X (beta)]

If you are experiencing trouble with registration of PhysX Developer account, please refer to our registration guide.

Recently, Autodesk has released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for 3ds Max 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012 – is a cumulative update, that includes various fixes for issues with stability and performance based on customer feedback.

In comparison to previous updates, SP2 now also includes numerous bug fixes for MassFX – new PhysX SDK based physics simulation system, that has replaced Reactor in 3ds Max 2012.

Release Notes

• Fixed rollout state changing to Advance.
• Fixed order of rollout menus.
• Very small objects used in Composite mesh generation no longer cause a program error.
• Changing the high-velocity collision minimum speed value now works correctly.
• The Sleep setting in the World tab no longer causes a MaxScript error.
• An nvpx.ExportPhysXScene error dialog has been updated to be easier to understand.
• Bake now works when the scene contains Bipeds.
• Having the Dynamics Explorer or Scene Explorer open no longer negatively affects previewing the simulation.
• Remove Skeleton now removes all Kinematic Skeletons, not just the first one selected.
• Calculate At Current Frame now works correctly.
• The Rigid Body modifier UI no longer redraws multiple times when opening.
• The inflation value in the Multi-Editor now supports negative values for convex mesh types.
• Selecting and moving MassFX constraints now support the type-in transform.
• Using a Plane with box mesh type now simulates with the correct collision mesh shape.
• You can now Undo the Convert To Custom Mesh function.
• Rigid body collisions now behave correctly with back facing geometry.
• Undo now works after grouping bones in a kinematic skeleton.
• The MassFX SDK now correctly supports contact reports.
• Creation of a new mesh in MassFX rigid body can now be undone.

It was also mentioned that remaining issues, like incompatibility with PhysX engine in Thinking Particles plug-in, will be solved in upcoming hotfix.

You can download Service Pack 2 for 3ds Max 2012 from this page

Note: It is highly recommended to uninstall 2.61 PhysX plug-in (if you have one installed) before applying SP2. It can be safely re-installed after.

After multiple delays and postponements, NVIDIA has finally released updated version of PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max – 2.61.0906.0900

Update [20.09.2011]: updated PhysX plug-in 2.61.0916.1330 for 3ds Max is available (supports 3ds Max 2009-2012). This version includes bug fixes for several problems one may encounter, like crashes while using APEX Clothing functionality in 3ds Max 2012.

Update #2: 2.7 PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max released

New major 2.7 version of the PhysX plug-in is still in development, so this minor 2.6+ release is supposed to resolve compability issues with RayFire, and also add support for 3ds Max 2012. In this case, plug-in installs above default MassFX simulation tool, replacing it and providing additional features, like support for APEX Clothing (and if you’ll uninstall PhysX plug-in, MassFX will be restored).

No information yet on other fixes (since Release Notes are missing), but we were promised to recieve soon.

PhysX plug-in 2.61 for 3ds Max (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 – 32-and 64-bit versions) and 3ds Max Design (2010, 2011, 2012 – 32-and 64-bit versions) is available for download at Developer Support Center.

You can find it in following section: [Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [APEX] -> [APEX DCC Clothing Plugins].

If you are experiencing trouble with registration of PhysX Developer account, please refer to our registration guide.

Update [20.09.2011]: In addition, new PhysX plug-in 2.61.0916.1700 for Maya was also released.

You can download 2.61 PhysX plug-in for Maya (Maya 2009 – 2012, 32-and 64-bit versions) at Developer Support Center.