Sneak peek: 3ds Max’s new mCloth cloth sim system
Autodesk has posted another sneak peek video showing development work on 3ds Max – in this case, updates to the MassFX unified physics simulation framework.
The ‘over the shoulder’ video, posted on Ken Pimentel’s blog, shows the new mCloth cloth simulation system, used in conjunction with the existing mRigids and a standard particle system.
Cloth and particles and rigid bodies, oh my
According to the tool designer: “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.”
Again, there’s no word about when the new simulation features will find their way into a commercial release, but given the timing, and that Pimentel mentions beta testers in his post, we imagine sooner rather than later.