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Frequently Asked Questions 821
Fr e q u en t l y As ke d Qu es ti o n s
See also: Troubleshooting (page 2–823)
Ca n I assign initial velocities to objects?
How?
Yes. At the start of the simulation, reactor assigns
to each object the velocity it currently has in
3ds Max. In other words, if an object is moving
during the frame range A to B, and you start the
reactor animation setting Start Frame (page 2–806)
in between A and B, the object will start with the
velocity it had in your animation.
Wa rning: Make sure the object has the desired velocity
at the exact frame where reactor starts the simulation
(Start Frame). Since 3ds Max usually decelerates an
object when animating its movement usin g keys at time
A and B, starting the reactor animation at time B won’t
add any velocity to the reactor simulation. In order to
have initial velocity in the reactor animation, start at a
frame between A and B.
Is it possible to modify the animation in
Cloth/Sof t /R ope/Water ?
The animation for Cloth, Sof t (mesh), and Rope is
internally stored in the respective modifier using a
memor y-optimized format. Unfortunately, there
is no direct access to those key frames. However,
you can use the Point Cache modifier (page 1–758)
to do some manipulations.
ThereissomeMAXScriptaccesstoWater
key frames. For details on MAXScript, choose
Help > MAXScript Reference.
Wha t ha ppened to Poi nt-Nai l constr ai nt?
The Point-Nail constraint from reactor 1 has
been superseded by generalizing the Point-Point
constraint (page 2–750).TheoldPoint-Nail
constraint is equivalent to a-single bodied
Point-Point constraint
Can I a pply the Cl o th /So ft/Ro pe mod ifier
to pa r t of a mesh?
While the Soft, Cloth, and Rope (page 2–777)
modifiers apply to all the vertices, you can fix or
keyframe vertices of the mesh or spline by using
deformable constraints (page 2–795).Fixedor
keyframedverticeswillnotbesimulatedphysically
Can I a pply the Cl o th /So ft/Ro pe mod ifier
to more t han one obj ect?
In general, no, because the animation is stored
explicitly in a single modifier. The only exception
is the FFD soft body (page 2–786):Ifyouhavean
FFD modifier applied to more than one object,
you can apply a reactor Soft Body modifier (page
2–784) to any (or many) of the bodies. You should
still add only one of the objects to the Soft Body
Collection (page 2–788).
Which parameters can I animate?
Only Wind (page 2–803) parameters are
animatable.
Can a keyfra med ob jec t parti cipat e in
the simula tion?
Yes. For objects that don’t change shape , and for
which reactor should not create keyframes, use
unyielding rigid bo dies. For objects that change