RayFire Tool

#801

@mir-vadim

Sure ill post them here :slight_smile:

And about the test scene:

Tepot: 78
Box: 1625

Totalt fragment objects: 1703

And it only took a few minutes to calculate on my core2 duo 2,5ghz laptop.

edit
If anyone wants to look at settings or test themself, ive uploaded the scene file.

http://www.thomaskc.dk/wip/3dsmax/breaking_box.rar

Note! the scene file is for 3ds max 2009.
(around 22mb rar - 78mb unpacked)

#802

I have a question though… How would you guys setup a sequence where you would have a wall which is inactive, until an object (cylinder) pokes holes in it? I cant seem to get to control a collision objects while its hand animated ?

you can see the rough setup idea here

www.thomaskc.dk/wip/3dsmax/wall_break.avi

in that test i just through the cylinder at the wall, but if I wanted to have 100% control over it, by animating it ?

the closest thing ive found is by making it an influense object, but that aint right either, since it wont push/break/collide with the wall then.

edit

Also, what is it that makes the calculation tesselate new fragments during calculation?! I mean does it only happen when using influence geometry or how is that controlled? my first tests didnt do it… its a cool effect, but things get REALLY heavy… and an option to use it or not might become handy.

thanks

#803

Hi mir-vadim,

First of all, thank you for your help.

I would have said, I’m using the 64bits version, so there is no PhysiX support.
I’m gonna try installing the 32bits demo and do what you suggested.

I already watched a lot of your tutorials. It realy helps, but I didn’t realised it was sometime with PhysiX, and sometime with Reactor.

Hope the 32bits version will help :slight_smile:

I will come back later to say :wink:

#804

Hi, this is second and I guess last PhysX engine disadvantage. PhysX engine unable to affect on Inactive objects by Unyielding object. The best workaround in this case is to use wall fragments as Deactivated Impact objects, and animated Unyielding object as activation geometry in Physx influence list.
I showed this feature in this tutorial,
http://mirvadim.com/videos/tut/RayFire141_PhysX_Objects_Activation.wmv
only difference is to define sphere as Unyielding object.
Let me know how this will help You and post here results.

#805

thanks for the reply, im actually testing that right now… but if you see the editted part of my earlier post, things are getting very slow due to constant fragmentation.

#806

So I found a solution, and thanks again Mir V.

the result is here:

http://www.thomaskc.dk/wip/3dsmax/wall_drill.mov

The idea was to have a drill cut through a wall.

It was achived by putting the fragmented wall in the impact section and then telling it to freeze all impact objects.

the “drill” cylinder is an unyielding object AND an influence object (activate by geometry). So what happens is that the cylinder gets close to the wall, activates it and then collides with it due to the unyielding part. at the same time i have 100% control of the cylinders movement as the gravity does not take over.

a great way to speed up things is by making the wall rough with large fragments and then turn on “demolish geometry” in the interactive demolition options.
Rembere here, that the RayXplosion settings are used here, so before you simulate the animation set the fragmentation to a reasonable amount… what all this does is that you have a simple wall, that gets detailed only where the cylinder “hits”, as you can see in my quick test.

hope this helps someone else, atleast I got smarter :stuck_out_tongue:

#807

Hi everyone,

I m getting crazy.

On my main computer, I m running Vista 64bits and max2008-64bits.
When I install 3dsmax 2008 - 32bits, it doesn’t load at all… (because of vista?)

So, I tried on a second computer, running Xp 64bits and 3dsmax2008 (32 and 64bits)

I never had problem on this one, and 3dsmax launchs perfectly. But… when I install RayFire 1.42 -32bits (demo) on this computer… 3dsmax2008 just doesn’t load anymore.
And desinstalling it doesn’t help 3dsmax to launch back, I have to desinstall/reinstall max.

I don’t understand the problem.

I will try to desinstall Ageia PhysiX (any conflict?) on the second computer before installing max2008 and RayFire, but… is that the problem?

(I didn’t find anything to help here: http://www.mirvadim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2)

or maybe (would be best in my case), is there a way to use PhysiX with Rayfire on a 64bits 3dsmax2008 version?

#808

Hi,
Try to delete manually these two Physx plugin files.
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max\plugins\pxplugin.dlm and
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max\NxTetra.dll
And try again to launch max.

#809

I don’t realy know how but finaly 3dsmax2008 works fine on my vista 64bits. And I have been able to install rayfire. So…

Using PhysiX, the simulation with the bomb starts calculating, but it stops prematurely:

– Unable to convert: $selection to type: <node>

#810

Hi, can You send scene for tests?
Save it right before start simulation and send to me, please.

#811

finaly it works!!! :smiley: don’t know how, or why, but it works and that’s cool!!!

(sorry for the scene with the error, I don’t remember which it was, I’ve tried so many things since it works :slight_smile: )
If I encounter the problem again, I’ll send you a scene.

I’m realy having fun with this tool, fantastic job Mir! Congratulations!
The physix engine is awesome, I will never use reactor anymore :slight_smile:

Just a question while I’m discovering all the possibilities of Rayfire:

  • guess I have shelves that are groups of simple boxes
    (doing that I can use only “bounding boxes” for impact objects, even if there are object in the shelves)
  • and that I would like some shelves to break into boxes they are composed of (but no into fragments) and some that I don’t want to be break (neither into boxes or fragments, but just moving)

Is it possible to do that?

(the only way I found is to modelise in one piece of polys the shelves I don’t want to be break, using the “add rayfire properties to selected objects” > steel or whatever and concave objects. But I guess doing that slows down the simulation. And I can’t test cause the “add rayfire properties” is disabled in the demo :slight_smile: )

If I can suggest you something for the next versions, it would be great to give the possibility of disabling some objects of the simulation (and giving the possibily to use ctrl+shift to select them in a list)

Example,
I have a lot of objects in the impact objects list. Some are groups, other just boxes. And now I would like to add a new object just to be able to fragment it. The only way to do that is to clear the list, adding the one I want to fragment, and then add objects, open ing every groups before doing that, and then closing all of them once they are added. Maybe a bit time consuming.

(maybe it is already possible to do something with “add rayfire properties”, but I can’t test)

Once more, fantastic tool you did here!

#812

Hi and thanks, :slight_smile:
For now it is impossible to break group partially.
In current version You can only break whole group at once.
I am planning to add ability to partially break groups in next version though.

The reason I added groups support is to add some way to simulate dynamics concave objects. For now Physx engine just cant simulate concave dynamics objects as concave, it creates convex proxy geometry for them. So it is impossible to model part of the shelf which You don’t want to break and define it as concave. It will be simulated as convex and all objects inside this convex proxy geometry will explode immediatelly.
Also, if You just want to demolish group, but don’t want to demolish geometry just turn OFF “Demolish geometry” in Interactive Demolition properties.

And thanks for suggestion,
I will think how to implement this.

#813

Hi Mir-
I still can’t seem to get PhysX working on my work computer. When I try to select PhysX from the drop down in RayFire it just gives me an error that the Nvidia software isn’t loaded. It is loaded. I’ve installed it at least twice. See screen grab below.You mentioned last time that there was some issue of installing the Nvidia software too many times. Do you think there’s some residual software somewhere on my computer that’s confusing this? Really need help with this.

Thanks

Alec

#814

Hi, first of all where is NVIDIA Game System Software 2.8.1 which automatically installs after RayFire installation?

Install last 1.42 version again please.

Also at this moment available new NVIDIA PhysX System Software 8.10.13
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_8.10.13_whql.html
You can install this one instead of old, if installation of 1.42 will not help.

Let me know how this will help.
And sorry for inconvenience.
All these installations/deinstallations/reinstallations bother me no less then You. :slight_smile:

#815

I think I found a way to do that kind of stuff.

  • I add the boxes wich composed all of my shelf in impact objects.
  • for the shelves I don t want to be break into boxes, I create 1 group/shelf
  • for the shelf I want to break into pieces (but not fragment), I create as many group as there are boxes composing the shelf (one group/box > 21 groups for this shelf).
  • I don’t enable “demolish groups” but enable demolish geometry.

doing that, the “one group” shelves just move, the objects into the shelves break into fragments, and the last shelf break into boxes

there is always a solution :slight_smile:

#816

Nice, do not forget to post here results. :slight_smile:

#817

Thanks Mir-
Works perfect now. Don’t know why that install didn’t work. Working fine now.

Appreciate it.

Alec

#818

How come when you fracture something up and just want to sim it crumbling it seems to explode outwards? I have been able to get it not to do that by turning the gravity up (to 30!!) but this is not ideal as it still dosent look right.
Also I have a sphere that pushes through my fragments to activate them and its movement is stepped in the substeps, while the fragments are calculated each frame. The sphere is ONLY in the physx influence list.

#819

I had the same problems at first, but its physX and how it handles selfcollision.

All you need to be sure of is that NOISE is set to 0,0 EVERYTIME you make fragtions. with just tiny noise the fragments will overlap just slightly and physX will do what it can from start to revert this, by moving the fragments apart :slight_smile: thereby your “boom” effect.

Hope this helps you.

#820

This will be awesome, for Impact objects, so that parts of the group can have objects that break, and not all of the objects in that group would break, and we can animate this too as an impact object. :thumbsup:

have noticed that if objects are inside one another, from noise in cutting or touching, PhysX will do a forced push and that (currently) may cause objects to blow up undesirably.