Computer and Softwares Tips

Dynamics

3Ds Max has traditionally come with several basic particle emitters. As of version 8, there are 6 basic particle emitters (not including Particle Flow) exhibiting specific behaviors. Particle View is the primary interface for building and modifying Particle Flow systems. The first event in the system is always a global event, whose contents affect all particles in the system. It has the same name as the Particle Flow source icon. By default, the global event contains a single Render operator that specifies rendering properties for all particles in the system. You can add other operators here to have them act globally, such as Material, Display, and Speed.

The global event also serves as the Particle View representation of the particle system. You can create a new system by duplicating this event, or by adding an Empty Flow or Standard Flow. Conversely, if you clone the Particle Flow icon in a viewport, or add a new PF Source, the new system appears in Particle View as well.

The second event is called the birth event, because it must contain a Birth operator. The Birth operator should exist at the top of the birth event, and in no other place. The default birth event also contains a number of operators that act locally to specify properties of particles while in that event. The default particle system provides a basic global event and birth event that serve as a useful starting point for creating your own system. If you like, you can instead start with an empty system that lets you build a particle system from scratch.

The traditional particle emitters are:
Spray
Snow
Blizzard
PArray
PCloud
Super Spray

Particle Flow is a sophisticated non-linear, event-driven particle system developed by Oleg Bayborodin as one of MAX's seven particle emitters. Unlike most particle systems available in today's 3D packages, Particle Flow allows the user to design the behavior of a particle based on a series of user-defined Events (Procedures) in a streamlined and intuitive GUI called Particle View. Within the Particle View interface, Events are created, which are composed of Operators and/or Tests. Event operators and tests are evaluated from top to bottom, once per every integration step, resulting in control of velocity, shape, size, (and other properties) of particles. Particles can be sent to other events through the use of Tests; special operators which check if any particle meets certain criteria within an event. If a particle passes a test, such as the Age Test in a particular event, it is sent through a wire connecting it to another event, in which other operators and tests can affect its behavior.

3ds Max includes a physics engine, called reactor, originally created by Havok.Reactor can simulate rigid bodies, soft bodies, cloth, gravity, and other forces. Like many physics engines, reactor uses a simplified convex hull, but can be customized to use all vertices, at a cost in processing time.

Rendering

Scanline rendering
The default rendering method in 3DS Max is scanline rendering. Several advanced features have been added to the scanliner over the years, such as global illumination, radiosity, and ray tracing.

Mental ray
Mental ray is a production quality renderer integrated into the later versions of MAX, and is a powerful rendering tool, with bucket rendering, a technique that distributes the rendering burden between several computers efficiently. The 3ds Max version of mental ray also comes with a set of tools that allow a myriad of effects to be created with relative ease.

RenderMan
A third party connection tool to RenderMan pipelines is also available for those that need to integrate Max into Renderman render farms.

V-Ray
A third-party render engine plug-in for 3D Studio MAX. It is widely used, frequently substituting the standard and mental ray renderers which are included bundled with 3ds Max. V-Ray continues to be compatible with older versions of 3ds Max.

Brazil R/S
A third-party high-quality photorealistic rendering system created by SplutterFish, LLC capable of fast ray tracing and global illumination.

FinalRender
Another third-party raytracing render engine created by Cebas. Capable of simulating a wide range of real-world physical phenomena.

Maxwell Render
A third-party photorealistic rendering system created by Next Limit Technologies providing robust materials and highly accurate unbiased rendering.