This section provides introductory and overview material about the concepts and building blocks used in MassFX. If you haven't used MassFX before, this is a great place to stat.
You can work with MassFX using the:
MassFX Tools toolbar
Animation menu
MaxxFX Tools dialog
Mass FX Explorer.
Topics in this section
The MassFX Interface
This topic provides an overview of the various ways of interacting with MassFX in 3ds Max.
Rigid Bodies & Constraints
Rigid bodies and constraints are the core components of a MassFX simulation. The topics in this section are intended to help you understand how to use them.
MassFX Cloth
An important part of the MassFX toolset is mCloth. Basically, mCloth is a version of the Cloth modifier that can participate fully in MassFX simulations. It can collide with other objects in the simulation, affecting their motion, and it can be affected by other objects' motion as well.
Ragdolls
Animated characters can participate in MassFX simulations as Dynamic and Kinematic rigid bodies. With the Dynamic option, a character can both affect and be affected by other objects in the simulation. Using the Kinematic option, a character can affect the simulation, but cannot be affected by it. For example, an animated character could knock down an obstacle in its way, but a large box falling on it would not change its behavior in the simulation.
Visualizing the Simulation
As soon as you've set up a MassFX simulation, you can test the settings by playing it in the viewports. If problems occur, it might be obvious what's going wrong, but if not you can use the MassFX Visualizer to analyze the simulation in detail.
Baking Simulation Results
To render the results of a MassFX simulation, or if you want to tweak aspects of the simulation manually, you need to bake the project. Baking creates standard keyframed animation for Dynamic objects and converts them to Kinematic status.