Become Raptured in 5 Easy Steps
Did you miss out on the rapture? Well here's you chance to get raptured today!
Vote for 3ds Max Features
If you're a 3ds Max 2012 (or any version) user and haven't cast your vote in the AutoDesk Community Wishlist for 3ds Max, do so now! The 3ds Max development team is keeping a close eye on all the feature requests, enhancements, bugs/annoyances, and default setting suggestions that users are providing.
Creating Buoyancy without Reactor
Now that I've shown you Flex can be used to simulate water ripples, you may be wondering about the other part of reactor water simulation in 3ds Max 2012: buoyancy. Buoyancy, which causes objects to float on water, is a little trickier now that we don't have Reactor. To accomplish this, we'll have to use a script controller for position and rotation. Fortunately for us, Shawn Lewis over at Script Spot, released a handy little MaxScript called Follow Surface which allows us to make objects float on the water with very little work. I've tested this script in 3ds Max 2012 and it works flawlessly.
Simulate Water with Flex in 3ds Max 2012
Water Ripples using Flex
With Reactor removed from 3ds Max 2012, users will now need to explore other means of animating physical simulations. This tutorial will cover replacing Reactor's water simulation using Flex, a tool already available in 3ds Max. While you could simulate general water movement or ripples using the Ripple modifier or the Waves Standard Map applied to a Displacement modifier, these options require manual animation and can't be affected by dynamic collisions. Flex, which you may have used to add jiggle to fat characters, simulates soft-body dynamics using springs. It's a very powerful modifier which can be affected by forces and deflectors to simulate cloth, rope, water, and other soft-body dynamics.
Turn Netgear Router into a Print Server
I just purchased a Netgear Wireless N-300 Gigabit Router (WNR3500L) from Best Buy after our 6 year old Linksys router died. It was the least expensive router I could find locally that supported Gigabit transfer rates and, while I could have saved around $20 buying through Amazon, the price was still acceptable.
I later found out that I hit the jackpot with this one. This router is AMAZING! Netgear routers are built with the open source community in mind and they didn't hold back with the hardware on the WNR3500L. This beast has a decent CPU, 8 mb of flash, 64 MB of RAM, and a USB 2.0 port. Out of the box, the router lets you connect and share external storage devices through your router, but with a little open source loving, you can turn your Netgear WNR3500L into a print server so all your wireless devices can print without being plugged in. Note that this may void your warranty and if you're not careful, you could very well brick your router.