Mastering Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2010

Chapter 14. Atmospheres, Effects, reactor, and Particles

3ds Max Design 2010 has several features for adding the appearance of objects in your scene without actually adding any geometry. These features fall into one of two categories: atmospheric effects and rendering effects. Atmospheric effects are effects that appear to show particulate matter in the air (such as mist, smoke, or even fire). Rendering effects change the appearance of a rendered scene by adding objects such as glows and starbursts, but they can also be used to add hair or fur to an object in the scene. The Hair and Fur effect can be used to simulate grass in a scene.

Included with 3ds Max is a physics engine, called reactor, for simulating the collisions between two or more scene ...