HardFX

Basic

Group:Controls which Dynamics Group this effect belongs to.
Piece Mode: HardFX can treat the mesh as one whole piece, or as separate unconnected pieces (if the mesh is made up of such pieces). This controls how HardFX treats the mesh.
- 1 Piece - Treats the whole mesh as 1 piece.
- Parts - Treats groups of polygons with common points (Elements) as individual pieces.
- 1Piece>Parts (Collision) - Will treat the mesh as one piece then turn it into parts after a collision.
- 1Piece>Parts (Event) - Will treat the mesh as one piece then turn it into parts after an event.

Adv.Resistance: Uses the XYZ size of the individual pieces to change the object's wind resistance for each piece. Thus if something is wide, tall and thin, then it will receive more pressure in the wide and tall direction, like a leaf would do.
Size: This affects how the mesh is treated for collision,100% will use the object's actual size to collide with, 200% will use twice the mesh's size, and 50% will use half it's size.
Size Effect & Weight: This determines the weight of the pieces. If Size effect is on, HardFx will use the relative size of each piece to affect the weight.
Size Effect & Resistance: This determines the air/wind resistance of the pieces. If Size effect is on, HardFx will use the relative size of each piece to affect the resistance.
Fix: This controls whether the mesh is fixed in place or not.
- Free - The mesh is not fixed in place.
- Spring Fix - The mesh will wobble around its pivot point if moved or collided with.
- Fix - Fixes the mesh in place, but it can spin around its pivot.
- X Spring - Like spring fix, but just allows movement in the mesh's local X direction.
- Y Spring - Like spring fix, but just allows movement in the mesh's local Y direction.
- Z Spring - Like spring fix, but just allows movement in the mesh's local Z direction.
Spring: This sets the strength of the spring.
Spring Length This limits the spring to a maximum length if it's non-zero.
Gravity(m/s^2) A quick way of setting gravity for this mesh.

The rotation tab lets you create swinging door effects as well as controlling how an object rolls on impact.

Axis: Allows you to limit which direction the mesh will rotate in.
Impact Effect: Chooses how impacts affect the rotational inertia.
- Roll - Treats the mesh as a ball and doesn't slow down the rotation.
- Force - Calculates the forces acting against rotation. More useful for boxes, which might roll once or twice, then come to a rocking halt.
- None - No effect on the rotation.
- Stop - Halts all rotation.

Wind Effect:Similarly for the wind.
- Accelerate - Builds up rotation on the mesh.
- Roll - Rotate in a direction perpendicular to the wind and moving direction.
- Spin - Rotate in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement.

Torque Min, Max and Size Effect: These are used to give different size pieces different rotation effects, i.e. make smaller things spin faster.

Collide: Determines when the Resist(spin)effect turns on.
- Free - All the time.
- Collide - After a collision
- Collide(axis) -After a collision, if the collision surface is perpendicular to the mesh's rotation axis.

Swing:Treats the mesh as a swinging object.
- Free - Does not fix the object's position.
- Swing - Fixes the position of the object to allow swinging around the pivot.
- Swing(Wind) - As above but adds the wind to the swing.
Spring: The restoring force for the swing.

Switch By: Allows you to change the impact effect to something new.
- None - no change
- by Changed Group - When the mesh changes Dynamics Group the effect is changed.
- Switch by Event - When the mesh collides with an Event CollisionFX.

Exclusive Collision: Allows you to chose just one object for this mesh to collide with.
Collision by: Choose the shape of the collision. The Basic>Size value affects the actual size of the collision. 100% size makes the collision the exact size of the mesh, 50% makes it half the size, etc.
- Node - Use the mesh to calculate collision. The slowest but most accurate of the collision types.
- Box - Use a bounding box to calculate the collision.
- Sphere - Use a sphere circumscribing the mesh to collide with. This is the fastest of the collision types.

Stop by: When the pieces come to rest, some may still wiggle or vibrate due to inaccuracies in the calculation. This allows you to either stop the pieces when the movement gets below a certain threshold, or use a CollisionFX object set to Event to stop the pieces.
Start by Collision: For bricks in a wall, with a hammer smashing them, you may want to use this so the calculation only starts when the hammer hits them.
- None - Start calculating at the normal time.
- Start by Collision - Start simulating when the pieces are hit by a collision object.
- Restart by collision - used in conjunction with Stop by, so the pieces can start simulating every time they are hit.
Break Distance -This sets how far apart the pieces are from their original positions before they start colliding with other objects.

Self interaction: Determines how the pieces interact with other pieces from the same mesh.
Interaction: Dtermines how the pieces interact with other HardFX meshes.
- None - No interaction.
- Sphere - Use sphere collision in interactions.
- Box - Use Box collision in interactions.
Bounce: Controls how much the pieces bounce off other pieces they collide with.

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