can't render simcloth

[3dway]

My imagination was sparked by the sea warlock thread in the wip section. So I'm messing arount with simcloth.

I have it installed in Viz4, which is virtually the same as max 5.

I can set it up, do the calculation but I can't get it to render the calculation. It just renders the cloth object in it's original frame, for 100 frames.

If I drag the animation slider the cloth object doesn't animate along until I stop dragging, then it snaps to the cloth position calculated for that frame.

If I hit the play button down by the animation slider, the cloth doesn't animate in the viewport it sits in the original frame.

I've tried doing the calculation; turning on the animate button, then doing the calculation. Neither works.

Anyone know what I'm missing here?

[3dway]

Additionally I've found that the cloth deformations only display in the viewport when I have the cloth object selected. I can to to frame 50 and select the cloth and it appears draped over the deflector object. If I deselect it, it goes back to it's original position. It's a modifier on the object that you only see when it's selected.

can anyone else get this behavior in max 5? I want to see if it's peculiar to viz.

after reading some of the help file, it seems that simcloth treats the verts of a cloth object like a particle system. I know that viz doesn't have particle systems. Perhaps the part of the software that renders particle systems is missing.