Can't get Physx Cloth to even simulate in Maya 2017

I’m trying to set up a character’s cape in Maya with physx cloth, but nothing seems to work. Even in a basic scene with a single bone and plane. When I launch the physx viewer the cloth geometry is invisible or not there at all (only the non simulating geo is displayed). If I paint max distance I see some movement on the area, but it’s very slow and stiff.

I’ve tried using the physx play button, the maya play button, both at once, etc. Am I missing something? I’ve also tried physx 3.3.4 and 3.3.3 in 2017 as well as 2016 without any luck.

I’m following this tutorial: Basic Unreal Engine 4 Apex Cloth - YouTube

So I decided to just watch the tutorial because nothing was working and it’s explained later on that you need to set the max distance in the vertex paint settings. About 5 mins in