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 PlanetSide 2 physics effects showcased in official PhysX trailerNewest MMO shooter with GPU PhysX support |
Batman: Arkham Origins will feature GPU PhysX effects as well
More interesting news are coming from NVIDIA Press Event (Editor’s Day), which was held recently at E3 2013.
It is now confirmed that Batman: Arkahm Origins, third game in the award-winning Batman Saga, will support GPU accelerated PhysX effects.
Both Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City are ones of the best games in the GPU PhysX pocket, so we hope that Arkham Origins will not dissapoint us as well.
The Witcher 3 will support GPU PhysX, now officially
As the PhysX SDK and APEX integration was announced for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, new RPG title from CD Project Red, the only question was bothering us – will the game actually include hardware accelerated PhysX effects?
Finally, the following photo from the NVIDIA Editor’s Day presentation at E3, revealed recently by Igor Stanek, Head of NVIDIA EMEAI Tegra PR, is putting an end to the debate – The Witcher 3 will officially support GPU PhysX, along with other enhancements.
So far, we do not have any detailed information about PhysX SDK (we only assume that PhysX 3 will be used) integration or level GPU PhysX effects.
We can only say that “Fur and Hair”, mentioned in the slide, are related to actual physically simulated hair and fur technology (APEX Hair & Fur), presented previously.
Metro: Last Light PhysX Benchmarks roundup
PC version of recently released Metro: Last Light title features not only vivid DX11 based graphics, but also hardware accelerated PhysX effects.
In the following article we’ll try to gather the most reliable and accurate GPU PhysX benchmarks and tests for this game.
[14.05.2013] 
Metro Last Light – GPU Test by GameGPU
Sufficient amount of NVIDIA GPUs was tested in this article with the help of Metro’s built-in benchmark. However, since heavy graphics options (like SSAA) were used, it is hard to determine actual PhysX performance.
GPU PhysX in Metro: Last Light
Metro: Last Light, a post-apocalyptic first person shooter with survival horror elements, is joining the family of PhysX enabled titles by offering a support for GPU accelerated physics effects.
Update: Metro Last Light PhysX Benchmarks roundup
Update #2: Metro: Last Light – GPU PhysX Profile
First game in the series – Metro 2033 – was also featuring a GPU PhysX content, however, it was limited to basic particle effects.
Was the Last Light able to improve the results of its predecessor? Let’s find out.
PhysX Research: Stable Stacking
An interesting “proof-of concept” demo was revealed today by Pierre Terdiman, senior software engineer in NVIDIA.
It is showcasing new CPU based algorithm, that will allow more effecient and stable simulation of large stacks.
Currently, PhysX SDK can utilize a feature (more like a “crude hack”) called “Adaptive Force” in order to improve stability of the stacks, but it also introduces some side-effects in certain cases.
As you can see on the picture above, 50-box-wide stack, simulated with the new algorithm, remains fully stable, while similar stacks, handled by any other current physics engine (PhysX SDKs/Bullet) collapse shortly.
Demo is also available for public download.
We hope that this new stacking solution will be included in PhysX SDK in the near future.
PhysX SDK and APEX now on Xbox One
NVIDIA has announced that both PhysX SDK physics engine and APEX dynamics framework will offer support for next-generation Xbox One console from Microsoft.
“We are excited to extend our PhysX and APEX technologies to Microsoft’s Xbox One console”, said Mike Skolones, product manager for the PhysX SDK at NVIDIA.
“We look forward to the Xbox developer community taking advantage of PhysX and APEX along with Xbox One’s processing power, programmability and next-generation features to design cutting-edge games that deliver an unparalleled and ultra-realistic experience”
Earlier this year, it was also stated that PhysX SDK/APEX SDK will be available for Sony’s Playstation 4 console.
We assume that similar to PS4 case, PhysX for Xbox One will only use console’s CPU for physics calculations, at least at the beginning.
PhysX System Software 9.13.0325
ASUS 311.54 GPU Drivers have brought us a new release of PhysX System Software - PSS 9.13.0325
Official Release Notes are unknown.
Update: we have received an information that 9.13.0325 PSS is a release candidate for future GPU drivers, does not contain any enhancements for the DLLs and is not recommended to use currently.
You can download PSS 9.13.0325 from our server (25 mb)
Thanks to Stefan for the link.
Metro Last Light: GPU PhysX effects explored
More or less detailed information on GPU PhysX support level in the upcoming Metro: Last Light title was revealed today in the “Metro: Last Light Graphics Breakdown & Performance Guide” article by NVIDIA.
Update: GPU PhysX in Metro: Last Light
Similar to the previous Metro 2033 game, Last Light features two levels of PhysX integration – standart, CPU based physics calculations like rigid body physics and ragdolls, working on all platforms from PC to consoles, and extra, so called “Advanced PhysX” effects, designed to be accelerated on the GPU.
According to the article, advanced physics effects will include:
- Physically simulated particles such as impact debris, sparks, extra chunks from destructible objects and other types of environmental particles.
- SPH based smoke and fog simulation, that reacts to players movements and actions. With the advanced physics disabled, players will see only pre-backed non-interactive animation instead of real-time simulation.
- Interactive cloth objects, such as banners, flags and drapes. Yet again, without advanced PhysX option enabled, most cloth will remain pre-animated or static.
- Dynamic forcefields, such as shockwaves from grenade explosions, that will affect all types of the PhysX effects decribed above, for example, repell all nearby particles and rigid bodies upon detonation.
Looks solid and it seems that PhysX effects in Last Light will end up being more vibrant and diverse than in previous Metro title.
As always, you can expect full PhysX review here on PhysXInfo.com short after Metro: Last Light release, which will happen this week.
Multithreaded performance scaling in PhysX SDK
Recent “The Evolution of PhysX” article has unvealed the current situation with performance improvements among various PhysX SDK vesions, however, one interesting case has remained outside the coverage – performance scaling in multithreaded environments.
It is known that, while PhysX SDK 2.8 has rather limited multi-threading capabilities (mostly working on per-scene or per-compartment basis), PhysX SDK 3.x can distribute various tasks across worker threads much more effective, and thus offer better support for multi-core CPUs.
But how well does multi-threading actually work in PhysX 3 (we’ll take the latest 3.3 version)? Using the same PEEL (Physics Engine Evaluation Lab) tool to the record the performance metrics, we will try to shed the light on this question.
Scene #1 – random dynamic primitives in a box
Static container filled with 256 random primitives (sphere, box, capsule).
The Evolution of PhysX SDK, performance-wise
A quite interesting, unexpected and a little emotional article – The Evolution of PhysX – was published today by Pierre Terdiman, senior software engineer in NVIDIA and one of the developers of the original NovodeX engine.
Update: Multithreaded performance scaling in PhysX SDK
The article provides in-depth performance comparison between various versions of PhysX SDK (2.8.4, 3.2 and 3.3 Beta), using well-known open-source Bullet physics engine as as a reference point.
The performance tests were performed using PEEL – Physics Engine Evaluation Lab, a specialized tool that is using within NVIDIA to research behaviour and performance of various physics engines using a set of standartized scenes.