Ever since the existence of Unreal Engine 4, next-generation game development platfrom from Epic Games, was revealed, one question was bothering us – will it still rely on PhysX SDK integration for physics sumulation, like UE3 and UDK?

And it seems the answer is “Yes”.

During presentation of PhysX and APEX features, that NVIDIA employee was giving to Gametrailers at GDC 2012, following words were said:

So here we are showing some of our technologies that are already incorporated in the games and game engines.

In this case all three of these demos are in Unreal Engine.. we are integrated in both Unreal 3 and upcoming Unreal 4.

Almost a year has passed since NVIDIA and Epic Games presented APEX 1.0 integration in Unreal Development Kit (UDK) engine.

And now, February 2012 release of UDK can “please” us with silent introduction of newest APEX 1.1 Framework, which includes updated APEX Clothing and APEX Destruction modules.

Unfortunately, UDN documentation was not yet updated, and some flaws were found in this release - for example, APEX GPU Rigid Body libraries are missing from the February distribution. Not to mention, that not all APEX 1.1 features have made it into UDK.

UPDATE: March UDK is released. Issues with missing GRB libraries were resolved.

Please note: only assets created with latest authoring tools - PhysXLab 1.1 and 2.71 DCC plug-ins - are compatible with APEX 1.1

Let’s take a look on some of the new features in APEX 1.1 integration we were able to discover:

APEX DESTRUCTION 1.1:

For additional data on Destruction Module please refer to UDN page

• GPU Rigid Bodies (GRB). One of the most interesting features of 1.1 release is new ability to calculate rigid body physics on CUDA-capable GPUs, thus achieveing performance improvement in scenes with many destructible actors and simulated chunks, while using exact same assets and settings as for CPU physics.

----- Following is valid only for February 2012 UDK

As we have mentioned, current GRB implementation is missing vital libraries and also has some bugs: you can either wait until March UDK release or try it out now (for your own risk) – using our .dll package (36 mb).

Copy “GRB_1_x86.dll” and “pxtask_cuda_x86.dll” to “UDK\Binaries\Win32\” folder.

Copy “GRB_1_x64.dll” and “pxtask_cuda_x64.dll” to “UDK\Binaries\Win64\” folder.

---- Previous is only valid for February 2012 UDK

Now, to enable GRBs you need to set following parameters in “Engine\Config\BaseEngine.ini” file:

bDisablePhysXHardwareSupport=False

ApexGRBEnable=True

You may also want to tweak following settings:

ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCount – maximum number of simulated chunks.

ApexDestructionMaxShapeCount – each chunk could have multiple shapes, so you can limit those too.

ApexGRBGPUMemSceneSize – GPU memory allocated to store scene data (shapes, actors).

ApexGRBGPUMemTempDataSize – GPU memory allocated to store contacts and collision data.

Please note that GPU acceleration: #1 Is only working for Destructible assets, not regular UDK physics actors.  #2 Is not effective in scenes with small amount of physical objects. #3 Supports only one-way interaction with CPU rigid bodies.

It is recommended to install latest GPU driver.

• New Sort by Benefit option defines how chunks are removed from the scene when resource budget is reached. Benefits calculation is based on screen size (which, itself, depends on size of the chunk/island and distance from the camera) and age of the chunk, not just relative lifetime, as before.

It is enabled by default:

ApexDestructionSortByBenefit=True

Thus, enabling this option will prevent undesirable situations, when, for example, chunks dissapear in front of you as something gets destroyed in the background. New system will also preserve large chunk inslands and delete smaller insignificant chunks in the first place.

• Ability to have multiple collision hulls per chunk for better representation of objects with concave geometry.

PhysXLab 1.1 performs convex decomposition automatically, while complexity of physical mesh can be controlled by “Collision Quality” settings under “Asset” tab.

Collision hulls (red wireframe) on various quality settings

Increased collision quality can also help to avoid interpenetrations between chunks, but will consume more resources.  But if your chunks are perfectly convex (for example, if Voronoi shattering is used), you can safely reduce quality to 1 or 2, in order to improve performance.

• Chunks instancing and tiling. Matching chunks created from cutout fracturing can be instanced within the same actor, as well as other destructible actors which reference the same asset – to speed up rendering.

Instancing option (it is located under “Graphics” tab) must be set during authoring process.

APEX CLOTHING 1.1:

For additional data on Clothing module please refer to UDN page

• Per-actor scaling. Each actor can now be scaled individually and simulated correspondingly.

• Asynchronous cooking. Cooking will be delayed if another actor already started cooking, in case if several actors with different per-actor scale are created. Actors will not be simulated during this process.

This option is also enabled by default:

ApexClothingAllowAsyncCooking=True

• Adaptive Target Frequency reduces the high frequency jittering that happens due to slightly varying timesteps, by adapting the per-cloth gravity slightly.

Target frequency is computed as the average over the real last N (normally 60) simulation steps. Number of steps can be defined with following parameter:

ApexClothingAvgSimFrequencyWindow=60

We’ll update this page as more official information will be released.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has announced today PlanetSide 2, a sequel to previously-popular MMO first person shooter game, PlanetSide.

PlanetSide 2 takes all the groundbreaking features from the original game – massive multiplayer battles, distinctive empires to rally around, and enormous continents to support intense ground and air combat – and adds features that modern gamers have come to expect out of the FPS and MMO genres.

PlanetSide 2 will be based on new next-generation MMO engine, called Forgelight, that will rely on PhysX SDK integration for all in-game physics calculations.

SOE has also partnered with NVIDIA to provide the game’s physics engine, utilizing its PhysX technology to allow art and design environments in PlanetSide 2 to become truly interactive. NVIDIA PhysX technology is considered the world’s most comprehensive physics solution for designing real-time, real-world effects into interactive entertainment titles.

According to our knowledge, there is a high possibility that PlanetSide 2 will feature GPU accelerated PhysX effects.

In addition to PlanetSide, Forgelight technology will also be used in another upcoming MMO project – EverQuest 3.

You can watch PlanetSide 2 trailer here

YouTube user raven67854 has presented several tutorial videos, explaining basic principles of APEX Destruction module usage inside the Unreal Development Kit engine.

Update: New tutorials provide in depth view of APEX Destruction usage in UDK

First tutorial is covering basic principles of mesh fracturing using PhysXLab tool.

Second one is showcasing import of APEX assets in UDK.

– We’ll update this post as more tutorials will emerge –

Additional materials, you would probably like to take a look at:

• UDK – APEX Destruction Reference
• APEX Destruction authoring in PhysXLab

NVIDIA announced today that Funcom’s Dreamworld 2.5, a game engine for MMO games, now features server-side PhysX SDK integration.

“We are excited to be working closely with NVIDIA to integrate PhysX technology into our Dreamworld 2.5 engine,” said Rui Casais, chief technology officer at Funcom. “Server-side collision using PhysX will allow us to add a new level of realism to our online worlds, and we look forward to implementing other enhancements as well, including NVIDIA APEX clothing and destruction, to make our games even more interactive and immersive.”

Server-side PhysX SDK, used by Funcom, is specially modified 64-bit Linux version.

Dreamworld 2.5 currently powers two popular MMOs: Age of Conan and Anarchy Online, with a third, the Secret World, currently in development. The updated Dreamworld Engine 2.5 with server-side PhysX integration is now live in Age of Conan.

Epic Games has announced March release of Unreal Development Kit (UDK), free version of Unreal Engine 3.

March UDK includes all DX11 features, that were presented in Samaritan Demo at GDC 2011.

Important DirectX features now shipping with UDK include:

• Tessellation and displacement;
• Geometry shaders;
• Multisampled textures; and
• Shader Model 5.

In addition, UDK is now fully integrated with NVIDIA APEX, high-level scalable framework oriented on creation of complex physical effects, like destructible environment of dynamic character clothing.

NVIDIA’s APEX technology has also been integrated into the engine and ships with UDK.

NVIDIA APEX technology enables artists to quickly generate physically simulated clothing and destructible environments.

However, to take advantage of APEX functionality, authoring tools are needed to be released by NVIDIA. According to our sources, this may happen very soon, probably within a week.

Update: APEX 1.0 Beta released

Unfortunately, it is also unclear what exactly modules were integrated with UDK and are available right out of the box. Clothing and Destruction – that’s for sure,  Turbulence is also mentioned on Samaritan Demo page..

Other APEX features available now include turbulence

..but since APEX Turbulence authoring pipeline was never revealed, it is unknown if this module will require standalone application or functionality is already built into UDK Editor. No information on APEX Particles and APEX Vegetation modules.

Update: Browsing through March UDK we weren’t able to find any APEX bindings but Clothing and Destruction modules. It seems only those two will be available for UDK users – at this moment, at least.

NVIDIA and Epic Games are teaming up this week at Game Developers Conference to showcase latest additions to Unreal Engine 3, like DX 11 support and NVIDIA APEX Framework integration.

“Thanks to NVIDIA’s excellent cross-platform physics technologies and DX11 expertise, we have enhanced Unreal Engine 3 to bring unprecedented new levels of realism and demonstrate what the next generation of gaming will be,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games.

Alpha and beta versions of certain APEX modules were used in UE3 based games previously (Dark Void and Batman Arkham Asylum), but now full APEX toolset will be available to all UE3 licensees and UDK users as well, and can be used to create high-fidelity physics content (character clothing, for example) even in CPU PhysX and console games.

“Unreal Engine 3 continues to amaze us and represents a generational leap in gaming,” said Drew Henry, general manager of GPU business at NVIDIA. “With the addition of our PhysX, APEX and 3D Vision technologies, it will deliver unprecedented, high-end visual experiences for gamers. We can’t wait to play the games that Unreal Engine 3 will power in the future.”

The new Unreal Engine 3 real-time demo, (probably known as “Samaritan Demo”) being shown during GDC exclusively in Epic’s booth, is showcasing DX11 features like complex environments and detailed character models, and realistic character interactions with the environment using APEX Destruction amd APEX Clothing modules (accoding to some sources, PhysX SDK 3.0 may be utilized as well).

We believe, that more information on new UE3 tech will be revealed in upcoming days, so stay tuned.

Epic Games has released latest, January 2011 version of Unreal Development Kit (UDK), free edition of Unreal Engine 3.

One of main highlight of this version is enabled PhysX functionality for iOS development, while previous Mobile UDK featured only basic collision detection system.

Mobile

• PhysX is now supported on iOS.

Rigid body physics, fracturable meshes and ragdolls are among supported features.
Note: Cloth, fluids and soft bodies remain disabled on iOS for performance reasons.

According to our knowledge, this has became possible thanks for standalone PhysX SDK port for iOS (previously, only Unity Technologies have possessed their own custom iOS PhysX port  – for Unity 3D engine).

However, this time we may hope that iOS PhysX SDK will be available for public download someday, along with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux versions.

After long period of beta-testing, Unity 3.0 game development platform is available officially.

Apart from other substantial features and changes, like Deferred Render, Beast Lighmapping technology, Umbra Occlusion Culling and Unified Editor, Unity 3.0 also includes updated physics engine, based on  recent version of PhysX SDK.

Physics Improvements:

• Upgraded PhysX to 2.8.3.
• Cloth and clothing simulation: use the new InteractiveCloth, SkinnedCloth and ClothRenderer components.

New in Unity 3 are two kinds of cloth: Fully physically simulated cloth effects that interact fully with the rest of the environment. The other, Skinned Cloth, is an optimized solution for garments on animated characters.

You can use it for animated shirts, trousers, skirts, capes and hair in a physically accurate way. It is highly optimized and can handle high poly animated cloth pieces.

• Layer based ignore collisions: use the Physics inspector or Physics.IgnoreCollision().
• Continuous collision detection, to make sure that fast moving colliders will not pass through other colliders. See Collider.collisionDetectionMode.
• Added Physics.SphereCast() and Physics.CapsuleCast() to implement volume raycasts.
• Added Rigidbody.SweepTest() to check if a Rigidbody would collide with anything if moved into a certain direction.

You can check most of Unity 3.0 features by yourself directly from your browser, using newest Unity Bootcamp Demo (unity webplayer is required).

September Beta version of Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free version of the Unreal Engine 3, is available for download.

This month’s build of UDK features significant additions, including:

· UDK users now have access to the gameplay profiler tool.

· Matinee’s movement tracks can now be split into individual translation and rotation components.

· Users can bulk edit texture properties within the Content Browser.

Apart from other usefull changes, September UDK is upgrading PhysX SDK integration with newest features of 2.8.4 SDK, like driverless destribution, SSE2 optimizations and enhanced cloth solver.

Also, we have noticed full pack of NVIDIA APEX .dlls – when APEX will be released to public, you’ll be able to use it with UDK right away.

· ‘PhysXDestructible’ has been removed.

· APEX destructibles are replacing them.

You can download September UDK Beta here or here

As for APEX Toolset release (without it APEX integration into UDK is useless for regular developer), several sources are indicating that this is going to happen somewhere in October