After year of silence, OpenC1 project (previously known as OpenCarmageddon) – fan-made remake of classic Carmageddon racing game -  returns in a form of new and stable version 1.4.

OpenC1 utilizes XNA for graphics and PhysX SDK as physics engine. It implements almost all features of the original game (vehicles, tracks, vehicle damage and car deformations, pedestrians, AI and opponents, checkpoints, UI, etc) and can use data files (car models, levels, textures, sounds) from Carmageddon title and Splatpack add-on.

In comparison to 1.3.1 version, usability has been improved greatly – OpenC1 can now automatically download free content from Camageddon and Splatpack demos, it also includes data management functionality and is far more stable.

All you need is to download archive with 1.4 version from OpenC1 project page, extract it, install latest PhysX System Software, XNA Framework 3.0 and run the OpenC1.exe file.

Today we have stumbled upon following article (and related post), that is promising huge framerate boost in Batman: Arkham City with GPU PhysX effects enabled by replacing certain APEX .dll file with same .dll, but from Mafia II title (which is also featuring APEX based GPU PhysX effects). We decided to perform a little research on this effect:

Author of this method is suggesting to replace original file APEX_Clothing_x86.dll, located in Batman: AC folder, with renamed APEX Clothing.dll from Mafia II installation. Both those libraries are used by APEX Clothing module (and are responcible for cloth and clothing simulation), but have different version – Batman’s .dll is related to APEX 1.1 and the one from Mafia II – APEX 1.0.

Thus, with APEX 1.0 library cloth assets in Batman are not recognized and not simulated – they are simply appearing on level in frozen state, hovering above the ground (like carpets and posters on a screenshot below).

Disabled cloth simulation is giving you desired fps boost, but you can achieve same effect by setting “Hardware Accelerated PhysX” option to “Normal” – this will switch off all cloth and clothing simulation, leaving only particle PhysX effects, without necessity to mess up the .dlls.

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We have added a set of comparison PhysX screenshots for Batman: Arkham City, which in pair with previously released comparison video are completing our GPU PhysX Profile for this title.

You can view comparison screenhots, video and additional info at Batman: Arkham City – GPU PhysX Profile page .

Time to update PhysX performance metrics of NVIDIA GPUs with newest title with Hardware PhysX support – Batman: Arkham City.

In following article we’ve tried to gather all the benchmarks and tests, published on the web.

[25.11.2011] Batman Arkham City im Technik-Test: Grafikkarten-, DirectX-11- und Physx-Benchmarks by PCGamesHardware.de

German article with graphics benchmarks, overview of DX 11 and PhysX features, and a superficial PhysX tests.

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Batman: Arkham City, sequel to award winning Arkham Asylum title and second GPU PhysX game this year, has finally hit the shelves worldwide.

Update: Batman: Arkham City – GPU PhysX Profile

As usually, we are proud to present you our PhysX review and comparison video, showcasing extra physical effects that can be found in PC version of the game.

Can't view the video ? Watch alternative variant on Vimeo

Some technical details, like difference between PhysX settings, were already revealed in our preview article, so let’s give a score to different aspects of GPU PhysX implementation and compare them to previous Batman: Arkham Asulum title:

All effects are done accurately, with diligence – you will not see jerky or buggy behaviour (within physics engine limitations, of course), art is fine, almost everything is configured correctly. However, some particle effects could be done better – for example, it is not appealing to see when glass shards are jumping all over the place like they were made out of rubber.

PhysX effects are scattered all over the game and accumulated in a places you will visit during main storyline (for example, you won’t see dynamic paper sheets on a random street).

Overall amount of extra physics content is similar to Arkham Asylum, but the components differ: you won’t see many “environmental” cloth objects, like all those banners and flags that can be teared appart with batarang, but in return APEX Clothing module is used extensively to simulate dynamic clothing on characters, including hoodies and coats on thugs, pants on russian twin-clowns, costume of Bruce Wayne, etc.

SPH smoke, steam and fog are rare in this game, but other particles (physical debris, shards, splinters, sparks) can be encountered much more frequently. All boss battles are enhanced with unique particle effects, for example.

As a good tradition, there is psychedelic level with lots of GPU Rigid Bodies. Looks gorgeous, actually, without PhysX effects this scene feels not nearly as vivid and spectacular.

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Continuing the good tradition of it’s predecessor, Batman: Arkham City provides built-in benchmark with GPU PhysX (and also DX11) effects, however this time sequence is significantly shorter and less diverse.

Update: GPU PhysX in Batman: Arkham City - review and comparison video

For those who is interested how it looks like, we have prepared following video which is showcasing the difference between minimum and maximum PhysX settings.

Meanwhile, full-scale comparison PhysX video is in the works and should be available next week.

Stay tuned.

Batman: Arkham City tests the patience of PC gamers with several release delays, but will try to wheedle them with DX 11 Graphics and PhysX Technology.

Update: GPU PhysX in Batman: Arkham City - review and comparison video.

Recent comparison trailer gave us a glimpse of extra physics effects, and now we want to provide you with some additional details on what to expect from GPU PhysX content. In addition, new comparison PhysX video was released as well.

As usually, it will be possible to adjust level of in-game physics via “Hardware Accelerated PhysX” option in game’s launcher. There will be three settings:

PhysX Off: all GPU accelerated effects are disabled, only standart CPU physics (like ragdolls) is used.

PhysX Normal: enables additional particles effects (debris, volumetric smoke and steam, etc) and destructible environments.

PhysX High: includes all effects enabled withing “Normal” settings as well as realtime cloth and clothing simulation.

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Metro: Last Light, sequel to Metro 2033 title, is aiming technology throne with DX 11, tesselation and support for GPU accelerated PhysX effects. PCGamesHardware.com had the chance to talk with Oles Shishkovtsov, Chief Technology Officer at 4A Games, about improvements that are planned for PC version of the game.

PC Games Hardware: You keep the support for GPU PhysX in Metro Last Light. If so can we expect some improvements or enhancements compared to Metro 2033 (e.g. soft bodies, debris, and destructible environments)? What graphics card do you recommend for maxed details in Full HD with Antialiasing? An upcoming Nvidia Kepler-based Geforce for example?

Oles Shishkovtsov: Yes, you can expect a lot of improvements, especially in destruction and debris. The upcoming Geforce cards will be fully supported.

PC Games Hardware: When benchmarking Metro 2033 we found out that the engine utilized more than four cores of multicore CPUs if we were using the advanced PhysX effects on CPU, so you are utilizing Nvidias PhysX SDK 3.x? Will all the advanced PhysX effects only be available in PC version?

Oles Shishkovtsov: That’s the common misconception that PhysX 2.X cannot be multithreaded. Actually it is internally designed to be multithreaded! The only thing – it takes some programmer time to enable that multi-threading (actually task generation), mostly to integrate with engine task-model and ensure proper load-balancing. So, 2033 used PhysX 2.8.3, and Last Light uses similar, a slightly modified version at the time of writing. And yes, advanced PhysX effects will be available only on PC.

Read the full interview

Sounds good.

However, we are hoping that this time Metro will be able to surprise us with more than two minor particle effects (as in Metro 2033 – while “debris, smoke and dust” were promised) and it won’t require “upcoming GeForce card” to run those GPU PhysX effects with playble framerate.

First trailer, showcasing supplementary GPU PhysX content for upcoming Batman: Arkham City title in comparison to normal “console” physics layer, was revealed today.

Update: PhysX in Batman: Arkham City article at GeForce.com

Some effects, like SPH smoke, cloth banners and “dynamic” paper, are familiar for us from previous Batman game, others, like intense particle effects, are promising new experience and immersion.

Slightly delayed PC version of Batman: Arkham City is set to be released at November 18, 2011.

In a recent interview to PCGamesHardware.de, Ben Wyatt, technical director at Rocksteady Studios, has revealed some technical details about PhysX implementation and GPU PhysX support in upcoming Batman: Arkham City title.

Let’s overview disclosed facts briefly:

• Batman Arkham City won’t use PhysX 3, but PhysX SDK 2.8.4 instead.
• GPU PhysX content will be able to run on CPU, but with significant performance drop (typical GPU exclusive content type, we presume).
• APEX Destruction (destructible objects and walls) and APEX Clothing (clothing simulation on characters, dynamic paper and leaves) modules will be utilized.

Since APEX Particles module was not mentioned, it seems that GPU accelerated particles (smoke, debris) will be based on default PhysXParticleSystem implementation (like in Alice: Madness Returns).

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