NVIDIA has published several Game Technology Theater feature talks, which took place at NVIDIA GDC Booth yesterday, March 2.

This particular one, called “3ds Max 2012 including nRigids with Nvidia PhysX” and presented by Shawn Hendriks from Autodesk, mostly contains general overview of 3ds Max 2012 features (despite of the title), but also provides some information on new mRigids rigid body dynamics system (starting 39:53).

You can view recorded “3ds Max 2012 including nRigids with Nvidia PhysX” presentation here

Autodesk has officially announced 3ds Max 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012 – 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing packages.

New set of 3ds Max products introduces first module of unified MassFX simulation system – mRigids rigid body dynamics.

Update: 3ds Max 2012 released – MassFX system overview

With mRigids, you can leverage the multi-threaded NVIDIA® PhysX® engine to create compelling, dynamic rigid-body simulations directly in the 3ds Max viewport. mRigids supports static, dynamic, and kinematic rigid bodies (the latter for rag doll simulations), and a number of constraints: Rigid, Slide, Hinge, Twist, Universal, Ball & Socket, and Gear.

MassFX system is based on PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max, and will replace existing Reactor physics engine.

We’ve already reviewed some sneak-peek videos of MassFX and spotted certain vital features – convex decomposition ans substeps control.

In addition, new Maya 2012 is also including PhysX plug-in as part of standart package.

New Simulation Options — Incorporates the multithreaded NVIDIA PhysX engine for static, dynamic and kinematic rigid-body simulations directly in the Maya viewport. The PhysX plug-in also includes kinematic ragdoll simulations and APEX Clothing.

Autodesk 3ds Max users may be familiar with XBR (project Excalibur) – next major generation of 3ds Max products, that is supposed to adress many issues on fundamental level and includes some new features, currently beeing in extensive development stage.

Rumors have been floating around for some time, but it seems now it is official – recent webinar from Autodesk has revealed that Simulation sub-system within XBR will be based on PhysX SDK, instead of Reactor engine (using Havok).

QA session after the webinar

Following webinar recording is giving a glimpse on some features and ideas for XBR Simulation system (starting 44:45).

Judging by XBR release date (when it’s done), we can assume that it will use PhysX SDK 3.x

LABSID, company born from the Polytechnical University of Catalonia, has published interesting demo video – augmented reality application, showcasing interaction between real world and virtual objects, using rigid body and cloth physics simulation by PhysX SDK and Kinect motion controller.

We will look forward for future developments.

Interesting piece of software was released recently – Activate3D, player’s motion recognition system, that combines inverse kinematics, animation synthesis, and real-time manipulation of animated characters in one technology called Intelligent Character Motion.

Following video is illustrating capabilities of Activate3D.

Animation system if fully integrated with dynamic environment, provided by PhysX SDK.

According to Golem.de upcoming 3DMark 2011 benchmark won’t rely on PhysX integration, but use some in-house physics engine, based on DX 11 Compute Shaders.

Several Futuremark products like 3D mark 06 and Shattered Horizon game are using PhysX SDK, but only 3DMark Vantage features GPU/PPU accelerated physics, which can affect final CPU score.

From our opinion, this is natural change – solution, that brings substantial benefits to one of the GPU manufacturers, can hardly fit into unbiased benchmark, which 3DMark claims to be.

Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, has announced a new integrated machine design solution aimed at creating value for companies that develop and market machine tools and production machines – Mechatronics Concept Designer.

For physics simulation MCD solution is relaying on PhysX SDK:

Mechatronics Concept Designer also includes a state-of-the-art modeling and simulation capability based on NVIDIA PhysX technology. This physics engine, developed with the PhysX SDK from NVIDIA, is similar to the software technology used in many of today’s modern video games. This groundbreaking approach to simulation makes it easy to quickly create and interactively validate alternative design concepts.

In addition, the user is able to interact with the digital machine model while the simulation is running, providing the ability to test the effects of different inputs in real time. The ability to model real-world physical behavior in the virtual world, based on simplified mathematical models, enables early concept verification that helps detect and correct errors when they are least expensive to resolve.

Actually, this is not the first time PhysX SDK is used for serious simulation frameworks, for example, you can recall Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio, also featuring PhysX integration.

Mir Vadim has revealed a new version of his advanced fragmentation and destruction simulation plug-in for 3ds Max, knows as RayFire Tool.

New features in version 1.51:

• Rebars support. Rigid and Glue.
• Radial Fragmentation type.
• And the best feature so far, RayFire Studios .

As you may remember from out PhysX from Inside Out article, RayFire Tool is relaying heavily on PhysX SDK for complex simulation features.

You can view pretty impressive RayFire Portfolio here. And don’t forget to check out a new website.

Autodesk has announced today, that  2.x PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max is going to be included into Subscription Advantage Pack for 3ds Max 2011 and 3ds Max Design 2011.

Description:

Create more compelling, dynamic rigid-body simulations directly in the 3ds Max viewport. The multi-threaded NVIDIA® PhysX® engine supports static, dynamic, and kinematic rigid bodies (the latter for rag doll simulations), and a number of constraints: Rigid, Slide, Hinge, Twist, Universal, Ball & Socket, and Gear.

Animators can more quickly create a wider range of realistic dynamic simulations, and can also use the toolset for modeling: for example, creating a randomly placed landscape of rocks. Assigning physical properties – friction, density, and bounciness – is as simple as choosing from a set of initial preset real-world materials and tweaking parameters as required.

Update: Intesting details were revealed by Kenneth Pimentel, Director of Visual Communications Solutions at Autodesk, on CGTalk.com forums

We can also announce an ongoing partnership with nvidia around PhysX. We entered into the partnership a little late to show much results in this pass, but the partnership is significant and on-going. I think you’d be surprised at the number of research threads we’ve kicked off together.

This is specifically to avoid what happened with Reactor. I think we learned our lesson.

PhysX SDK as default physics solution for most Autodesk products ? Why not

Cebas has updated their fluid, rigid body and particle F/X simulation framework, knows as thinkingParticles to version R4.

In addition to other changes and enhancements, existing PhysX SDK integration is now using 64-bit PhysX solver.

Moreover, it seems now Cebas is more focused on their own rigid body solver called ShapeCollision 2:

The new ShapeCollision operator incorporates, for the first time ever, true Multi-Core (CPU) support for most parts of its collision detection and overall solving. The accuracy of the solver has been enhanced beyond belief and the stability that you derive is unmatched by the old ShapeCollision or any PhysX simulation.

Speed is always an issue in complex physics simulations, PhysX delivers already fast game quality physics but it is not good enough for the Hollywood style of effects, which need way more accuracy than PhysX can deliver. Thanks to a much more enhanced multi-core (CPU) support that SC has to offer, the simulation times can be reduced by a factor, as much as, 10 times when compared to the good old ShapeCollision!

However, it seems good grain of salt is needed here