Finally, it’s time to tally up a total – here is our brief summary on what PhysX Technology has achieved over the past year.

. GAMES

To be honest, situation with GPU PhysX games was not as good as Nvidia promised us previously. Far from “25 [games] between January and March 2009“, not to mention that previously announced hardware PhysX support was suspended in some titles, like Bionic Commando or Terminator Salvation.

Though, past year has brough us some memorable PhysX games, like Mirror’s Edge, Sacred 2, Cryostasis and, of course, Batman: Arkham Asylum. 7 titles with GPU PhysX content for 2009 -  in total.

Speaking of CPU PhysX – it’s adoption was growing rapidly, mostly thanks to asian developers and their countless MMOs. First iPhone games with PhysX engine saw light of day in Q1 2009 – now their library include more then 25 titles.

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Chinese website EXPreview.com has brough us some interesting details about certain GPU PhysX games, targeting 2010 release. Slides directly from Nvidia provide us with info about additional PhysX features and 3D Vision support status.

Honestly, presented games are specific, oriented mostly on asian market, but don’t forget about major titles with GPU PhysX support, like Dark Void or Metro 2033.

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PCPOP.com website has published a bunch of benchmarks where GT 240, low-end 40nm GPU from Nvidia, is used as dedicated PhysX card alongside with GTX 260. System used for tests.

Performance with PhysX content, running on dedicated GT 220  (marked yellow on graph) is compared  to a single GTX 260,  calculating graphics and PhysX effects simultaneously (marked green).

Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Cryostasis

Star Tales

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User Containforum has uploaded video guide on how to set up Hybrid ATI+NV PhysX system. It contains overview of all necessary drivers and mods, where to download them, and how to make them working together.

Other guides you may refer to: Link#1 | Link#2 | Link#3 | Link #4 | Link#5 | Link#6

Hybrid PhysX systems benchmarks: HD4870/5870+9500/9600GT | HD4850/5750+9800GT | HD5870+GT220 | 2xHD5870 + 9800GT | HD5870/GTX285 + 9800GT

Update: Catalyst 10.2 and extended display error fix – in addition, you’ll be able to use dedicated NV GPU for PhysX without necessity to extend display.

Glass Breaking with Rayfire Tool by fael097

Glass breaking simulation with Rayfire plug-in and PhysX solver

Gamestar Hardware – Ageia PhysX by GeneralFatman

Old video review of original Ageia PPU card, includes footages from Cellfactor: CT and GRAW. Bring memories.

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Christmas present from Nvidia – new PhysX DCC plug-in for 3ds Max is now available officially.

Release Notes, thanks to Gavin Kistner:

This new plug-in has been rewritten from the ground up. A few highlights of the new release:

• Support for Max 2008, 2009, 2010 (and when available, 2011), 32-bit and 64-bit.
• A first-class toolbar and menu for creating and controlling the simulation.
• A modifier-based approach to match workflow in 3ds Max, with greatly improved artist interface to the options.
• A physical material system for using and adjusting physics properties on many objects at once.
• Convenient constraint presets for common workflows.
• Improved constraint visualization and performance.
• Convenient ragdolls, deriving collision volumes from a skinned mesh.
• Bake simulation results to keyframes for offline rendering.
• Super simple samples created by engineers and yours truly.
• New documentation rewritten from scratch.

This great progress comes at a slight cost, however. Some PhysX features available in the previous plug-in are not (yet) exposed on the new version. Fluids, cloth, force fields, and soft bodies are not supported with this release. As demanded and deemed important, we will be adding features and improving the plug-in for the next releases. (Look in particular for the inclusion of awesome APEX Clothing in an upcoming release.)

New tools are available for download via Developer Support Center. If you are experiencing trouble with registration of PhysX Developer account, please refer to our registration guide.

Once approved and logged in – Plug-ins are located under “Online Support” -> “Downloads” Tab

Update: Plug-ins leaked – x86 version (Mirror #1; Mirror #2; Mirror #3) ||  x64 version (Mirror #1; Mirror #2; Mirror #3) – Source: CGPersia

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User pipnasty from Overclock.net forums has presented fine guide on how to enable Hybrid ATI+NV PhysX setup on single monitor, using dummy VGA plug.

This guide is detailed enough, takes new version of GenL mod into account, and is probably one of the best Hybrid PhysX related articles we’ve seen so far.

Proceed to the Guide

Other guides you may refer to: Link#1 | Link#2 | Link#3 | Link#4 (video guide) | Link#5 (Italian video guide) | Link#6

Update: Catalyst 10.2 and extended display error fix – in addition, you’ll be able to use dedicated NV GPU for PhysX without necessity to extend display.

Hardware website PCPOP.COM has published an overview article about various GPU technologies and features, like 3D Vision, Stream, Eyefinity, OpenCL, etc. Article itself isn’t valuable much unless you know Chinese, but it has interesting poll included, with question “In addition to gaming performance,  which technologies are you interested in ?” and decent number of votes already.

Users put features like low noise and power consumption  (功耗、发热、噪音、节能) in the first place, DX11 support goes second, hardware accelerated PhysX on third place, Anti-aliasing (抗锯齿技术) comes fourth.

Physics simulation component of Esenthel Engine was translated recently to PhysX SDK 2.8.3, which allows developers, among other things, to create 64-bit applications.

In addition, new SDK features, like hierarchical cloth solver or cloth constraints, can help to advance clothing simulation via Esenthel even further (current status is shown on a video below).

Even developed by one man – Grzegorz Slazinski – Esenthel is “complete game development suit“, which includes graphics renderer, physics, GUI, networking, animation system, etc.

User’s opionions on this engine are fairly positive.

Source: Esenthel forums

Esenthel Engine (PhysX by nVidia) – 2000 oildrums Realtime by masterxilo

Realtime physics simulation with massive amount of rigid bodies. In responce to original oildrums in Leadwerks engine.

Tetra Pak – HD by Fred Ruff

Funny commercial. Uses Orbaz PFlow Box#2 and PhysX for some dynamics simulation.

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