Nvidia has revealed new PhysX System Software 9.10.0224. Main difference from 9.10.0223 System Software is:

• Fixes a bug that prevented PhysX from being accelerated on Optimus PCs.

You can download PhysX System Software 9.10.0224 from our server (34 mb – download currently unavailable)

Also, it seems that naming sheme has changed completely – from dates to version numbers of some kind.

GenL has released new 1.04ff version of Hybrid PhysX mod – now it works with 257.21 GeForce drivers and newer.

Update: Hybrid PhysX mod 1.05ff is available

Description:

This mod will enable hardware PhysX support for NVIDIA GPU, when non-NVIDIA GPU is used as a primary display device.

• intended only for WDDM 1.1 OS (Windows 7) and NT5 WDM OS (Windows XP/2003).
• only for multi-vendor multi-GPU configurations.

1.04ff – 29/06/2010:

• removed support for fixing GeForce driver binaries as current 256 series don’t need this (dropped support of all older 19x series drivers)
• added support for fixing a new limitation in PhysX System Software, introduced in 9.10.0223 (aka 9.10.0528/9.10.0529)
• added extra optional command line files (nvsvc and PhysX related)
• removed most of gfx/sfx stuff (the mod is now tiny and no more requires 96dpi mode)

You can download Hybrid PhysX mod 1.04ff from our server (not available, use NGOHQ instead)

Q: Why do we need both v1.03 and v1.04ff, which should I use?
A: If you are not going to use anything older than 257.21 – forget about v1.03 and use v1.04ff. The mod v1.03 is intended for old 19x series and 9.10.0222 (+older) PhysX SS.

If you update any component from the [old] 19x.xx and/or 9.10.0222 (+older) to [newer] 256 series and/or 9.10.0223 (+newer) – you should apply the mod v1.04ff afterwards. The mod v1.04ff will not help with 19x series GeForce driver.

For download, FAQ and installation instructions please refer to Hybrid PhysX thread at NGOHQ

Update: 1.04ff mod works with 258.69 Beta; 258.96 Beta/WHQL; 259.09; 259.31; 259.32; 259.47 WHQL; 260.63 Beta; 260.89 Beta/WHQL; 260.93 Beta; 260.99 WHQL; 261.00 Beta GPU drivers and 9.10.0224; 9.10.0512; 9.10.0513; 9.10.0514 PhysX System Software

UDK – The Physics Dance! by Elude87

New Mass Physics video in UDK, now with focus on artistic style, not on the amount of physical objects. Scene is available for download here

UDK – Barrel Bonanza mass physics by erikrass

Yet not tired of Mass Physics videos ? here is another one

Read the rest of this entry »

We have relocated our PhysX related files to a dedicated server – PhysXFiles.com

This will allow intuitive browsing for users and, more important, has greathly reduced memory consumption on main PhysXInfo.com server – no more slowdowns and website inaccessibility haunting us last months.

All downloads links here were altered accordingly.

New 2.0 version of PhysX Visual Debugger, object-based database application for analyzing captured data from PhysX engine, was updated to version 2.0.6. Beta.

Update: final 2.0.6. version released – no differences from PVD 2.0.6 Beta though

[20.08.10] Update #2: PVD 2.0.7. with minor bugfixes is available for download.

Release Notes:

• Lots of optimizations during capture!  Capturing should be even quicker and more painless than it was with the first beta.
• Lots of UI bugfixing specifically to the tree views (All Objects, Selected Objects, Watched Objects).  They should be more stable and much more user friendly especially when selecting new objects.
• Navigation and selection were reversed.  So navigation is the default action while selection requires pressing ‘alt’.  You can quick select something by double clicking on it without pressing ‘alt’.
• Reversed the log file direction.  No more scrolling down; new errors at the top.
• New preferences dialog !  Much easier to use, no tabs.
• Got rid of the frames palette.  We are sorry it ever existed.  The playback controls got moved to the toolbar while the slider got moved to the bottom of the scene view.

And more interesting:

• Preliminary support for the 3.0 version PhysX !!!.  We are very excited about this.

Yep, we are excited about it too

You can download PhysX Visual Debugger 2.0.6 Beta via Developer Support Center.

If you are experiencing trouble with registration of PhysX Developer account, please refer to our registration guide.

As we mentioned previously, one of the many features of upcoming Unity 3.0 engine is going to be improved PhysX SDK integration. Now, when pre-purshase betas of Unity 3.0 are shipping, additional details have emerged.

According to developers, highlight for Unity 3 is cloth physics on arbitrary and skinned meshes – video of new cloth feature in action was uploaded to YouTube by one of Unity demo team members.

In addition, PhysX core was updated to version 2.8.3., collision layers and “thick” raycast were added.

Update: Another cloth test, with tearing | Cloth features overview from one of beta users

Read the rest of this entry »

Off-Road Drive Official Trailer by therealautogaming

New game in off-road series from 1C-Avalon. Previous titles were based on Chrome engine and ODE physics, this one – on Unreal Engine 3 and PhysX SDK.

Can a 6 core CPU run PhysX? by Containforum

Last FluidMark 1.2 running on Phenom II X6 CPU in multi-core PhysX mode.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Matthias Müller-Fischer, PhysX SDK research lead at Nvidia Switzerland, Novodex founder and man behind many core PhysX algorithms, like Position Based Dynamics solver for cloth and soft-bodies, has published another interesting paper – Wrinkle Meshes.

Abstract:

We present a simple and fast method to add wrinkles to dynamic meshes such as simulated cloth or the skin of an animated character. To get the desired surface details, we attach a higher resolution wrinkle mesh to the coarse base mesh allowing the wrinkle vertices to deviate from their attachment positions within a limited range. The shape of the wrinkle mesh is determined by a static solver which runs in parallel to the motion of the base mesh. Our method can be used to automatically enhance a purely animated skin mesh with wrinkles which would be atedious task to do by hand.

The fact that the tessellation of the wrinkle mesh can be chosen independently of the structure of the base mesh can be used to control the look of the wrinkles. The locations of wrinkle formation can be defined by painting the maximum distance the wrinkle mesh is allowed to deviate from the base mesh. The second important application of wrinkle meshes is to add detail to simulated meshes such as cloth. Our method allows one to reduce the resolution of the simulation mesh without losing interesting surface detail. This speeds up the simulation, collision detection and handling and it reduces stretchiness. We show the efficiency and visual quality of the approach in a real-time setting.

In generally, that means more detailed cloth simulation with less resourse consumption. Previous research – Hierarchical Position Based Dynamics – was already added in PhysX SDK 2.8.3 so we believe that Wrinkle Meshes will appear in PhysX SDK or APEX Clothing module soon enough.

Also, you can download demonstrational video (63 mb)

Recent whql release of GeForce/ION 257.21 GPU drivers has brought us updated PhysX System Software v. 9.10.0223.

If naming sheme is still following same pattern, .0223 drivers are dated just day after previous 9.10.0222 System Software, and their feature set is also unknown currently (at least, SDK .dlls haven’t changed).

Update: System Software 9.10.0223 is now available for official download

• Bug fixes for Metro 2033 in SDKs version 2.8.3.
• Clothing bug fix in SDKs version 2.8.3 with respect to max distance clamping.
• GPU PhysX Performance optimizations for GeForce 400-series GPUs in all GPU PhysX enabled SDKs versions.
• Better error handling for GPU PhysX in the unlikely event of a CUDA error in SDKs version 2.8.3.
• Other miscellaneous bug fixes.

Anyway, you can download PhysX System Software 9.10.0223 from our server (27 mb – download currently unavailable)

It seems that TweakTown loves testing monstrous (and thus redundant for regular user) PhysX configurations. Previously it was HD 5970 + GTX 480, and now – GTX 480 for graphics along with GTX 465 working as dedicated PhysX card.

Update: and yet another article from TweakTown – GTX 480 vs GTX 470 + GTX 260 in PhysX games.

Read the full article.

Performance numbers are great, but GTX 465 does not seems to be a good candidate for such role because of heat, noise and high power consumption. I’m personally waiting for low-end Fermi based GPUs, to reinforce my new GTX 470