Updated 1.1 Beta 3 version of PhysXLab, authoring tool for APEX Destruction module, is now available.

PhysXLab 1.1 is compatible with APEX 1.1 release.

• New Features
  • Ability to export “Do Not Fracture” chunks as a single ApexRenderMesh.
  • Mesh texture visualization while in cutout mode.
  • Option to make the playground mesh transparent, so that the bomb widget may be manipulated more easily.
  • PhysXLab project file icon association.
  • Tutorial links in documentation.
  • Instanced chunk highlight options available together.
  • Updated release notes.
  • US7706: Visualization to distinguish non-instanced and instanced (but with 0 offset) chunks.

• Bug-fixes
  • Removed non-functioning group fracture menu.
  • Fixed DE4674: Asset is jumping in place after damage is applied.
  • Fixed defect with behavior of asset setting flags, depth All has correct effect.
  • Fixed DE1161: Saved destruction preset not loading correctly.

PhysXLab 1.1 Beta 3 can be downloaded through PhysX Registered Developer Program.

If you are experiencing trouble with registration, please refer to our new guide.

In pair with 2.72 plug-in, NVIDIA has presented new 2.85.0427 version of PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

2.85 plug-in is roughly equivalent to MassFX 2013 in terms of features, except that it provides APEX Clothing support instead on mCloth simulation engine.

• General
  • General: Support for APEX 1.2 (however, PhysX 3 cloth is not yet functional)
  • General: Support for PhysX SDK 3.2 engine.
• Rigid Body
  • New convex decomposition algorithm for approximating non-convex meshes.
  • Controls to assist in more control over the contact shell (aka skinWidth, aka collisionOverlap) to allow and favor the shell to be outside of the shape so that at maximum overlap objects do not penetrate.
  • Resizable contact buffer for PhysX 3 engine.
• Constraints
  • New targeting sub-object modifier to help with singularity conditions.
  • New targeting sub-object modifier to set the twist starting location.
  • Improved workflow around parameters which are tied together and may be enable/disabled.
• Ragdolls
  • Now provides pre-configured constraint limits on biped.
  • Now maintains constraint position at bone pivot point (reset on simulation start if moved but maintains orientation).
  • Regeneration groups manager.
  • Mass redistribution.
  • Basic CAT support (Not to the same level at biped yet).
• APEX Clothing
  • Latch To Nearest system now only support 30 instead of 32 channels.

PhysX plug-in version 2.85 for 3ds Max is available through PhysX Registered Developer Program.

If you are experiencing trouble with registration, please refer to our new guide.

NVIDIA has resleased updated PhysX plug-ins of 2.7 branch – 2.72.0421 for 3ds Max (2012 - 2009) and 2.72.0511 for Maya (2013 – 2009).

Please Note: 3ds Max 2013 is supported only by 2.85 PhysX plug-in, due to significant compatibility changes in 3ds Max SDK.

• APEX 1.1 update for LOD fixes.
• APEX Clothing now exporting collision shapes once per asset instead of once per LOD.
• APEX Clothing fix physical mesh visualization bug.
• APEX Clothing Latch To Nearest system now only support 30 instead of 32 channels.
• Fix crash when attempt to generate composite mesh on problematic geometry.
• Removed friction max clamp on rigid body.
• Fix RayFire bug – some convex fails to simulate.
• Pop-up previewer fixes for textures usage crashes.

• Support for Maya 2013.
• Support for Viewport 2.0.
• Fix WinXP compatible.
• APEX Clothing Latch To Nearest system now only support 30 instead of 32 channels. (one is used to represent unpainted and the other is reserved).
• Add solver simulation scaling support to allow simulation to occur (and export) in current or scales units rather than forcing to centimeters.
• Improve shape’s mass/density update functions.
• Re-enable acceleration joints for new files (more stable than force joints).
• PhysX tab should not gain focus when added.
• Fix PhysX3 Contact Layer support.
• Fix popup viewer crash for clothing.
• Fix PhysX 3x debug visualizer.
• Fix some OpenGL rendering errors.
• Fix script backward compat issues using -orderedSelection.
• Fix minor GUI error message cause by pop-up such as switching PhysX solver versions modes.
• Fix ragdoll load .rag issues when the target bone has multiple children.
• Fix ragdoll regeneration creating constraints without removing old ones.
• Fix APEX Clothing import of legacy CTW files flipping latch to nearest data.

PhysX plug-ins version 2.72 for 3ds Max and Maya are available for download through PhysX Registered Developer Program.

If you are experiencing trouble with registration, please refer to our new guide.

After three rounds of beta testing, NVIDIA has finally released new PhysX SDK 3.2 for Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and Android platforms.

You can check full Release Notes here: PhysX SDK 3.2 Release Notes

Free binary versions of PhysX SDK 3.2 are available for download through Developer Support Center (our registration guide) or new PhysX Registered Developer Program (not yet).

Switchball has a special place in a history of hardware PhysX acceleration, as it was one of the first games with support for Ageia PhysX cards (Switchball demo was included on a CD with PPUs, although the game itself was released later one, in 2007).

Following video, showcasing the physics of Switchball in action, was prepared by our fellow reader Andrew “MohawkADE” Elliott.

Being a physics based puzzle-platfromer title, Switchball was offering special puzzles using SPH fluid dynamics and cloth simulation exclusive for Ageia PPU owners (if PPU was not found in the system, such sequences were substituted with less advanced versions).

Hawken is a promising online mech-based combat game, under development by indie company Adhesive Games. This upcoming title has already garnered enough fans among players, thanks to excellent level design and gorgeous visuals.

Recently, Hawken trailer, featuring additional physically simulated particle effects, was demonstrated during Jen-Hsun Huang Keynote at NVIDIA Gaming Festival (NGF 2012).

Later on, PhysX support was confirmed by Jason Hughes, producer at Adhesive Games.

According to our sources, game will not only include PhysX particle effects, but also have destructible environments.

Update: several screenshots were captured by Game Watch website.

Hawken is slated to be released at 12.12.2012.

NVIDIA is about to meet the wishes of developer community with more friendly way to take advantage of PhysX SDK and APEX Tools – Registered Developer Program.

In comparison to previous account registration process, Developer Program features automated account approval (matter of minutes, not days) and simplified downloads structure (easier to find demanded files).

Attention ! Registered Developer Program only provides access to free binary versions of PhysX SDK, APEX DCC Tools (PhysXLab, PhysX plug-ins) and APEX SDK.

Source versions will still be available through PhysX Developer Support website only, as well as paid support.

IF YOU ARE NOT REGISTERED AT NVIDIA DEVELOPER ZONE

Step 1. Go to NVIDIA Developer Zone and click “New Account” (upper right corner)

Step 2. Fill-in account information, than press “Create new account” button

Step 3. Instructions and password will be sent to your e-mail. Complete the registration

IF/WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE DEVELOPER ZONE ACCOUNT

Step 1. While logged-in, click “My Account” (upper right corner)

Step 2. Complete Basic Registered Developer Profile

You will be required to provide your Last and First name, information about your company and your location.

Step 3. Now you can apply to APEX/PhysX Registered Developer Program (PhysX RDP)

Step 4. Fill-in provided questionary

Please note that you will be required to agree to the terms and conditions specified in the PhysX/APEX EULA. Read it carefully.

Step 5. Wait until you Developer Program status will change from “Submitted” to “Approved” (may take up to 30 minutes – you will be also notified via e-mail upon completion).

You can access PhysX RDP website by clicking program’s title or direct link

Step 6. Now you can download latest binary PhysX SDKs, APEX SDK and DCC tools.

Subsequently, while logged, you access PhysX RDP via “My Account” panel, or through “Registered Developers Website” link on devzone main page, or via direct link.

If you have trouble with new account registration or existing account you can send your problem description to support@physxinfo.com (with subject – “PhysX RDP”) – we’ll try to provide a shortcut to PhysX dev. team.

Autodesk and NVIDIA continue their effort to create the universal physics simulation system for 3ds Max package – it is known as MassFX.

What has changed in new MassFX version, that comes with 3ds Max 2013, in comparison to the first release? We have tried to answer this question in our review.

One of the main new features of MassFX 2013 is the addition of mCloth – cloth simulation module, which was co-developed with Autodesk. Despite the rumors, mCloth uses PhysX 2.8.4 cloth solver for underlying physical calculations.

In comparison to APEX Clothing tools in PhysX plug-ins, mCloth is clearly oriented on VFX area: “one click” set up (no need to skin the mesh and apply movement constraints, as for APEX), full collisions with MassFX rigid bodies with two-way interaction, vertex group operations (like pin or attach to object), support for dynamic and kinematic cloth, ability to bake the simulation in keyframes.

Desired cloth behavior can be archived by tuning fabric settings, like density or damping, which can be saved and loaded as presets.

Additional parameters include rigid body collision responce and solver precision settings.

mCloth objects support per-vertex tearing.

Interesting option is ability to visualize material tension within given treshold.

Another feature is so-called “ballon behavior” – closed meshes can be inflated with internal pressure to imitate soft body, jelly-like objects or baloons themselves.

However, if hole in the baloon will be detected (as result of tearing, for example), it will deflate and force will be applied to the point of air outflow.

“Hardware acceleration” option can be enabled for cloth simulation, however, we were not able to spot any performance difference between CPU and “GPU” execution. It seems GPU acceleration is not fully operational yet.

To summarize: mCloth is a strong cloth simulation solution with decent pack of features and sufficient artist control over simulation, however, as a new tool it has not avoided some “childish” problems, like nonoptimal baking process (it is significantly slower than sim in viewports), unstable behaviour of baloon objects or overestimated cloth solver settings (they are set automatically, based on mesh resolution, but for real 3-5 times lower values are sufficient).

Another vital new feature – standart Forces (like PBomb, Vortex or Wind) can now affect MassFX objects, both rigid bodies and cloth.

Being developed in Autodesk, Forces interaction feature is not using forcefields mechanism from PhysX SDK, instead, custom forces are applied directly to actors.

Third major addition – stable auto-generated ragdolls from biped skeletons.

Instead of abomination – jiggling mess of rigid bodies and joints – that may be familiar you from original PhysX plug-ins, “create dynamic ragdoll” option now generates fairly adequate ragdolls, usable even without aditional tuning.

Note: unlike latest PhysX plug-ins, MassFX is only using one version of PhysX engine - 2.8.4.

Apart from all the features described above, MassFX 2013 also contains numerous amount of smaller features, interface changes and bug fixes. Here are some examples:

It is now possible to assign gravity to Forces (or even it completely) through MassFX Toolbar.

Convex decomposition (this tool allows MassFX to support concave objects) has been reworked – it is now using simplified interface and operates faster.

Physical meshes can now be displayed not only as wireframe, but as shaded hulls as well.

Multiple constraints can now be adited at the same time via Multi-object Editor tab (previosly only available for rigid bodies).

And.. more !

To summarize: MassFX has grew up, but still not enough to reach level of Reactor’s feature set. However, with continuing support from Nvidia and Autodesk, MassFX will eventually overcome previous solution from Havok.

If you are watching over PhysX SDK 3 development process, you may now that all-purpose cloth simulation engine, which can be found in SDK 2.x,  was replaced by new specialized PxCloth clothing solver in SDK 3.

Tech talk called “Character Clothing in PhysX 3“, presented by Tae-Yong Kim at SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011, provides in-depth overview of algorithms behind new clothing engine and its features.

Main features of new the solution are:

• Improved performance.
• Better artist control over bending and shearing of the cloth.
• Better handling of high-energy motion.
• Tapered capsules for better character representation.
• Other pleasing features like virtual particles (for increased collision resolution), CCD or particles mass scaling.

We are expecting PxCloth solver to become one of the major features of APEX Clothing 1.2 module, that is supposed to be released in upcoming months.

In addition, one may find other SIGGRAPH talk, “Real-Time Water Simulation on the GPU” by Nuttapong Chentanez, also interesting.

It cover recent advancements in NVIDIA’s research with the view to creation of universal water simulation solution, which combines best of heightfield fluids, SPH and grid simulation methods.

Thanks to Stefan for the links !

Remaining presentations from GDC 2012 are now available at GDC Vault.

Particularly interesting detail was revealed during “Mastering DX11 with Unity” (PDF) talk – NVIDIA APEX framework will be added to popular Unity game engine, which is currently using modified PhysX SDK 2.8.3 as physics engine.

A short demo (bus smashing through propane shop) of basic APEX Destruction module usage was presented, followed by promises to expand integration on other APEX modules in the future.

Next presentation, “Enhancing Games with Clothing and Destruction” is absolutely indentical to Game Technology Theather talk of the same name, we have reviewed it earlier.

Finally, it is worth to check a “Solving Rigid Body Contacts” tutorial from Richard Tonge, however, it is a bit technical.