No, your eyes are not deceiving you. After three years of development, NVIDIA has released new major version of PhysX physics engine – PhysX SDK 3.0.

Currently, free binary version of PhysX SDK 3.0 is available for PC only (32-bit and 64-bit, Mac and Linux versions are promised to be delivered later). SDK 3.0 can be downloaded from Developer Support Center. Follow the path: [Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [PhysX SDK 3.0]

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

Update [04.10.2011] PhysX SDK 3.1 released

Update [01.06.2011] PhysX SDK 3.0.1 available

Update [13.05.2011] Physx SDK 3.0 for Mac OSX available

Update [17.05.2011] Physx SDK 3.0 for Linux available (Ubuntu based, 64-bit)

Now, while your download is undergoing, let’s take a look on PhysX SDK 3.0 features:

PhysX SDK 2.x was originally developed as a PC only physics engine, which was subsequently ported to support gaming consoles being developed by Sony (PS3) and Microsoft (Xbox 360). The PS3 port was developed independently and has been maintained in a separate code base since its development, as have later ports to Linux and Mac OSX. The unwieldy growth during the SDK lifetime and separate code bases have added to the considerable complexity of maintaining and updating succeeding versions of the PhysX SDK at a time when faster and more compact engines are required to effectively support phones and tablets.

PhysX SDK 3.0 represents a significant rewrite of the PhysX engine.

This rewrite involved extensive changes to the API that effectively results in a new PhysX engine rather than a chart of changes based on its predecessor version.  The various platforms versions are generated from a unified code base, further differentiating it from version 2.x.  In addition to a new modular design, considerable legacy clutter has been removed. Collectively these changes have resulted in a physics SDK designed to facilitate easier ongoing maintenance, enable simpler ports to emerging gaming platforms, and the addition of new features and capabilities.

Focus on consoles and emerging gaming platforms.

PhysX SDK 3.0 was designed to be competitive on current-gen consoles and anticipates devices with even less system resources. These architectural changes include but are not limited to better overall memory management, improvements to cache efficiency, cross-platform SIMD implementations, intelligent SPU usage on PS3, multi-threading across multiple cores, and AltiVec/VMX optimizations on Xbox 360.

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“Game Engine Survey 2011″ article, that can be found in May 2011 Issue of Game Developer Magazine is containing some interesting information about developer’s preferences regarding middleware solutions.

91.4 % of traditional (big-budget) developers prefer to use middleware libraries, and PhysX SDK is holding #4 place – it’s the only one physics engine in this category (we were surprised that Havok was not mentioned).

Far fewer casual developers (48.6 %) are relying on middleware solutions, so unexpensive or free (but good) libraries – FMOD, open-source Bullet engine and PhysX SDK – are the most popular.

Previosly,  Game Developer Magazine has performed similar survey in Year 2009.

3ds max bugs by haad666

Nasty bugs of 3ds Max 2012, made with MassFX and Crowd systems.

Game Character Physics Animation 5 – Gamepad Control by futt75

Character with terrain-adaptive bipedal locomotion, using PhysX SDK and Ogre 3D.

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Since March version of Unreal Development Kit, that has brought us NVIDIA APEX integration, users are playing with the new features trying to figure out their capabilities and limitations.

One of the most noticeable examples is this Destruction Project by the user named RU1NOUS. Even in current state it is demostrating nice a clean level design, good usage of general APEX Destruction features and interaction of APEX actors with tearable cloth objects.

Currently, APEX Destruction still requires a lot of work to make it really powerful and practical fracturing/destruction simulation tool, so let’s hope NVIDIA has all necessary additions on the roadmap.

We’ll try to keep the eye on RU1NOUS’s work and will update this post accordingly.

If you know PhysX only as GPU accelerated physics effects for PC games, lack of news and announcements of new GPU PhysX titles may give you an idea that NVIDIA has decided to drop support for PhysX completely. Forum threads like “Is PhysX Dead?” or “Physx dead?“, popping up from time to time, are indicating – users are worried.

We were able to contact NVIDIA and Mike Skolones, product manager for PhysX, has revealed us the company’s plans regarding PhysX Technology.

PhysXInfo.com: Is PhysX still playing important role for NVIDIA ? Are you planning to use and evolve the PhysX Technology over the years, or thinking about abandoning it in a favor for other solutions ?

Mike Skolones: PhysX has been and continues to play an important role for NVIDIA, as well as for the thousands of game developers who use PhysX for physics simulation across a broad range of platforms, including PC, Xbox360, PLAYSTATION 3, Nintendo Wii , iOS (including iPhone, iPod, and iPad), OSX, Linux, and Android (including NVIDIA Tegra™ devices), MMO servers running Linux and Windows; OSX ports; and Windows games, where GPU-accelerated advanced simulation is poised for continued growth.

Monster Madness - one of the fist games that utilizes PhysX SDK on Android platform

More importantly, because PhysX continues to be the choice of developers for integration into world’s leading commercial game engines, including Unreal Engine 3, Trinigy, Unity, Torque, Gamebryo, Lightspeed, Hero, and Dark Basic, not to mention other internal tech engines which also use PhysX, designers and artists know they have compelling development platforms they can immediately take advantage for making their games that much more realistic and interactive.

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NVIDIA PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max was updated to version 2.60.0413.1900

Update: PhysX plug-in 2.61 released

Release Notes:

Issues Fixed (Present in Previous Releases)

• [#5771] Corrupted Paint Channel when loading some older assets
• [#5770] Compression settings are reset to default
• [#5769] Ragdoll on CAT rig doesn’t save/load properly
• [#5667] Previewer crashes on some CAT files
• [#5761] Cannot save paint channel for some assets

Updated PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max is available for download at Developer Support Center. You can find it in following section: [Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [APEX] -> [APEX DCC Clothing Plugins]

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

NVIDIA has updated DCC PhysX plug-in for Maya to version 2.60.0412.2200

Release Notes:

New Features

• APEX Clothing: External Preview window with APEX debug capabilities

Issue Fixed (Present in Previous Releases)

• [#5779] Crash when loading/applying clothing to some asset files

Updated PhysX plug-in for Maya is available for download at Developer Support Center. You can find it in following section: [Online Support] -> [Downloads] -> [APEX] -> [APEX DCC Clothing Plugins]

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

In addition, separate installers for Maya 2012 (x32 and x64-bit) are now also provided.

It was looking that the Deep Black title (you may remember it as U-Wars, a project with a heavy fate itself) from russian developer Biart Studio is going to join the company of games with previously announced, but then abandoned GPU PhysX support (as example – Terminator: Salvation or Shattered Horizon).

Update: Despite all promises, final version of Deep Black does not support GPU PhysX.

However, in a recent interview to MGnews.ru, CEO of Biart Studio Konstantin Popov has stated that Deep Black will fully support hardware PhysX acceleration.

MGNews.ru: Tell us a little more about NVIDIA PhysX in PC version of the game. Will it add new interactive objects to the game or change behaviour of existing ones ? Will you support NVIDIA PhysX Technology on hardware level ?

Konstantin Popov: Yes, NVIDIA PhysX technology will be supported on hardware level. We are working tightly with NVIDIA on game optimization and adding new features. There are, of course,  physical objects and physical special effects. Moreover, popular stereoscopic technology – NVIDIA 3D Vision. We also support NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround.

Deep Black is a sci-fi third person shooter, promised to be packed with intense combat action – both on land and underwater. Target platforms are PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, with release date somewhere in 2011.

Unity 3D | PhysX Fun | Part 2 (Ragdoll) by NSDGames

Amusing video, made with Unity 3D and PhysX ragdolls.

XNA and PhysX Demo by jasonmitchell18

Demo of simulation features for PhysX.NET wrapper in XNA.

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If you were following Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 development process, you’ve already may know that built-in Havok Reactor physics simulation engine was replaced with a new MassFX unified simulation, using PhysX SDK integration.

However, since only mRigids solver (rigid body and joints dynamics) is available so far, one may say that Reactor was omitted too early, since not all the functionality (cloth, joint motors, forcefields, buoyancy) is present in MassFX currently.

Generally, MassFX is based on modified NVIDIA PhysX plug-in for 3ds Max (likely latest 2.60), and thus, resembles its basic functionality and interface, but several differences can be spotted:

• Simulation in viewports runs much faster and smoother, thanks to new Nitrous graphics core. Performance Viewer tool, that can be found in PhysX plug-in 2.60, was removed.
• APEX Clothing functionality is not available.
• Dynamic ragdolls are not available.
• Minor interface changes.

Note: MassFX does not support hardware acceleration currently.

Note #2: To avoid slowdowns while working with massive amount of objects, it is recommended to disable rendering of physical meshes (MassFX Toolbar > Display > Display Physical Meshes).

Previously, Autodesk has mentioned that future releases of MassFX will support cloth, softbody and ropes simulation, deformable meshes, fluids and forcefields.

Update: MassFX 2013 in review

Also, according to our knowledge, users will be able to install PhysX plug-ins from NVIDIA over MassFX, to enhance it with additional functionality.