In Mafia II, as you may notice from our comparison video, clothing simulation on main character (Vito Scaletta) is present regardless to APEX PhysX settings, main difference is in Cloth detalization and used technologies – standart PhysX Cloth (APEX PhysX Off) and more advanced APEX Clothing module (APEX PhysX Medium/High).

Clothing detalization is mostly determined by number of vertices, forming a physical cloth mesh.

So, just for curiosity, we decided to count them in Mafia II (with help of AgPerfMon profiler), using different APEX PhysX settings and various Vito’s suits.

Leather Jacket.

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Everyone who played Mafia II will eventually notice, that enabling special APEX PhysX content will not only bring you flowing clothing and particle debris, but also significantly reduce framerate – even if you have a proper NVIDIA GPU and latest PhysX System Software.

Update: APEX Clothing in numbers

While preparing our PhysX tweaking guide we have discovered that physically simulated clothing on characters is affecting performance the most. Why that ? Cloth is one of the basic effects, used intensively in many GPU PhysX games – just remember Mirror’s Edge and it’s countless tearable banners and flags. Two answers come to mind:

• Clothing simulation in Mafia II is so detailed and so high-resolution, that only top dedicated GPUs can run it at proper fps.

Unlikely. Even in most intensive scenes total cloth vertices count is not exceeding 8000, while framerate is crawling around 20 fps – on GTX 470.

• Clothing simulation is running on CPU, while it is supposed to be hardware accelerated on GPU.

Plausible. Some users, measuring utilization of dedicated PhysX GPUs, have made same conjecture.

Combine it with facts that a) Cloth in PhysX SDK is not using all available CPU resources by default b) Clothing is heavy computational task in any case – and you’ll see the probable reason of poor performance. Let’s check this theory.

PART I – MAFIA II BENCHMARK.

For the first part of tests we’ll use benchmark, built into Mafia II, running with two sets of APEX effects – Clothing only (Particles are disabled using methods from tweaking guide) and Particles only (Clothing is omitted) – and PhysX acceleration enabled/disabled from NVIDIA Control Panel.

Settings: 1680x1024, AO/AA On, AFx16, APEX High. System: C2Q 9400, GTX 470, 4GB RAM, Win 7 x64, 198.32 GPU drivers, PSS 9.10.0513

Interesting results. While Particles are benefiting from GPU acceleration without doubt, PhysX switch is not affecting Clothing simulation at all.

It seems our assumption was correct – APEX Clothing is calculated on CPU in any case – but let’s confirm it with some deeper research.

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We are completing our overview of APEX PhysX content in Mafia II by this video,  showcasing most noticable effects based on APEX Particles module.

Previous comparison video, dedicated to APEX Clothing module, is available here.

APEX Particles effects are including:

• Various dynamic debris (concrete fragments, glass pieces, wood splinters, etc) from bullet impacts.
• Additional physically simulated chunks from explosions, car crashes, wheel slip, trash cans, mailboxes and other destructible objects.
• Vehicle tire burnout effect -  realistic fluid smoke, which reacts to environment and character/NPC movement.
• Up to 3000 (APEX Medium settings) or 10 000 (APEX High settings) unique particles on screen.

Sum: You can find dynamic particles almost in every single GPU/PPU PhysX game, but in Mafia II particle effects are close to their perfection – realistic collision simulation, various particle types (for both graphical mesh and physical behaviour), LOD based resource management (particles are not dissapearing over time, like in earlier games) – and, most important, pretty decent performance.

If your system can handle such effects, we recommended to leave them enabled, or you’ll loose significant piece of game’s immersion.

Finally, keep an eye on Mafia II GPU PhysX info mini-site for additional information and comparison screenshots.

Mafia II, likely most important GPU PhysX title for this year, was released just a few days ago, and as usuall we have prepared some PhysX comparison materials.

This particular video is focused on how APEX Clothing module is used the enhance game experience.

Update: Part II, dedicated to APEX Particles effects, is released.

Update #2: APEX Clothing in numbers

In general, APEX Clothing content includes:

• Much more detailed (you can even notice how wrinkles are formed), fully simulated clothing for main character – Vito Scaletta.
  Standart PhysX Cloth is still being used on consoles and PC (APEX Off settings), but in comparison to APEX Clothing based simulation (APEX High and Medium settings), it is looking chunky and crusty.
• Dynamic clothing for additional characters (Joe, Derek, Steve, etc) and some NPCs, instead of simple skinned mesh.
• Several supplementary effects, like cloth reaction to the wind and shockwaves from explosions.

Sum: High-resolution clothing simulation is nice looking, immersive and promising technology. However, in Mafia II resources are used not optimally – hardly noticable, but very demanding clothing simulation on NPCs can bring your system to knees.

Fortunately, PhysX tweaks discovered for Mafia II demo are working nicely in final version too. Following this guide, you can easily tweak amount of APEX Effects (for example, disable clothing simulation for NPC, but leave it for Vito) and find a compromis between visual fidelity and performance.

Also, keep an eye on Mafia II GPU PhysX info mini-site for additional information and comparison screenshots.

While you are waiting for Mafia II Demo, planned to be released just in a few hours, you can read the preview of APEX/PhysX content, prepared by Techgage in their “Taking a Look at Mafia II and its PhysX Use” article.

Demo includes “Benchmark” mode, and that’s how it’s look like:

Update: Our PhysX Comparison video using built-in benchmark. In addition, APEX comparison and showcase videos roundup.

Update #2: Tweaking PhysX in Mafia II – huge fps increase without noticable difference.

Update #3: Mafia II Demo – PhysX Benchmarks roundup

Update #4: Mafia II GPU PhysX profile – comparison video, screens and other additional info.

APEX/PhysX Features:

• Physically simulated clothing for main character and additional characters
  • Custom wind simulation that creates a more dynamic movement of clothing as the characters walk around and interact with the environment.
  • Force fields from explosions and interact with clothing, making those explosive moments even more immersive
• Up to 3,000 unique particles on screen at any given time (10,000 at High settings).
• Particle effects including dynamic collision, mass and kinetic simulation, and force fields from explosions that move and displace particles along its path.
  • Destruction particle debris from cement, wood, glass, dirt, and more
  • Weapon impact that creates dynamic smoke and kinetic persistent particles
  • Garbage moves and exists in the world of Empire Bay and reacts to effects like force fields and character interactions
  • Tire burnout while driving produces dynamic smoke and particles including fluid movement simulation and particle velocity and trajectory
• Character clothing on all character models is rendered entirely on the GPU when using a dedicated PhysX card which can be anything from a GT 240 to a GTX 480.

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Nvidia has recently uploaded APEX related presentation called “APEX : Creating scalable immersive game environments” from their  SIGGRAPH 2010 sponsored sessions list.

Usual overview of APEX framework and current modules (like Destruction and Clothing), which are already familiar to us from past GDC10 and SIGGRAPH09 sessions, is followed by topic never described in detail previously – Scalability and LOD features inside APEX (starts at 32:55).

In general, it’s devided into two components – scalable parameters for each of the modules (like number of particles or cloth vertices), that can be adjusted during authoring to fit into platform computing capabilities..

..and dynamic LOD system, that manages resources destribution between actors and modules, based on current situation and resources budget (for example, clothing on character closer to the camera will be simulated with higher fidelity).

Now, as we know almost everything about APEX, we just need to wait until it will be released to public (standalone, or integrated into popular engines like UE3).

IDV has uploaded new video, showcasing hand-drawing features and APEX Vegetation integration for SpeedTree 5.1 Modeller.

A Live Oak tree is hand drawn on-the-fly directly in the SpeedTree 5.1 Modeler. After the tree is created in less than 1 minute, full physical interaction is provided instantly via the APEX Vegetation Module.

Rigid body skeleton is generated automatically during authoring process, and special leaf particle emitters are used to add some more realism.

If you’re interested in more in-depth details about APEX Vegetation features, you can watch presentation called “APEX Vegetation with the SpeedTree Modeler” from recent GDC 2010.

Assumptions about GPU PhysX support in upcoming Mafia II title are now becoming a reality.

Update: second PhysX trailer

With launch of their new GTX480/GTX470 GPU products, Nvidia has revealed a trailer, showcasing hardware accelerated PhysX content in Mafia II.

Amount of physics effects is looking impressive – various types of particle debris and chunks, sparks and smoke, destructible objects, APEX based clothing simulation. Not to mention, that apart from those effects, overall in-game physics in Mafia II is based on PhysX SDK too.

Will Mafia II become killer app for GPU PhysX many are waiting for ? We’ll know at August 24th 2010.

Slides (.pptx, 23 mb) from GDC 2010 session “Taking Fluid Simulation Out of the Box: Particle Effects in Dark Void” have emerged at GDC Vault recently.

Driven by Sarah Tariq (Nvidia) and Joe Cruz (Airtight Fames) this session is covering implementation of a seamless, scalable and directable fluid solver in a Dark Void game engine and describing how it was used to create complex particle effects.

Update: slides in .pdf format

APEX Clothing 3ds MAX plug-in by NVIDIADeveloper

Physically simulated clothing via PhysX SDK. Authoring process using APEX Clothing module and 3ds Max. From GDC 2010.

APEX Destruction PhysX Lab by NVIDIADeveloper

Destructible environments via PhysX SDK. Authoring process using APEX Destruction Module and PhysX Lab tool. From GDC 2010.

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