Recently released Ranger Pack DLC (will be downloaded automatically via Steam, if auto-update is enabled) for Metro 2033 has brought us not only new Hardcore mode, new achievements and new guns, but also a nice standalone Benchmarking Tool.

It uses intensive firefight sequence from Frontline level, and has well-thought-out interface with lots of settings and additional features, like framerate graphs generation after the test.

Benchmark can be used to measure GPU PhysX performance, since it includes some effects affected by “Advanced PhysX” option, like grenade explosions and particles from bullet impacts (5000+ particles in most intensive scene).

In addition, cloth simulation (several banners at benchmarking sequence start – around 1700 cloth vertices in total) supports GPU acceleration too.

Location:

Metro 2033 Benchmark can be found in

\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\metro 2033 folder

Note:

According to several user reports, this DLC may cause some problems, like game .exe crushes and broken saves. Possible fix.

metro2033 hybrid physx by tripkj

Metro 2033 title running flawlessly on HD 5850 + 8600GT (in PCI-Ex1 slot) Hybrid system with DX 11 and Advanced PhysX on.

Cryostasis TechDemo by arctic933

Cryostasis tech-demo on HD 5850 + 9800GT Hybrid PhysX system.

S2TV-2010-03-22.wmv by Bugbuster30

Graphics and basic physics demonstration of a new game engine called S2 Engine. Physics is based on PhysX SDK.

Physx Building test(latest) by DigitalDemolition

Some experiments with complex PhysX Destructibles in UDK. Gonna to be interesting to see community will use APEX Destrution when it’ll come out (it’s already linked with March UDK).

Metro 2033 GPU/CPU PhysX fog Comparison by protowiz

Performance comparison for Advanced PhysX effects running on single GTX 260 GPU and C2Q 9550 CPU. Particle smoke from grenade explosions is demanding effect, so fps hit is noticable.

pXent Pro and 3DGS – Cloth Physx and Tearing by quadraxas

Video from new pXent PhysX wrapper demo. Includes two types of cloth simulation – large tearable banner and thin clothing on animated character.

PhysX: Soft body VS. rigid body cables by Ambakapu

Performance comparison of rigid-body and soft-body implementation of cable physics simulation.

OgrePhysX tryout by sirjinx29

Simple rigid body physics using OgrePhysX wrapper.

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.

Carmageddon XNA opponents by 1amStudios

Another video from Carmageddon XNA remake developer diary, showcases recently implemented basic AI. Computer controlled opponents are following racetrack using path nodes.  Physics is based on PhysX SDK.

Metro 2033 PhysX DX9 mode by kakit526

Decent cloth simulation scene in Metro 2033 title. Is working regardless to your GPU model and Advanced PhysX option state.

Metro 2033 was looking as highly considerable title – post-apocalyptic setting, intense focus on atmosphere and storyline, state-of-the-art graphics engine with DX 11 support, and of course, solid implementation of PhysX SDK based physics.

And after finishing it we can say – Metro 2033 is pretty good game for sure. But following the direction of our site, will leave other game aspects to reviewers and focuse on in-game physics implementation, and “Advanced PhysX” mode particularly.

Overall physics level is looking pretty decent, but anticipated “Advanced PhysX” option may be dissapointing – it’s adds only several hardly-noticeable particle effects (we already saw numerous discussions with same idea “what is Advanced PhysX doing ? I can’t notice anything – is it working ?”).

Surprisingly, but destructible physics objects, particle effects in key scenes and even cloth banners aren’t affected by “Advanced PhysX” switch.

Moreover, additional PhysX content is even somehow optimized for multi-core CPU execution (will use it if Nvidia GPU is not present in the system). Of course, intense firefight with a lot of impact debris particles or several smoke clouds from grenade explosions will result in heavy fps drop (while running all calculations on CPU), but situation is better than in previous GPU PhysX games.

For example, that’s how CPU load is looking while defending the barricade at the end of the Chapter 3 (this scene has lot of impact particles), with Advanced PhysX content running on CPU.

Final Sum: additional PhysX content in Metro 2033 is not nearly so intensive and defiant as in previous GPU PhysX games – one can call it mediocre, other will say it fit in game environment more naturally. But from what we heard, there may be PhysX patch for Metro 2033 – no additional details were revealed yet.

As always, GPU PhysX Info mini-site for Metro 2033 is located here

Update: comparison PhysX screenshots uploaded

Recent articles about Metro 2033 have revealed so much technical details (about engine itself, and PhysX components specifically) so, one would think, nothing new can be added. However, recent interview with Chief Technical Officer Oles Shishkovstov by PCGamesHardware.com has something to offer:

PCGH: It could be read that your game offers an advanced physics simulation as well as a support for Nvidia’s PhysX (GPU calculated physics) can you tell us more details here? Does regular by CPU calculated physics affect visuals only or is it used for gameplay terms like enemies getting hit by shattered bits of blown-away walls and the like?

Oles Shishkovstov: Yes, the physics is tightly integrated into game-play. And your example applies as well.

PCGH: Besides PhysX support why did you decide to use Nvidia’s physics middleware instead of other physics libraries like Havok or ODE? What makes Nvidia’s SDK so suitable for your title?

Oles Shishkovstov: We’ve chosen the SDK back when it was Novodex SDK (that’s even before they became AGEIA). It was high performance and feature reach solution. Some of the reasons why we did this – they had a complete and customizable content pipeline back then, and it was important when you are writing a new engine by a relatively small team.

PCGH: What are the visual differences between physics calculated by CPU and GPU (via PhysX, OpenCL or even DX Compute)? Are there any features that players without an Nvidia card will miss? What technical features cannot be realized with the CPU as “physics calculator”?

Oles Shishkovstov: There are no visible differences as they both operate on ordinary IEEE floating point. The GPU only allows more compute heavy stuff to be simulated because they are an order of magnitude faster in data-parallel algorithms.

As for Metro2033 – the game always calculates rigid-body physics on CPU, but cloth physics, soft-body physics, fluid physics and particle physics on whatever the users have (multiple CPU cores or GPU). Users will be able to enable more compute-intensive stuff via in-game option regardless of what hardware they have.

Pay attention to last paragraph – Metro 2033 will feature true multi-core implementation of GPU PhysX content – feature that most PhysX titles are lacking currently ? We are curious to see if this will really work, and since game has already gone gold, we’ll learn that very soon.

PC specs for highly anticipated Metro 2033 shooter were revealed today. Optimal requirements are looking just terrifying.

Minimum System Requirements:

- Dual core CPU (any Core 2 Duo or better will do)
- DirectX 9, Shader Model 3 compliant graphics cards (GeForce 8800, GeForce GT220 and above)
- 1GB RAM

Recommended System Requirements:

- Any Quad Core or 3.0+ GHz Dual Core CPU
- DirectX 10 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 260 and above)
- 2GB RAM

Optimal System Requirements:

- Core i7 CPU
- NVIDIA DirectX 11 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 480 and 470)
- As much RAM as possible (8GB+)
- Fast HDD or SSD

Enabling Nvidia 3D Vision:

Metro 2033 utilizes NVIDIA 3D Vision with compatible cards and hardware. To play in 3D you will require:

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 and above recommended
- A 120Hz (or above) monitor
- NVIDIA 3D Vision kit
- Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7

Unfortunately, detailed hardware requirements for highest physics settings with GPU PhysX effects enabled are still unknown.

Source: VE3D

Eurogamer.net website has published some very interesting materials, related to upcoming Metro 2033 title.  Firstly, they revealed full specifications of proprietary technology behing Metro 2033, known as 4A Engine, which is called even by its developers “one of the most advanced engines on the planet”.

You can read full specs here, and we’ll quote only part related to engine physics system:

Physics System
Powered by nVidia PhysX technology, can utilise multiple CPU cores, AGEIA PhysX hardware, or nVidia GPU hardware.

* Tightly integrated into the content pipeline and the game itself, including physical materials on all surfaces, physically driven sound, physically driven animations
* Rigid body and multi-jointed constructions. Breakable fences, walls , sheds and other objects. Thousands of different physical entities simulated per frame.
* Cloth simulation, water physics (including cross-interactions)
* Destruction and fracturing, physically based puzzles
* Soft body physics on selected special game entities
* On hardware-accelerated PhysX platforms engine implements full physically correct behaviour of particles such as smoke, debris, etc.

For dessert – Metrospective, interview with 4A Games chief technical officer Oles Shishkovtsov about game engine optimizations and platform specific features.

Metro 2033 is coming out March 16 on PC and Xbox 360, PC version will include 3D Vision, DX 11 and GPU PhysX support.

Update: second part of interview with Oles Shishkovtsov was published on Eurogamer. Provides more in-depth details on PhysX SDK integration, and engine’s genesis in general.

Digital Foundry: The 4A engine integrates NVIDIA PhysX. What are the core advantages of the hardware acceleration, what sort of hardware do you require for the best experience?

Oles Shishkovstov: The core advantage is simply the performance. The CPUs just aren’t there to enable large-scale physical effects (although they are very competitive when processing traditional rigid-body things). However, when you offload costly PhysX processing to GPU, we’ve got less GPU time for rendering.

It’s a difficult question when choosing what hardware will provide the best experience. I’d say that dedicating another (maybe less powerful) GPU specifically for PhysX is the right thing to do!

Digital Foundry: Over and above the tech demo-style elements that make PhysX cool, can you explain to us how the physics add to the gameplay experience?

Oles Shishkovstov: We do not add PhysX effects if they aren’t integral to the gameplay experience. We don’t add an effect for the sake of an effect. Human eyes and brain are trained to see the inconsistencies. We are only trying to remove those inconsistencies in order to not distract from gameplay and not to lose that immersion we were heavily building brick by brick.

Digital Foundry: How did you integrate PhysX into your many-core engine assuming you don’t have hardware acceleration? Are the same principles in use in the Xbox 360 code?

Oles Shishkovstov: That’s easy. PhysX SDK has the similar notion of the “task” as we use. The SDK spawns them for every operation which can be safely parallelised, for example each rigid-body shape-shape collision detection, each cloth or fluid update, even the solver(s) is heavily sub-divided into the tasks.

We forward those tasks to our task-scheduler and they are processed in the same manner as everything else. The only “conceptual” difference is between their and our task-model – we “spawn-and-forget” tasks and PhysX uses a “spawn-and-wait” model.

Gametrailers.com website has published exclusive video interview with Luis Gigliotti, Metro 2033 executive producer, which also includes new gameplay sequences.

First part give a glimpse on human survival in Moscow after nuclear strikes.

In second part Luis describes new proprietary engine used to produce highly detailed post-apocalyptic world plus new innovative weapons.

In addition to excellent graphics with DX11 support and intensive storyline, Metro 2033 will include GPU accelerated PhysX content. If you are interested in details about GPU PhysX support, please refer to our  inteview with 4A Games, focused on in-game physics.

Metro 2033 – Fear The Future by GordonFreeMANness

Latest trailer from Metro 2033 – title with extensive PhysX support.

Fluid simulation using PhysX implementation of SPH by eyroo

Liquid simulation with 18 000 particles, based on SPH PhysX fluids and OGRE engine.

CarLab Physx Ogre3d Deformed Slow Motion by carlomaker

Another set of falling cars – deformable this time.

StarTales Physx Benchmark ATI 5870 + GTX 260 by shinraorg

Star Tales benchmark is popular application for Hybrid PhysX setups testing.