Archive for the ‘Particles’ tag
Borderlands 2 will be enhanced with GPU PhysX effects
It is now official – Borderlands 2 will be the next game to support GPU accelerated PhysX effects.
Update: GPU PhysX trailer was caught on camera
At GeForce Kepler Editor’s Day (event, during which Kepler GPUs were presented to press), Borderlands 2 demo featuring GPU PhysX effects was demonstrated by Randy Pitchford, Gearbox Founder and CEO, running on a GeForce GTX 680 GPU.
Hardware accelerated content will include:
- Fully simulated tearable cloth which interacts with weapons, forces, weather, etc
- Persistent GPU simulated particles that interact with the world
- Fully-interactive fluids
- Maybe something more
PhysX 3 Fluid Simulation Demo evolves to Fluid Sandbox
Few months ago we wrote about interesting project – custom SPH Fluid simulation demo, that was using PhysX SDK 3.0.2 as physics engine and OpenGL as rendering API.
Recently, its author known as Finalspace has presented an updated version of this application, which is now called Fluid Sandbox.
Update: Fluid Sandbox 1.4.5 is up. New version is based on PhysX SDK 3.1 and features improved rendering, additional scenarios, better support for multi-core CPUs, fluid emitters and drains.
New release is named “Sandbox” for a reason – most of the data is now stored in XML format, so it is possible to customize existing scenarios (or even create new ones), edit scene and simulation properties, or add custom obstacles.
Apart from that, updated features include improved Screen Space Fluid Rendering option, new basic scenarios, more flexible settings and properly working interaction between fluid particles and rigid bodies.
As we already mentioned in our previous article, Fluid Sandbox is a great tool to play with, which functionality surpasses any other PhysX Fluid demos ever released.
You can download Fluid Sandbox from original thread at Delphi OpenGL Community forum.
GPU PhysX in Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham City, sequel to award winning Arkham Asylum title and second GPU PhysX game this year, has finally hit the shelves worldwide.
Update: Batman: Arkham City – GPU PhysX Profile
As usually, we are proud to present you our PhysX review and comparison video, showcasing extra physical effects that can be found in PC version of the game.
Can't view the video ? Watch alternative variant on Vimeo
Some technical details, like difference between PhysX settings, were already revealed in our preview article, so let’s give a score to different aspects of GPU PhysX implementation and compare them to previous Batman: Arkham Asulum title:
| QUALITY | 8/10 |
All effects are done accurately, with diligence – you will not see jerky or buggy behaviour (within physics engine limitations, of course), art is fine, almost everything is configured correctly. However, some particle effects could be done better – for example, it is not appealing to see when glass shards are jumping all over the place like they were made out of rubber.
| AMOUNT | 9/10 |
PhysX effects are scattered all over the game and accumulated in a places you will visit during main storyline (for example, you won’t see dynamic paper sheets on a random street).
Overall amount of extra physics content is similar to Arkham Asylum, but the components differ: you won’t see many “environmental” cloth objects, like all those banners and flags that can be teared appart with batarang, but in return APEX Clothing module is used extensively to simulate dynamic clothing on characters, including hoodies and coats on thugs, pants on russian twin-clowns, costume of Bruce Wayne, etc.
SPH smoke, steam and fog are rare in this game, but other particles (physical debris, shards, splinters, sparks) can be encountered much more frequently. All boss battles are enhanced with unique particle effects, for example.
As a good tradition, there is psychedelic level with lots of GPU Rigid Bodies. Looks gorgeous, actually, without PhysX effects this scene feels not nearly as vivid and spectacular.
What to expect from GPU PhysX in Batman: Arkham City ?
Batman: Arkham City tests the patience of PC gamers with several release delays, but will try to wheedle them with DX 11 Graphics and PhysX Technology.
Update: GPU PhysX in Batman: Arkham City - review and comparison video.
Recent comparison trailer gave us a glimpse of extra physics effects, and now we want to provide you with some additional details on what to expect from GPU PhysX content. In addition, new comparison PhysX video was released as well.
As usually, it will be possible to adjust level of in-game physics via “Hardware Accelerated PhysX” option in game’s launcher. There will be three settings:
PhysX Off: all GPU accelerated effects are disabled, only standart CPU physics (like ragdolls) is used.
PhysX Normal: enables additional particles effects (debris, volumetric smoke and steam, etc) and destructible environments.
PhysX High: includes all effects enabled withing “Normal” settings as well as realtime cloth and clothing simulation.
Fluid Simulation demo with OpenGL and PhysX SDK 3.0
Very interesting PhysX Fluid Simulation demo was revealed by a user Finalspace on German Delphi OpenGL Community forum.
Update: new version is available.
Written from scratch on C++, based on PhysX SDK 3.0.2 and OpenGL, this demo is showcasing Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) fluid simulation in a basic environment.
However, the amount of options is appealing – you can choose from various scenes, change fluid parameters, add rigid bodies or more particles (up to 262 000), apply forces to the fluid, switch rendering modes – PhysX Fluid Simulation is a fully functional playground, more advanced than original PhysX Fluids demo from NVIDIA.
You can download PhysX Fluid Simulation v 1.2 from original thread.
PhysX Research: Oriented Particles solver through CUDA
Earlier this year, Matthias Müller-Fischer, PhysX SDK Research Lead in NVIDIA, has presented new universal solver that can be used simulate almost any kind of objects – rigid, plastic, cloth or soft body.
You can familiarize with this work via previously published research papers: Solid Simulation with Oriented Particles and Adding Physics to Animated Characters with Oriented Particles.
Today, interesting video was revealed – it is showcasing impressive 20x performance improvement for this type of simulation running on GPU through CUDA, in comparison to CPU execution (5 “Lionfish” objects on CPU vs 100 on GPU – in real-time).
Sometimes findings of PhysX Research team are incorporated in PhysX/APEX products, and sometimes, for various reasons, they just become a research paper or presentation. We hope that in case with solver there will be only one option – first one.
PhysX Research: adding physics to animated characters with Oriented Particles
Another interesting research paper was published by Dr. Matthias Müller-Fischer, PhysX SDK Research Lead in NVIDIA.
Update: Oriented Particles solver through CUDA
It is called Adding Physics to Animated Characters with Oriented Particles and it further expands oriented particles approach with techniques for simulation of clothing on animated characters.
Abstract:
We present a method to enhance the realism of animated characters by adding physically based secondary motion to deformable parts such as cloth, skin or hair. To this end, we extend the oriented particles approach to incorporate animation information. In addition, we introduce techniques to increase the stability of the original method in order to make it suitable for the fast and sudden motions that typically occur in computer games. We also propose a method for the semi-automatic creation of particle representations from arbitrary visual meshes. This way, our technique allows us to simulate complex geometry such as hair, thick cloth with ornaments and multi-layered clothing, all interacting with each other and the animated character.
GPU PhysX in Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns, highly anticipated sequel to original American McGee’s Alice, and first game with GPU PhysX support for this year. As always, we have prepared comparison PhysX video – for your viewing pleasure.
Update: PhysX benchmarks roundup
Update #2: Comparison PhysX screenshots available
GPU PhysX content in Alice: Madness Return can be characterized as “Particle Madness“. In a good way – this game contains probably most rich and diverse physically simulated particle effects, of all games with hardware PhysX support. From habitual and universal debris, chunks, smoke and dust (emitted either by player’s weapons or enemies) to environmental particles (dynamic leaves, ash, bubles, etc) and place-specific effects.
Physical simulation of goopy oil-like substance, that is spawned when black “Ruin” beings are damaged or killed, requires a special notice. During intence fights, up to 10 000 SPH fluid particles, which are colliding with level geometry and reacting to player’s movement, can be processed simultaneously.
PhysX Research: Eulerian Water Simulation and Solids through Oriented Particles
Two new research papers have landed on a homepage of Dr. Matthias Müller-Fischer, PhysX SDK Research Lead in NVIDIA and NovodeX co-founder.
Fisrst one, called “Real-Time Eulerian Water Simulation Using a Restricted Tall Cell Grid“, presents further impovements to the real-time hybrid fluid solver, that we were able to see in recent demos like Lighhouse and Raging Rapids Ride.
Abstract:
We present a new Eulerian fluid simulation method, which allows real-time simulations of large scale three dimensional liquids. Such scenarios have hither to been restricted to the domain of off-line computation. To reduce computation time we use a hybrid grid representation composed of regular cubic cells on top of a layer of tall cells. With this layout water above an arbitrary terrain can be represented without consuming an excessive amount of memory and compute power, while focusing effort on the area near the surface where it most matters. Additionally, we optimized the grid representation for a GPU implementation of the fluid solver.
To further accelerate the simulation, we introduce a specialized multigrid algorithm for solving the Poisson equation and propose solver modifications to keep the simulation stable for large time steps. We demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in several real-world scenarios, all running above 30 frames per second on a modern GPU. Some scenes include additional features such as two-way rigid body coupling as well as particle representations of sub-grid detail.
We badly want to see this one in further releases of PhysX SDK 3 or APEX.
Alice: Madness Returns will feature GPU PhysX effects
In a recent promo video for upcoming GTX 560 GPU, NVIDIA has spoiled next game with support of GPU accelerated PhysX effects – Alice: Madness Returns, sequel to American McGee’s visionary classic “Alice” title.
UPDATE: Comparison GPU PhysX video
Starting at 1:34, comparison PhysX sequences are showcased. According to the video, GPU PhysX content in Alice will include (following list may be not full) destructible environments..
..volumetric fluid effects (for example, oil-like fluid from damaged enemies)..
