PhysX
Encyclopedia
PhysX is a proprietary
realtime
physics engine
middleware
SDK
developed by Ageia
(which itself was acquired by Nvidia
in February 2008) with the purchase of ETH Zurich
spin-off NovodeX in 2004. The term PhysX can also refer to the PPU
expansion card
designed by Ageia to accelerate PhysX-enabled video games.
Video games supporting hardware acceleration
by PhysX can be accelerated by either a PhysX PPU or a CUDA
-enabled GeForce
GPU
(if it has at least 32 CUDA cores), thus offloading physics calculations from the CPU
, allowing it to perform other tasks instead. This typically results in a smoother gaming experience and additional visual effects.
Middleware physics engines allow game developers
to avoid writing their own code to handle the complex physics
interactions possible in modern games. PhysX has provided physical simulation for more than 300 games.
The PhysX engine and SDK
are available for the following platforms: Microsoft Windows
, Mac OS X
, Linux
, PlayStation 3
, Xbox 360
and Wii
. The PhysX SDK is provided to developers of all platforms for free, both for commercial and non-commercial use.
acquired NovodeX AG and began developing a hardware technology that could accelerate physics calculations, aiding the CPU. Ageia called the technology PhysX PPU (physics processing unit), and the SDK was renamed from NovodeX to PhysX.
In 2008, Ageia was itself acquired by graphics technology manufacturer Nvidia
. Nvidia started enabling PhysX hardware acceleration on its line of GeForce graphics cards and eventually dropped support for Ageia PPUs.
available for Microsoft Windows
, Mac OS X
, Linux
, PlayStation 3
, Xbox 360
and Wii
. It supports rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, ragdolls
and character controllers, vehicle dynamics, volumetric fluid simulation and cloth simulation including tearing and pressurized cloth.
APEX technology is a multi-platform scalable dynamics framework first introduced in the Mafia II
video game in August 2010. Nvidia's APEX engine comprises the following features: APEX Destruction, APEX Clothing, APEX Particles, APEX Vegetation, and APEX Turbulence.
(PPU) is a processor specially designed to alleviate the calculation burden on the CPU, specifically calculations involving physics. PPU cards with PhysX support were available from the manufacturers ASUS
, BFG Technologies
and ELSA Technology
. Beginning with version 2.8.3 of the PhysX SDK, support for PPU cards was dropped, and PPU cards are no longer manufactured.
's acquisition of Ageia
, PhysX development turned away from PPU extension cards and focused instead on the GPGPU
capabilities of modern GPUs
. A graphics processing unit or GPU (also occasionally called visual processing unit or VPU) is a dedicated graphics rendering device for a personal computer, workstation or game console. Modern GPUs are very efficient at manipulating and displaying computer graphics, and their highly parallel structure makes them more effective than general-purpose CPUs for a range of complex algorithms, such as accelerating physical simulations using PhysX. A GPU can sit on top of a video card, or it can be integrated directly into the motherboard. More than 90% of new desktop and notebook computers have integrated GPUs.
Any CUDA
-ready GeForce graphics card (series 8 and newer, with a minimum of 32 cores and 256MB of video memory) can take advantage of PhysX without the need to install a dedicated PhysX card.
Versions 186 and newer of the ForceWare drivers disable PhysX hardware acceleration if a GPU from a different manufacturer, such as AMD
, is present in the system. Representatives at Nvidia stated to customers that the decision was made due to development expenses, and for quality assurance and business reasons. This decision has caused a backlash from the community that led to the creation of a community patch for Windows 7, circumventing the GPU check in Nvidia's updated drivers. To counter this patch, Nvidia implemented a time bomb in driver versions 196 and 197 that slowed down hardware accelerated PhysX and reversed the gravity, but an updated version of the patch removed all unwanted effects.
instructions without any multi-threading optimization. This could cause significant performance drops when running PhysX code on the CPU. The article suggests that a PhysX rewrite using SSE
instructions may substantially lessen the performance discrepancy between CPU PhysX and GPU PhysX.
In response to the Real World Technologies analysis, Mike Skolones, product manager of PhysX, said that SSE support had been left behind because most games are developed for consoles
first and then ported to the PC. As a result, modern computers run these games faster and better than the consoles even with little or no optimization.
Senior PR manager of Nvidia, Bryan Del Rizzo, explained that multi-threading was already available with CPU PhysX 2.x and that it was up to the developer to make use of it. He also stated that automatic multithreading and SSE would be introduced with version 3 of the PhysX SDK.
PhysX SDK 3.0 was released in May 2011 and represented a significant rewrite of the SDK, bringing improvements such as more efficient multithreading and a unified code base for all supported platforms.
Unreal Engine 3
, Unity 3D
, Gamebryo
, Vision, Instinct, Diesel
, Torque, Hero
and BigWorld
and is the physics platform of more than 300 video games, such as Bulletstorm
, Need for Speed: Shift
or Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Most of these games use the CPU to process the physics simulations.
Video games with optional support for hardware accelerated PhysX, often with additional effects such as tearable cloth, dynamic smoke or simulated particle debris, include:
name="darkbasic-pro-physx">
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
realtime
Real-time computer graphics
Real-time computer graphics is the subfield of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term is most often used in reference to interactive 3D computer graphics, typically using a GPU, with video games the most noticeable users...
physics engine
Physics engine
A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, such as rigid body dynamics , soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics, of use in the domains of computer graphics, video games and film. Their main uses are in video games , in which case the...
middleware
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
SDK
Software development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
developed by Ageia
AGEIA
Ageia, founded in 2002, was a fabless semiconductor company. Ageia invented PhysX – a Physics Processing Unit chip capable of performing game physics calculations much faster than general purpose CPUs; they also licensed out the PhysX SDK , a large physics middleware library for game...
(which itself was acquired by Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
in February 2008) with the purchase of ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
spin-off NovodeX in 2004. The term PhysX can also refer to the PPU
Physics processing unit
A physics processing unit is a dedicated microprocessor designed to handle the calculations of physics, especially in the physics engine of video games. Examples of calculations involving a PPU might include rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, collision detection, fluid dynamics, hair and...
expansion card
Expansion card
The expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard or backplane to add functionality to a computer system via the expansion bus.One edge of the expansion card holds the contacts that fit exactly into the slot...
designed by Ageia to accelerate PhysX-enabled video games.
Video games supporting hardware acceleration
Hardware acceleration
In computing, Hardware acceleration is the use of computer hardware to perform some function faster than is possible in software running on the general-purpose CPU...
by PhysX can be accelerated by either a PhysX PPU or a CUDA
CUDA
CUDA or Compute Unified Device Architecture is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia. CUDA is the computing engine in Nvidia graphics processing units that is accessible to software developers through variants of industry standard programming languages...
-enabled GeForce
GeForce
GeForce is a brand of graphics processing units designed by Nvidia. , there have been eleven iterations of the design. The first GeForce products were discrete GPUs designed for use on add-on graphics boards, intended for the high-margin PC gaming market...
GPU
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
(if it has at least 32 CUDA cores), thus offloading physics calculations from the CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
, allowing it to perform other tasks instead. This typically results in a smoother gaming experience and additional visual effects.
Middleware physics engines allow game developers
Game development
Game development is the software development process by which a video game is developed. Development is undertaken by a game developer, which may range from a single person to a large business. Mainstream games are normally funded by a publisher and take several years to develop. Indie games can...
to avoid writing their own code to handle the complex physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
interactions possible in modern games. PhysX has provided physical simulation for more than 300 games.
The PhysX engine and SDK
Software development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
are available for the following platforms: Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. The PhysX SDK is provided to developers of all platforms for free, both for commercial and non-commercial use.
History of PhysX
What is known today as PhysX originated as a physics simulation engine called NovodeX. The multi-threaded engine was developed by Swiss company NovodeX AG. In 2004, AgeiaAGEIA
Ageia, founded in 2002, was a fabless semiconductor company. Ageia invented PhysX – a Physics Processing Unit chip capable of performing game physics calculations much faster than general purpose CPUs; they also licensed out the PhysX SDK , a large physics middleware library for game...
acquired NovodeX AG and began developing a hardware technology that could accelerate physics calculations, aiding the CPU. Ageia called the technology PhysX PPU (physics processing unit), and the SDK was renamed from NovodeX to PhysX.
In 2008, Ageia was itself acquired by graphics technology manufacturer Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
. Nvidia started enabling PhysX hardware acceleration on its line of GeForce graphics cards and eventually dropped support for Ageia PPUs.
Features of PhysX
PhysX is a multi-threaded physics simulation SDKSoftware development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
available for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. It supports rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, ragdolls
Ragdoll physics
In computer physics engines, ragdoll physics is a type of procedural animation that is often used as a replacement for traditional static death animations.-Introduction:Early video games used manually-created animations for characters' death sequences...
and character controllers, vehicle dynamics, volumetric fluid simulation and cloth simulation including tearing and pressurized cloth.
APEX PhysX
NvidiaNVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
APEX technology is a multi-platform scalable dynamics framework first introduced in the Mafia II
Mafia II
Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games...
video game in August 2010. Nvidia's APEX engine comprises the following features: APEX Destruction, APEX Clothing, APEX Particles, APEX Vegetation, and APEX Turbulence.
PPU
A physics processing unitPhysics processing unit
A physics processing unit is a dedicated microprocessor designed to handle the calculations of physics, especially in the physics engine of video games. Examples of calculations involving a PPU might include rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, collision detection, fluid dynamics, hair and...
(PPU) is a processor specially designed to alleviate the calculation burden on the CPU, specifically calculations involving physics. PPU cards with PhysX support were available from the manufacturers ASUS
ASUS
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...
, BFG Technologies
BFG Technologies
BFG Technologies was a privately held U.S.-based supplier of power supplies and 3D video cards based on NVIDIA graphics technology and a manufacturer of high-end gaming/home theater computer systems. BFG Technologies branded products were available in North America and Europe at retailers and...
and ELSA Technology
ELSA Technology
Elsa Technology is the name of a computer hardware company. Originally founded in 1980 as ELSA Technology AG, it was a German company manufacturing video cards and other peripherals for Personal Computers...
. Beginning with version 2.8.3 of the PhysX SDK, support for PPU cards was dropped, and PPU cards are no longer manufactured.
GPU
After NvidiaNVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
's acquisition of Ageia
AGEIA
Ageia, founded in 2002, was a fabless semiconductor company. Ageia invented PhysX – a Physics Processing Unit chip capable of performing game physics calculations much faster than general purpose CPUs; they also licensed out the PhysX SDK , a large physics middleware library for game...
, PhysX development turned away from PPU extension cards and focused instead on the GPGPU
GPGPU
General-purpose computing on graphics processing units is the technique of using a GPU, which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the CPU...
capabilities of modern GPUs
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
. A graphics processing unit or GPU (also occasionally called visual processing unit or VPU) is a dedicated graphics rendering device for a personal computer, workstation or game console. Modern GPUs are very efficient at manipulating and displaying computer graphics, and their highly parallel structure makes them more effective than general-purpose CPUs for a range of complex algorithms, such as accelerating physical simulations using PhysX. A GPU can sit on top of a video card, or it can be integrated directly into the motherboard. More than 90% of new desktop and notebook computers have integrated GPUs.
Any CUDA
CUDA
CUDA or Compute Unified Device Architecture is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia. CUDA is the computing engine in Nvidia graphics processing units that is accessible to software developers through variants of industry standard programming languages...
-ready GeForce graphics card (series 8 and newer, with a minimum of 32 cores and 256MB of video memory) can take advantage of PhysX without the need to install a dedicated PhysX card.
Versions 186 and newer of the ForceWare drivers disable PhysX hardware acceleration if a GPU from a different manufacturer, such as AMD
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
, is present in the system. Representatives at Nvidia stated to customers that the decision was made due to development expenses, and for quality assurance and business reasons. This decision has caused a backlash from the community that led to the creation of a community patch for Windows 7, circumventing the GPU check in Nvidia's updated drivers. To counter this patch, Nvidia implemented a time bomb in driver versions 196 and 197 that slowed down hardware accelerated PhysX and reversed the gravity, but an updated version of the patch removed all unwanted effects.
Real World Technologies analysis
On , Real World Technologies published an analysis of the PhysX architecture. According to this analysis, most of the code used in PhysX applications is based on x87X87
x87 is a floating point-related subset of the x86 architecture instruction set. It originated as an extension of the 8086 instruction set in the form of optional floating point coprocessors that worked in tandem with corresponding x86 CPUs. These microchips had names ending in "87"...
instructions without any multi-threading optimization. This could cause significant performance drops when running PhysX code on the CPU. The article suggests that a PhysX rewrite using SSE
Streaming SIMD Extensions
In computing, Streaming SIMD Extensions is a SIMD instruction set extension to the x86 architecture, designed by Intel and introduced in 1999 in their Pentium III series processors as a reply to AMD's 3DNow! . SSE contains 70 new instructions, most of which work on single precision floating point...
instructions may substantially lessen the performance discrepancy between CPU PhysX and GPU PhysX.
In response to the Real World Technologies analysis, Mike Skolones, product manager of PhysX, said that SSE support had been left behind because most games are developed for consoles
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
first and then ported to the PC. As a result, modern computers run these games faster and better than the consoles even with little or no optimization.
Senior PR manager of Nvidia, Bryan Del Rizzo, explained that multi-threading was already available with CPU PhysX 2.x and that it was up to the developer to make use of it. He also stated that automatic multithreading and SSE would be introduced with version 3 of the PhysX SDK.
PhysX SDK 3.0 was released in May 2011 and represented a significant rewrite of the SDK, bringing improvements such as more efficient multithreading and a unified code base for all supported platforms.
PhysX in video games
PhysX technology is used by the game enginesGame engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
Unreal Engine 3
Unreal Engine 3
Unreal Engine 3 is a computer game engine developed by Epic Games. It is the third generation of Unreal Engine, designed for DirectX 9/10/11 personal computers , the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Vita, the Wii U, Android and OpenGL-based operating systems such as iOS and Mac OS X...
, Unity 3D
Unity (game engine)
Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity's development environment runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and the games it produces can be run on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360,...
, Gamebryo
Gamebryo
Gamebryo is a game engine, originally from Numerical Design Limited , and the successor to NDL's NetImmerse engine.Since the creation of Gamebryo, NDL merged into Emergent Game Technologies...
, Vision, Instinct, Diesel
Diesel (game engine)
The Diesel engine is a game engine developed and used by GRIN. The engine was originally developed for their game Ballistics and has been used, albeit with modifications, in a number of other games since then...
, Torque, Hero
HeroEngine
HeroEngine is a 3D game engine and server technology platform originally developed by Simutronics Corporation specifically for building MMO-style games...
and BigWorld
BigWorld
BigWorld is an Australian company formed in 1999 that develop and license a Massively Multiplayer Online Game and Virtual World engine. In 2007, BigWorld was recognized as the industry leader in UK's Develop magazine-Games:...
and is the physics platform of more than 300 video games, such as Bulletstorm
Bulletstorm
Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter video game developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games, and is published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows...
, Need for Speed: Shift
Need for Speed: Shift
Need for Speed: Shift is the 13th installment of the long-running racing video game franchise Need for Speed; published by Electronic Arts. It was announced in December 2008 as part of a three-game announcement that includes Need for Speed: Nitro and Need for Speed: World...
or Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Most of these games use the CPU to process the physics simulations.
Video games with optional support for hardware accelerated PhysX, often with additional effects such as tearable cloth, dynamic smoke or simulated particle debris, include:
| GAME TITLE | Release | Type of acceleration | DirectX | PhysX effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alice: Madness Returns Alice: Madness Returns Alice: Madness Returns is a video game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 released on June 14, 2011, in North America, June 16, 2011, in Europe and June 17, 2011, in the United Kingdom. It is the sequel to the 2000 Windows and Mac video game American McGee's Alice... |
2011-06-14 | GPU | 9 | debris and particle simulation, destructible environments, fluid simulation |
| 7554 | 2011-11-26 | GPU | 9 | rigid body simulation, vehicle simulation, destructible environments, cloth simulation |
| Arma 3 Arma 3 ARMA 3 is an open world tactical shooter video game developed by Bohemia Interactive and expected to be released in summer 2012. The game takes place in near future during Operation Magnitude, an operation launched by NATO forces fighting "Eastern armies" in Europe.-Campaign:The game is set in the... (upcoming) |
2012 | TBA | 11, 10 | |
| Auto Assault Auto Assault Auto Assault was a massively multiplayer online game , developed by NetDevil and published by NCsoft. It combined vehicular combat with role-playing elements, allowing the player to explore a post-apocalyptic future in customizable cars, motorcycles, semis, and tanks... |
2006-04-11 | PPU | 9 | fluid simulation, improved destructibility of objects |
| Batman: Arkham Asylum Batman: Arkham Asylum Batman: Arkham Asylum is a 2009 action-adventure stealth video game based on DC Comics' Batman developed for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It was developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment... |
2009-09-15 | GPU or PPU Physics processing unit A physics processing unit is a dedicated microprocessor designed to handle the calculations of physics, especially in the physics engine of video games. Examples of calculations involving a PPU might include rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, collision detection, fluid dynamics, hair and... |
9 | dynamic fog and steam, dynamic tearable cloth and cobwebs, spark effects, dynamic paper and leaves, additional rigid bodies, destructible environments |
| Batman: Arkham City | 2011-11-08 | GPU | 11, 9 | dynamic fog and steam, dynamic bank notes, posters etc., additional rigid bodies, destructible environments, cloth simulation, debris and particle effects |
| Bet on Soldier: Black-Out Saigon | 2007-05-29 | PPU | ? | |
| Bet on Soldier: Blood of Sahara | 2006-11-09 | PPU | 9 | |
| Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport Bet On Soldier: Blood Sport Bet On Soldier: Blood Sport is a first-person shooter developed by French video game developer Kylotonn, and published in the North American and UK market by Digital Jesters. The story revolves around an unknown World War, where elite soldiers meet each other in a battle to the death in one-on-one... |
2005-09-26 | PPU | 9 | |
| CellFactor: Combat Training CellFactor: Combat Training CellFactor: Combat Training is a sci-fi first person shooter from Artificial Studios & Immersion Games.- Game information :Specifically designed to show off the multiple physical effects that can be bolstered with the AGEIA card, CellFactor: Combat Training features some of the most commonly... |
2006-05-09 | PPU | 9 | |
| CellFactor: Revolution | 2007-05-08 | PPU | ? | fluid simulation, cloth simulation |
| City of Villains City of Villains City of Villains is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the superhero comic book genre, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSoft. Released on October 31, 2005 , the game is integrated with their previous release, City of Heroes... |
2005-10-28 | PPU | 9 | additional levels |
| Crazy Machines 2 Crazy Machines 2 Crazy Machines 2 is a Puzzle video game developed by for the Microsoft Windows platform. It is available in retail form and on Steam for download.-Gameplay:... |
2007-10-15 | GPU or PPU | 9 | fluid simulation |
| Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason Cryostasis has received mixed reviews, scoring 69/100 on Metacritic based on 28 reviews. Resolution Magazine praised the game as "tense, frequently innovative and attractive," and claimed that "its shortcomings are definitely outweighed by its strengths," awarding it 78%... |
2008-12-05 | GPU or PPU | 10, 9 | fluid simulation, particle physics, spark effects |
| Dark Void Dark Void Dark Void is a video game developed by Airtight Games using the Unreal Engine 3 and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. In the game players must face an alien threat that humanity had previously banished. The game mixes on-foot and mid-air combat... |
2010-04-21 | GPU | 9 | dynamic smoke, particle physics |
| Darkest of Days Darkest of Days Darkest of Days is a first-person shooter video game developed by 8monkey Labs and published by Phantom EFX. It was released in North America on September 8, 2009 for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360... |
2009-09-08 | GPU | 9 | debris simulation, dynamic fog and smoke, dynamic leaves |
| Deep Black Deep Black (video game) Deep Black is an upcoming video game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. It is planned for release in November 2011. It was initially announced as U-WARS and Underwater Wars.... (upcoming) |
Dec 2011 | GPU | 9 | |
| Hot Dance Party | 2008-03-31 | GPU | ||
| Hot Dance Party II | 2008-08-05 | GPU | ||
| Infernal Infernal (video game) Infernal is a third person action game for Microsoft Windows, produced by Polish developer Metropolis Software and published by Playlogic International in 2007.... |
2007-05-09 | PPU | 9 | |
| Jianxia 3 | 2011-05-19 | GPU | ||
| Mafia II Mafia II Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games... |
2010-08-24 | GPU | 9 | additional debris (up to 10,000 pieces at a time), dynamic cloth, dynamic smoke |
| Metal Knight Zero Online (upcoming) | TBA | GPU | ||
| Metro 2033 | 2010-03-16 | GPU | 11, 10, 9 | debris simulation, dynamic smoke |
| Metro: Last Light Metro: Last Light Metro: Last Light is an upcoming action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. It is expected to be released in the summer of 2012.... (upcoming) |
2012 | GPU | ||
| Mirror's Edge Mirror's Edge Mirror's Edge is a single-player first person action-adventure video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was announced on July 10, 2007, and was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2008. A Microsoft Windows version was released... |
2009-01-13 | GPU or PPU | 9 | debris and glass shard simulation, dynamic tearable cloth, spark effects, dynamic fog and steam |
| MStar | 2011-06-30 | GPU | 9 | |
| Sacred 2: Fallen Angel | 2008-11-07 | GPU | 10, 9 | particle physics, dynamic leaves and rocks |
| Sacred 2: Ice & Blood (expansion) | 2009-10-02 | GPU | 10, 9 | particle physics, dynamic leaves and rocks |
| Shadowgrounds Survivor Shadowgrounds Survivor Shadowgrounds Survivor is a shooter game developed by Frozenbyte and the sequel to Shadowgrounds. It has three playable characters, a RPG-like upgrade system for weapons and characters, a survival mode, graphics enhanced from its predecessor, an integrated physics engine, and a soundtrack by Ari... |
2007-11-14 | PPU | ? | |
| Star Trek DAC Star Trek DAC Star Trek D·A·C is a video game inspired by the 2009 Star Trek movie. The developer is Naked Sky Entertainment in collaboration with Bad Robot Productions, the production company responsible for the movie. The title is derived from the game's three modes of play: Deathmatch, Assault, and Conquest... |
2009-11-12 | GPU | debris simulation | |
| Stoked Rider: Alaska Alien | 2006-12-14 | PPU | 9 | avalanche simulation |
| Switchball Switchball Switchball is a 3D action-puzzle game, made by Swedish developer Atomic Elbow, which was released for Microsoft Windows on June 26, 2007, on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2007 and on PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 on September 17, 2009.-Gameplay:The game puts the... |
2007-06-26 | PPU | ? | fluid simulation |
| Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is the third installment in the popular Ghost Recon tactical shooter video game series, published by Ubisoft in 2006. As in previous Ghost Recon games, players command their team of Ghosts while neutralizing hostile forces and completing various mission... |
2006-05-03 | PPU | 9 | debris simulation |
| Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 is the sequel to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. It expands on the game play of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and is the fourth installment in the popular Ghost Recon tactical shooter video game series, published by Ubisoft.The game... |
2007-06-28 | GPU or PPU | 9 | debris simulation, dynamic tearable cloth, dynamic tree and plant simulation, particle effects, additional level with destructible environments |
| Unreal Tournament 3 | 2007-11-19 | GPU or PPU | 9 | additional levels |
| Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction is a first-person shooter video game developed by NetDevil that uses the Nvidia PhysX engine. It is available as a free download from the official site and from Nvidia via their free GeForce Power Pack download.... |
2007-11-29 | GPU or PPU | destructible environments, dynamic tearable cloth, particle physics |
PhysX in other software
Other software with PhysX support includes:- Active WorldsActive WorldsActive Worlds is a 3D virtual reality platform. The Active Worlds client runs on Windows. Users assign themselves a name, log into the Active Worlds universe, and explore 3D virtual worlds and environments that other users have built. Users can chat with one another or build structures and areas...
(AW), a 3D virtual reality platform with its client running on Windows - Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Softimage, computer animationComputer animationComputer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
suites - DarkBASIC ProfessionalDarkBASIC ProfessionalDarkBASIC Professional is a BASIC dialect targeted specifically at 2D and 3D game development. It is available from software company The Game Creators and is an offshoot of their original DarkBASIC programming language...
(with DarkPHYSICS upgrade), a programming languageProgramming languageA programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
targeted at game development
name="darkbasic-pro-physx">
- DX StudioDX StudioDX Studio is a complete integrated development tool for the creation of 3D video games, simulations or real-time interactive applications for either standalone, Web Based, Microsoft Office or Visual Studio use.-Development:...
, an integrated development environment for creating interactive 3D graphics - FuturemarkFuturemarkFuturemark Oy is a Finnish software development company, that produces computer benchmark applications for home users and businesses. Company headquarters and R&D department are located in Espoo, Finland...
3DMark Vantage, a benchmarking toolBenchmark (computing)In computing, a benchmark is the act of running a computer program, a set of programs, or other operations, in order to assess the relative performance of an object, normally by running a number of standard tests and trials against it... - Microsoft Robotics StudioMicrosoft Robotics StudioMicrosoft Robotics Developer Studio is a Windows-based environment for robot control and simulation. It is aimed at academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers and handles a wide variety of robot hardware....
, an environment for robot control and simulation - NvidiaNVIDIANvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
SuperSonic Sled and Raging Rapids Ride, technology demos - OGREOGREOGRE is a scene-oriented, flexible 3D rendering engine written in C++ designed to make it easier and intuitive for developers to produce applications utilizing hardware-accelerated 3D graphics...
(via the NxOgre wrapper), an open source rendering engineRendering (computer graphics)Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene... - The Physics Abstraction Layer, a physical simulation APIApplication programming interfaceAn application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
abstraction system (it provides COLLADACOLLADACOLLADA is a COLLAborative Design Activity for establishing an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. COLLADA is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group....
and Scythe Physics EditorScythe Physics EditorScythe is a free software physics modeling program. It allows the merging of physics and graphics content in one package. It provides native support for modeling the rigid body physics for the Newton Game Dynamics, the Open Dynamics Engine and PhysX engine...
support for PhysX) - Rayfire, a plug-in for 3DS MAX that allows fracturing and other simulations.
See also
- BulletBullet (software)Bullet is an open source physics engine featuring 3D collision detection, soft body dynamics, and rigid body dynamics. It is used in games, and in visual effects in movies. The Bullet physics library is published under the zlib license. Erwin Coumans, its main author, worked for Sony Computer...
- HavokHavok (software)Havok Physics is a physics engine developed by Irish company Havok. It is designed primarily for video games, and allows for real-time collision and dynamics of rigid bodies in three dimensions. It provides multiple types of dynamic constraints between rigid bodies , and has a highly optimized...
- Open Dynamics EngineOpen Dynamics EngineThe Open Dynamics Engine is a physics engine in C/C++. Its two main components are a rigid body dynamics simulation engine and a collision detection engine...
- OpenGLOpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
- Vortex (physics engine)Vortex (physics engine)Vortex is a high-fidelity, realtime physics engine developed by CMLabs Simulations that simulates rigid body dynamics, collision detection, contact determination, and dynamic reactions...