We have been waiting for the next-generation consoles to see physics in games implemented more and not just the simple eye candy we have been seeing. With rumors that the next-generation consoles are still a long ways off this could be a long wait. But maybe not, Maximum PC has run an interesting article titled The Return of the King: Why PC Gaming is Making a Comeback, where it talks about how over the past few years PC gaming sales and the number of players has increased significantly along with the GPU and CPU power of PC’s. If this is the case maybe we will start to see some developers leaving consoles behind and make games with physics that take advantage of the current power of PC’s.
Wasn’t it just four years ago that the pundits and game media gathered in wake, made a few pithy quips about graphics and soundcard drivers, and poured their 40‑ouncers over the grave of PC gaming? Well guess what, baby—PC gaming ain’t dead by a long shot. In fact, there’s a strong argument that PC gaming is not only alive and well, it’s thriving and poised to dominate consoles.
Don’t believe us? Battlefield 3, one of the most anticipated launches of the year, only offers 64-player goodness to those on the PC, and tweaks the frak out of PC-only graphics that make game consoles look like peddlers of VGA output in a 1080p world. Smash a window in Batman: Arkham City on a PC with PhysX support, and you’re rewarded with glass particles flying everywhere—just as if you threw a thug through a plate glass window in real life. Do that on a console, and you’re rewarded with a pathetic tinkle.
Overall the GT 430 matches up well and does allow you to enable Physx in Physx titles when playing with an AMD graphics card. There is a pretty big performance hit compared to having Physx disabled but in all cases frame rates were still playable. There is a pretty substantial upgrade when comparing Physx On with the GT 430 added, it made the difference of being playable or not. The GTX 460 does show it’s extra power compared to the GT 430, you will get a few extra FPS using the GTX 460, I noticed between 2-5 FPS increase in most games tested after “upgrading” to the GTX 460. It is also worth noting that the EVGA GTX 460 1GB FTW edition is heavily overclocked out of the box, I ran this card at the factory defaults of 850/1000 which may account for the additional FPS scored, as well as some of the additional power usage. I can only guess, but I would think using a stock clock speed GTX 460 would result in slightly low FPS and slightly lower power draw. There is potential that the FPS performance of a stock clocked GTX 460 could be identical to the GT 430, however the power usage will always be lower on the GT 430. Remember the stock speeds for a GTX 460 is 675/900 and the GT 430 I used is 700/800 which the GTX 460 I used is 850/1000.
With all things considering I think the GT 430 is a very good solution if you must have Physx support with a AMD card. The results are playable frame rates with Physx enabled, something AMD can’t do on its own. If you decide to go with a higher GPU like the GTX 460 you may get some extra performance, it is a very small 2-5fps but there is some performance increase. It is difficult to say if this is due to the extra clock speeds, 256-bit memory bus (compared to 128-bit GT 430), or the extra CUDA cores (336 vs 96). The bottom line is that I cannot justify the cost of a GTX 460 when you consider the minimal increase in performance compared to the GT 430, especially if you value power consumption and case temperatures. The GTX 460 will most certainly require extra power and generate extra heat, this costs you extra money on your electrical bill. The GT 430 is also available in a large variety of single card solutions, the GTX 460 does have some single slot designs but they are expensive and add extra heat due to a poorer cooling solution.
YouTube user ThatsPie has made a pretty cool video showing off the PhysX in Torque 3D. This is a completely new video not from the Torque 3D demos we have seen before. Check it out below. If you are interested in the Torque 3D engine and its PhysX, be sure to check out our Torque 3D Pacific Physics (PhysX) Demo and Video from the Pacific Demo available on the Torque 3D website.
Here are some cool physics videos that have been uploaded to YouTube over the past week. Cryengine 3 Tornado Physics by club4ghz UDK – Destructible objects and Physics! by Shotbix07 Ice Engine Destruction Test by LordOfTheBytes
I came across a few cool Havok physics videos on YouTube. YouTube user kosteckip has made a pretty cool Castle Siege type demo using PhysX and Havok physics with physics based water, cloth, and destruction. Meanwhile, the official Havok Physics YouTube channel has uploaded a series of Havok Simulation videos and one interesting video showsRead More
Maximum PC has a nice article up about the top game engines being used to create today’s games. Along with the engines they also pointed out the top Middleware being used and PhysX and Havok were listed as the top physics Middleware. Check out the entire article here. From Gamers, Start Your Engines! 6 TopRead More
Phymec is making some cool physics tools for Bullet Physics and Blender to enable some awsome fracture and destruction effects. Two awesome videos showing this off have been uploaded to YouTube. The first shows off the creation of the fracture objects in Blender and the newer video is an awesome collection of fracture objects beingRead More
An interesting rumor has surfaced this past week that Microsoft is developing two next-gen Xbox 720 consoles. According to the rumor on TECHSPOT, Microsoft “is said to be developing an entry-level system as well as a true next-generation hardcore gaming console.” What is important to us for the future of physics is the reports thatRead More
I posted about this awesome level several months ago – Some Cool NVIDIA APEX Physics Tests Done with the UDK now mfsksa, who is the creator of this level, has given me the UDK files required to play the Apex PhysX test level he made. I made a cool video showing it off some moreRead More
Ever since we posted the Battlefield 3 Physics and Destruction Videos with the BF3 destruction video showing the Antenna in Caspian Border coming down we have been wondering how to do this or when it would be allowed through a patch. Today we have learned through an awesome YouTube Video that the main Antenna canRead More
It looks like physics in the web browser is here to stay. We just posted about how XML3D Physics will bring realistic Physics to Web browsers now i just came across this cool demo showing off Bullet Physics working inside a web browser in this case Chrome 15+ check it out here. Hopefully soon weRead More
Now this is pretty cool and should be of some interest to developers working to implement physics into their games. Dushan who is the new engine programmer for Natural Selection 2 has been working on physics related optimizations for the game. One day while the developers “were looking at the physics in summit and discussingRead More
changestyleman also known as MasterGod who was working on the Crysis 2 Minecraft Mod is at it again with another cool physics mod using the CryEgine 3 SDK. This time he is working on a general mass physics mod. According to the thread over at Crydev.net the mod will have “Dynamic destruction (like Red factionRead More
We have posted before about some cool Minecraft Physics mods like the Minecraft with jBullet Physics and the concept video showing off Minecraft + Bullet Physics which are really cool. Now Benjamin “begla” Glatzel has started working on a new “Minecraft-like open source project,” that has implemented Bullet Physics for some cool physics effects onRead More
Now this is some impressive work. XPWindman is working on a PhysX and Unreal Development Kit project for his school graduation project using “UDK + Speedtree + APEX physx LAB.” To demonstrate Apex PhysX and destruction he has made a massive floating temple like level in the UDK and every object is a PhysX objectRead More
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