- March 31, 2012
- Written by Mark
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GameTrailers.com has a couple of awesome videos from GDC 2012 where Nvidia walks through their latest PhysX technologies with a look at fur rendering PhysX Turbulence, PhysX destruction, and PhysX cloth. The most interesting new feature we have not seen before is the new PhysX rigid body solver. As described in the video, the new solver does PhysX fracturing and destruction in real time without pre calculation and having the individual PhysX objects setup beforehand like we have seen being done with the UDK PhysX tutorials to create destructible objects. Check out the videos below.
Source [GameTrailers]
- March 18, 2012
- Written by Mark
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I am pleased to announce that GamePhys will soon have a dedicated test and benchmarking system for the site. This was a project I have been meaning to do since I started the site back in 2009 but never got around to it. The first phase of this project really got started this past Black Friday when I picked up several good deals on hardware and decided it would be a good time to move ahead with the project. I have now finished purchasing all of the hardware and plan to put it all together sometime this week.
I plan to start by doing basic guides and tutorials on how to setup dedicated PhysX cards and Hyrbid PhysX systems using the HD6950 with dedicated NVIDIA PhysX cards. As you can see, some of the hardware especially the motherboard is not exactly top of the line but will be perfect for doing basic Hyrbid PhysX setup tutorials and testing. I eventually plan to replace the motherboard and purchase another HD6950 for CrossFire setups with a dedicated PhysX card and then eventually do some real performance benchmarking with everything from different hardware configurations to overclocking! I also hope that the rumors are true that the upcoming NVIDIA Kepler/GK104 Will Have Dedicated PhysX Hardware so I can use this new system to test it out!
Below are the current specs of the systems inculding the two dedicated PhysX cards I will be using, the XFX GF GT430 and the MSI GeForce GTS 250.
BIOSTAR A870U3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
1 x AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor
Cooler Master RR-910-HTX3-G1 130-Watt 92mm Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler
1 x XFX Double D HD-695X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 Video Card
1 x OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5″ 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
1 x G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
1 x Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Power Supply
MYOPENPC DOMA Pro PCI Black Transparent Acrylic Open Computer Case
XFX GF GT430 700M 1 GB DDR3 PCI-E Video Card
MSI GeForce GTS 250 Video Card 512MB
- March 11, 2012
- Written by Mark
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On Friday at GDC 2012, Aron Zoellner and Kevin Newkirk of NVIDIA presented a really nice hour long session titled Enhancing Games with APEX PhysX (Clothing, Destruction, Turbulence). In this presentation they went over the features of APEX PhysX Cloth, Destruction, and Turbulence which we have seen implemented in recent games like Mafia II and Alice: Madness Returns. The presentation goes over how “APEX Modules (Destruction, Clothing) can be used to add more realistic clothing and destruction into your game.”
You can watch the presentation here. Unfortunately, there is no option to embed the video, hopefully they upload it to YouTube soon.
APEX has been used in various games to enhance game interactivity. In this session we will show you how APEX Modules (Destruction, Clothing) can be used to add more realistic clothing and destruction into your game. We will provide several APEX examples in current games and guide you through the entire pipeline of authoring, importing and setup of APEX Clothing and Destruction in a UE3 level. This session will provide an overview of the full NVIDIA APEX suite of tools used in the creation of clothing and destruction as well as an overview of the upcoming APEX Turbulence module.
Source [NVIDIA]
- March 10, 2012
- Written by Mark
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We have been hearing rumors for the past year now that AMD GPU’s will be used in the next generation consoles however, aside from reports that the Xbox would use a Fusion variant of Bulldozer, we have not been hearing to much about the actual CPU that may be used. Now SemiAccurate claims that the Sony Playstation 4 will be an x86 CPU with an AMD GPU. This “completes the AMD clean sweep of all the next gen consoles.” We have been watching these rumors about the next-generation console hardware very closely since using all AMD hardware, especially the GPU would put NVIDIA and PhysX in an interesting spot since they would probably have to port PhysX to OpenCL or go completely CPU based, which as most people would agree is not a bad thing at all. Aside from the future of PhysX we will probably not start to see physics implemented into games on a larger scale than what we see now until the next-generation consoles are out so we are very eager to learn the capabilities of them.
From SemiAccurate – Sony Playstation 4 will be an x86 CPU with an AMD GPU:
With the current wave of Playstation 4 leaks, it is time to spill some of the beans on what we know about the console. The short story is that it completes the AMD clean sweep of all the next gen consoles.
Yes, you heard that right, multiple sources have been telling SemiAccurate for some time that AMD won not just the GPU as many are suggesting, but the CPU as well. Sony will almost assuredly use an x86 CPU for the PS4, and after Cell in the PS3, can you really blame them? While this may point to a very Fusion/Llano-like architecture we hear that is only the beginning.
For starters, you have an AMD Fusion type design, and the recently launched but underwhelming Bulldozer, coupled with a GCN/Southern Islands/HD7000 series core is a good start. If you look at the Bulldozer architecture, it does have some really creepy high level similarities to Cell, doesn’t it? SemiAccurate’s sources won’t spill the beans on the exact generation of CPU and GPU that are in the PS4, but we expect it to be a very customized version of an existing or near future design.
Source [SemiAccurate]
Recent News
March 18, 2012
I am pleased to announce that GamePhys will soon have a dedicated test and benchmarking system for the site. This was a project I have been meaning to do since I started the site back in 2009 but never got around to it. The first phase of this project really got started this past BlackRead More
March 11, 2012
On Friday at GDC 2012, Aron Zoellner and Kevin Newkirk of NVIDIA presented a really nice hour long session titled Enhancing Games with APEX PhysX (Clothing, Destruction, Turbulence). In this presentation they went over the features of APEX PhysX Cloth, Destruction, and Turbulence which we have seen implemented in recent games like Mafia II andRead More
March 10, 2012
We have been hearing rumors for the past year now that AMD GPU’s will be used in the next generation consoles however, aside from reports that the Xbox would use a Fusion variant of Bulldozer, we have not been hearing to much about the actual CPU that may be used. Now SemiAccurate claims that theRead More
March 10, 2012
Zombiethatatehimself creator of the Awesome Apex PhysX Impact Damage Demonstration and Apex PhysX Impact Damage Demonstration With Stucco/plaster, and the Apex PhysX Voronoi Fracture and Destruction Demonstration has made another cool Apex PhysX demonstration with the Unreal Development Kit. This time a similar to the Voronoi Fracture and destruction demonstration but with some cool plasterRead More
March 9, 2012
Some nice news from Havok as they have announced that they have entered into a “worldwide license agreement with Nintendo Co., Ltd., to make Havok Physics and Havok Animation available to studios around the world developing on Nintendo’s Wii U™ platform” Hopefully we will see some cool games implement Havok Physics and destruction. The WiiRead More
March 8, 2012
F1nalspace has made a pretty cool PhysX SPH fluids sandbox you can download and play with showing off some awesome PhysX based SPH(smoothed particle hydrodynamics). Check it out below. I made a fluid simulation in C++ with several customizable scenarios using PhysX SDK 3.0.2 rendered with OpenGL. Fluid rendering is done using a technique calledRead More
March 8, 2012
I just wanted to post these cool UDK PhysX videos I came across on YouTube. UDK wood fracture from 19minimin91 UDK/Apex Destructible Level Test from lankeytom UDK Physics Fun by GrinchPa
March 4, 2012
Now this is exciting news, Epic Games has announced in their GDC 2012 press release that they will be showcasing Unreal Engine 4 behind closed doors at GDC 2012. Last year at GDC 2011 we saw the Samaritan demo which was jaw dropping graphics wise but did not showcase much physics, at least destruction wise.Read More
March 4, 2012
NVIDIA has released new GeForce 295.73 WHQL Drivers which include PhysX 9.12.0209 System Software for improved compatibility and performance in Alice: Madness Returns and Batman: Arkham City. NVIDIA has posted an in-depth article about the improvements you can see in various games on the official Geforce website. There was also a PhysX System Software 9.12.0213Read More
February 16, 2012
This is old now but I never got around to posting about it back during CES 2012. During the CES 2012 Intel press conference, they showed a lot of information about the upcoming Ivy Bridge Ultrabook processor including a DX11 graphics demo showing off different games that the DX11 capable Ivy Bridge processor will beRead More
February 16, 2012
The NvidiaApexDeveloper YouTube page has uploaded a new video from the Art Gallery demo showing off some awesome Apex physics and destruction. Check it out below. For more footage of this demo in action check out the original Art Gallery Destruction Demo in UE3 using APEX Destruction with GRB’s video. Hopefully this demo becomes availableRead More
February 16, 2012
Charlie over at SemiAccurate has posted an interesting rumor that the upcoming NVIDIA Kepler, GK104 GPU will have optimizations for physics calculations in the form of dedicated PhysX hardware described as a “PhysX block.” It is unclear whether these optimizations will be actual dedicated PhysX hardware or just more shaders and other PhysX optimizations butRead More
