Andrew Elliott (also known as elliottad or MohawkADE) who recently made a very cool video for the Crank That S#!T Up with PhysX Video contest, has now made a new and very impressive video detailing the history of PhysX and the Ageia PhysX(PPU). Half of the video goes over the history of the Ageia PhysX card all the way up until Ageia and PhysX technology was acquired by Nvidia. Elliot then talks about whether or not the Aegia PhysX card is still a good solution if you are looking into a dedicated PhysX card for your system. As we know the answer is no as the Aegia PPU is no longer supported by Nvidia with newer PhysX driver releases. Elliot also covers the fact that the PhysX processing power required for games continues to increase causing laggy gameplay in newer games if a Ageia card is used.
This is a great video if you are not that familiar with Aegia and the PPU that started it all. Check it out below and be sure to check out Elliot’s YouTube Page here.
This is an informational video about the Ageia PhysX Card, also known as the PPU, and it’s impact on modern PC gaming. This video also discusses potential benefits and cons one may receive by owning one in this day in age.
Really a bit of an Ageia PhysX FAQ for noobs. If you’re already familiar with the PhysX card and you’re a hardcore new-age gamer, then I would not suggest this video to you.
Geeks.com is selling the original Physics Processing Unit (PPU), the BFG AGEIA PPU for only $14.99. Even though NVIDIA has dropped all support for this card and very difficult to get working with Windows 7 ,this is no doubt a great collectors item for any geek or video game physics fan.
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.
The website for the upcoming Russian post apocalyptic shooter Metro 2033 has been updated with the system requirements for the game. The minimum and recommended requirements are pretty standard for todays games however the optimum requirements are pretty high. Core i7 CPU,NVIDIA DirectX 11 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 480 and 470),As much RAM as possible (8GB+), and a Fast HDD or SSD.
If you have been following GamePhys or any news about Metro 2033 than these extremely high Optimum requirements for the game probably won’t come as a surprise to you since the game is going to be making heavy use of DX11 and advanced PhysX effects and according to Nvidia is going to be a graphics and PhysX showcase.
What kind of rig will you need to run Metro 2033?
We’ve just confirmed the minimum, recommended and optimum PC specs for Metro 2033. Read on to see what your machine can handle…
Minimum:
* 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:
* Any Quad Core or 3.0+ GHz Dual Core CPU
* DirectX 10 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 260 and above)
* 2GB RAM
Optimum:
* 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 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
For more information on NVIDIA 3D Vision, click here.
We also recommend the biggest and best monitor you can afford, and a home cinema kit or surround sound headphones!
Ever since we saw the Glowball PhysX demo and the Floating Castle Physics Demo running on Tegra 3 powered tablets we have been pretty excited about physics on Tegra powered devices. Back in November NVIDIA announced the released of their new Quad-Core mobile Tegra 3 chip that uses “four CPU cores and its new GeForceRead More
I know that Batman Arkham City has been out for awhile now and this is old news but as I have been extremely busy with work and finishing up school I never got a chance to post these. These are some cool Batman Arkham City PhysX comparison on/off videos from both EVGA and YouTube userRead More
Krishna Kumar – YouTube user krishx007 who runs gfxguru.net has made a pretty cool physics/PhysX demo level with Unity 3D called Physics Wonderland. The level is basically a huge playground with PhysX objects that you can destroy and play around with to show off the different PhysX features in Unity 3D. Check it out belowRead More
The Game Developers Conference 2012 is going to have a session that really interests us. The “Physics for Games Programmers” session/tutorial is going to cover the “tools and techniques developers should know when implementing physics in their games.” According to the information on the GDC 2012 site, the session will take place on Tuesday, MarchRead More
With all of the excitement about rumored hardware being used in the next-generation consoles, some very disappointing news has come today. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony has no plans to unveil the Sony Playstation 4 at this years E3 and is going to stick with the 10-year life cycle plan. If thisRead More
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
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