Eurogamer.net has posted the complete specifications for the 4A Engine that is going to be powering the upcoming Russian post apocalyptic shooter Metro 2033. We have been excited and following Metro 2033 since it was announced that it would be making heavy use of PhysX and when released will be a graphics and PhysX showcase.
In the specifications listed on Eurogamer there is an entire section detailing the physics used int he game and the different effects we should expect to see.
be sure to check out the previous posts we have made about Metro 2033:
Physics System
Powered by nVidia PhysX technology, can utilise multiple CPU cores, AGEIA PhysX hardware, or nVidia GPU hardware.
* Tightly integrated into the content pipeline and the game itself, including physical materials on all surfaces, physically driven sound, physically driven animations
* Rigid body and multi-jointed constructions. Breakable fences, walls , sheds and other objects. Thousands of different physical entities simulated per frame.
* Cloth simulation, water physics (including cross-interactions)
* Destruction and fracturing, physically based puzzles
* Soft body physics on selected special game entities
* On hardware-accelerated PhysX platforms engine implements full physically correct behaviour of particles such as smoke, debris, etc.
YouTube user DigitalDemolition has been doing a lot with the Unreal Development kit and PhysX destuctibles lately, he recently made an impressive video showing off PhysX Rigid Body Destruction made with the Unreal Develop Kit. He has now made an entire building and what is the start of a city block using the UDK and PhysX destructibles. Check out the videos below and be sure to follow his YouTube channel here as he plans to do more with the UDK and PhysX destructibles.
Be sure to check out the previous posts we have covered on the UDK FractureMeshes and PhysX Destructibles:
PhysX Street Block Test:
the beginning of a small sized city block with each item that you see utilizing physics in one way or another. This was created by combining the effect’s of rigid body’s,physx walls,Joints, and Kactors. It is extremely slow in area’s due to a crappy video card…… intel x4500HD and due to me not optimizing most of the sections yet.
YouTube user DigitalDemolition has made and uploaded an impressive video showing off PhysX Rigid Body Destruction made with the Unreal Develop Kit. We have been seeing many video’s like this made with the Unreal Development Kit fracture meshes and PhysX destructibles however this time it uses a vehicle that when hits the wall with a certain amount of force causes the PhysX based destruction. YouTube user Wallomedia10 has also made a really nice in-depth tutorial video showing how you can do this yourself with the Unreal Development kit. We embedded both videos below along with the PhysX Destructible Reference from the Unreal Developer Network in case you are not familiar with what exactly PhysX destructibles in the UDK are.
Be sure to check out the previous posts we have covered on the UDK FractureMeshes and PhysX Destructibles:
When to use a PhysXDestructible instead of a FracturedStaticMesh
The FracturedStaticMeshActor is an efficient way to generate small levels of destruction within a UE3 level. However, if you wish to scale up the amount destruction, the FracturedStaticMeshActor will soon reach some limitations. For one thing, every piece (or conglomorate) that gets ejected is represented by an AActor. If hundreds of pieces are ejected, the AActor overhead can be quite large.
The PhysXDestructibleActor is designed to operate within the regime of hundreds, or even thousands, of rigid body pieces. It handles this in two ways. First, it represents its pieces as bones in SkeletalMeshes. This greatly reduces the AActor overhead. Secondly, it fractures hierarchically. So large pieces that are unfractured remain represented as one rigid body, and one SkeletalMesh bone.
In addition, PhysXDestructibles have some extra features that enhance the effect of destruction. You may assign a “crumble particle system,” which is intended to be a PhysXParticleSystem (see PhysXParticleSystemReference). This will represent the finest level of fracturing. That is, when the smallest pieces are destroyed, their volume will be replaced by a set of PhysX fluid particles. If you use a mesh data type, this can give a convincing crumbling effect. You may also assign a crumble sound, as well as a more traditional particle effect (for smoke or dust, e.g.).
PhysXDestructibleActors can be static or dynamic. If they are static, there are two ways to assign some parts of the Actor to be “support.” When a contiguous path (via chunk pieces) is lost between a chunk and a support chunk, then the chunk will come loose. This feature is available through the FracturedStaticMeshActor, but the PhysXDestructibleActor has an additional feature that allows them to create a support structure between touching actors. That is, islands of touching PhysXDestructibleActors will form one support structure. You may use this, for example, to create a tall column out of several PhysXDestructibleActors. If you shoot through the middle of the column, the actors on top will automatically come loose.
Finally, the PhysXDestructibleActor supports impact damage. By supplying an impact-to-damage scale, fracturing will occur when the PhysXDestructibleActor is hit (or hits) hard enough.
Phys-x Rigid Body Destruction:
Physx Destructible – How to enable Rigid Body Collision Destruction:
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