News

Everybody Loves PhysX

NVIDIA went a little press release crazy this morning, announcing that Sega, Capcom, GRIN, and 8monkey Labs have all turned to NVIDIA’s PhysX technology to make their games better.

At the forefront of their four press release rampage is the announcement that Sega has licensed both the PhysX technology and NVIDIA’s APEX technology to serve as a development platform across all Sega studios.

“Sega has been using PhysX technology for several years, but this new agreement enables our studios to take advantage of the full portfolio of cross-platform PhysX engines,” said Takashi Shoji, Department Manager, Consumer Software R&D Support Dept., Consumer R&D Division, SEGA Corporation. “APEX was an important factor in our decision because it enables us to create high quality physics content in an easier and more productive manner.”

Basically taking away a great deal of the workload so Sega’s programmers can concentrate on slowly killing Sonic.

Along with the Sega announcement, NVIDIA also revealed that Capcom’s Dark Void uses PhysX to render weapons, smoke, and debris; GRIN used it in Terminator Salvation for weapon effects and destructible environments; and 8monkey Labs has an amazing name.

Oh, and 8monkey used PhysX in Darkest of Days to help create interactive, expressive, and natural environments.

In short, NVIDIA’s PhysX technology is slowly taking over the world, and the company’s public relations team has far too much time on their hands.

Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • Shin-san

    It probably helps that PhysX comes with PS3 tools now.

    Shin-san

  • Dude From Dubai

    @BlisteringOrange: I Wasnt refering to breasts.

  • Mancomb Seepgood

    Physx is pretty good but you really need a dedicated card to make the most of it.

  • Weather

    Good deal. I think the best implementation of PhysX to date has been in Mirror's Edge. It completely changes the feel of the game when it's enabled and it's not that graphic intensive. I hope the option to enable it is put in more and more games.

  • Nutlink

    GRIN also used Physx in GRAW 1 and GRAW 2 on the PC, and they did so horribly. UT3 also used Physx, again not too impressive. Physx has become more of a marketing joke than anything.

  • MasterOmega

    Yeah, PhysX has been absolutely elemental in all games to date, even at the larger companies. Oh wait, that's right, 4 years ago they were boasting the same nonsense and we have yet to see it implemented. Whatever happened to buying the PhysX processor, and running that alongside your ($600) video card...that was great!?

    MasterOmega

  • Divine Rage

    @CassiusLonginus:
    Oh help... Thank you for the metal image. I'm going to roll up into a foetal position and rock forward and backwards while sucking my thumb...

    Help...

  • Divine Rage

    @BlisteringOrange:
    He didn't have the guts to say it.

  • CassiusLonginus

    @CassiusLonginus:

    Or necromancy maybe.... wrong for me to assume that the developers abuse sonic sexually just because some fans do....

    CassiusLonginus

  • CassiusLonginus

    @Gyaruson:

    I think that is innacurate as Sonic is pretty much dead already... by now what they are doing with him amounts to necrophilia...

    CassiusLonginus

  • pelagato24

    yayy ps3 games with PhysX

    pelagato24

  • KroKan

    Damn u NVIDIA for bullshiting PC gamers by renaming old cards and some stupid and unnecessary smoke&debris effects as if it they are breakthrough technology.

    KroKan

  • Wahrheit

    @Wahrheit:

    Oh noes, the misspelling gnomes stole a word from my sentence...

    Wahrheit

  • Wahrheit

    Hmmm, does Empire TW use PhysX? I can how it could help a ton if...

    Wahrheit

  • BlisteringOrange

    @Dude From Dubai: Boobs, man! BOOBS!

  • diagorus

    "Basically taking away a great deal of the workload so Sega's programmers can concentrate on slowly killing Sonic."

    they did give him a sword, its just a matter of time before sonic puts that into himself and we're saved from the onslaught of bad sonic games

    diagorus

  • Dude From Dubai

    @Dude From Dubai: Will it incorporate realistic dynamics for different density flesh, subjected to different inertal forces ? Untill then, Im not interested .

  • my7c

    @Gyaruson: quote of the day

    my7c

  • Gyaruson

    "Basically taking away a great deal of the workload so Sega's programmers can concentrate on slowly killing Sonic."
    Hahahahahahahahahahaha....*big, deep breath* Hahahahahahaha!!

  • Dude From Dubai

    Will PhysiX be in the next Doa ?

  • Adnoz

    Physx is bullshit, all it does is turn glorious PC gamers into filthy console gaming peasants.

  • TimmiT

    @idrumgood:
    No, Sonic 3 and Knuckles wasn't out yet when that happened.

    TimmiT

  • Crashproof

    @Mancomb Seepgood:

    Ageia wanted people to believe that originally, to sell their hardware. That was a big FAIL. A decent multicore machine was better.

    Now NVIDIA wants people to believe it, to sell CUDA cards.

    There's probably more PhysX-enabled stuff out there than anyone realizes, because you can simply use it for collision detection and rigid-body physics without any big deal. HeroEngine uses it that way so far (though APEX cloth support is on the way).

    Nobody's going to play SW:TOR and exclaim about how cool the physics is, but PhysX is at work under the hood anyway.

    Crashproof

  • AudreyMerope

    lulz because ATI and NVIDIA conspired to fix prices =]

    AudreyMerope

  • Mr. Mew

    @pelagato24: I want ATi cards with PhsyX, please.

  • idrumgood

    Sonic was dead the day Jaleel White (Steve Urkle) voiced him in the cartoon.

    idrumgood

  • Xhacker02

    @Dude From Dubai: DO you like Fishdicks?

  • oosiegewolfoo

    @CassiusLonginus: Zoo-necophilia? Eww..

  • jrc1337

    PhysX = yawn, utterly pointless. I'll stick with my 4870 until a card/tech comes along that truly warrants an upgrade. At least all the Nvidia fanboys can thank ATI, otherwise all the Nvidia 2xx line would still be $100-200 higher in price.

    jrc1337

  • ChibaCityCowboy

    @Dude From Dubai: I've had a PhysX card even before NVidia bought Aegia. It makes BIG differences, but keep in mind , mine is an actual PCI card with an additonal 128 MB of Ram, which the system uses even if it's not doing PhysX calculations. The one game that I really noticed it on was City of Villians. When we would do Mayhem / Bank Robbery Missions, you could destroy parking meters, before you just broke tehm off and that was it, with the PhysX card, change would come exploding out of the parking meter as you hit it , and the objects would remain in game where things you do, like power blasts, would affect them.

    ChibaCityCowboy

  • Jellocakes

    Physx is only gaining traction because Nvidia are giving the thing away for almost nothing not because its actually any good.

    Well its good enough to some developers but there is a reason a lot of studios stick with the expensive Havok physics.

    Jellocakes

  • ithyphallus

    @pelagato24: welcome to last year in pc world

    ithyphallus

  • sander_dutch

    @jrc1337: I got the same card, but I think nowadays the whole PhysX thing is done inside either the CPU or GPU; so no need for additional phyics-cards these days

  • Gyaruson

    @CassiusLonginus:
    I think it's necro-beastaphilia.

  • ReconToaster.

    @Weather:

    Are you kidding me? You get a couple film layers of plastic and banner flags to mess with. What else?

    ReconToaster.

  • ZeroJutsu has a PS3, loves it.

    @Xhacker02: Not a gay fish either. >_<

    Damn you, South Park.

  • ZeroJutsu has a PS3, loves it.

    @Xhacker02: Not in my mouth, man.

  • KidKobun

    in before AGEIA PhysX.

  • EnigmaNemesis

    @AudreyMerope:

    THIS.

  • Qing Guo

    PhysX has been absolutely elemental in all games to date, even at the larger companies. I would like its converters found www.zuneconverter.net and share it with you

    Qing Guo

  • MorbidLilim

    @idrumgood: Are you kidding? I'll take him over these no-name hacks they have doing the voices now any day.

  • Eran

    @Adnoz: That doesn't even make sense.

  • Novenus

    You do know that PhysX is a free API for developers, right? But very few new games actually use it to make the technology matter. Nvidia claims it's a difference maker but until there are enough quality titles that incorporates it well it will never be and never matter.

    Novenus

  • Weather

    @ReconToaster.:
    Realistic water effects, papers that fly when disturbed by helicopters, the wind, glass that realistically shatters, etc. If you think that only the shredding tarps and banners were included, I'm led to believe you haven't even played with PhysX enabled and just watched the PhysX Demo vid.

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