Aug
12
NVIDIA actually does the cool thing and gives away PhysX.
Filed Under Gaming, Hardware, Industry News, Software
I’ll admit when I’m wrong, and here it goes. I was wrong. When NVIDIA aquired Ageia and their PhysX last Feburary I was pretty confident we were going to see NVIDIA pushing that I not only need to buy 3 of their GPU’s, but I will also need to buy a NVIDIA Physics card too! My friends at HardOCP Forums and I argued that it was not needed and it seems NVIDIA agrees.
NVIDIA enabled PhysX with their GeForce v177.83 graphics driver, Geforce 8 and higher only, sorry. This driver package will also install v8.08.01 PhysX System Software. The PhysX control panel can be accessed through the Windows Start Menu under ‘NVIDIA Corporation’. In proper celibration they released a ton of free apps, demos, and a full game through The Force Within Site.
The “free” PhysX support plus apps are a pleasant surprise in a world where companies give me the impression that they dont care who they screw to make a buck.
Available for free from this first GeForce Power Pack includes:
- Warmonger — Full free game! Destroy walls, floors, and whole buildings to open up new paths or close existing ones. Destructive power is more than eye candy here-it’s a tactical weapon in this ground-breaking action game.
- Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack-includes three maps with amazing effects that fundamentally change the gameplay (requires full version of Unreal Tournament 3)
- A sneak peek at the upcoming Nurien social networking service, based on the Unreal Engine 3 (with built-in benchmark).
- A sneak peek at the upcoming game Metal Knight Zero (with built-in benchmark).
- All new NVIDIA “The Great Kulu” tech demo that showcases the use of PhysX soft bodies in a real game play environment.
- All new NVIDIA “Fluid” tech demo-a simulation of realistic fluid effects with a variety of liquids.
- Badaboom Media Converter: Beta - formats video and audio files for a variety of devices using a process called transcoding. By utilizing a NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU, badaboomâ„¢ enables users to painlessly convert video in multiple formats and view them on their portable media devices – all in a convenient, intuitive application.
- New WHQL-certified drivers that enable PhysX acceleration for all GeForce 8, 9, and GTX 200 Series GPUs. This new driver also adds support for PhysX-accelerated features in the commercially available Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 game.
Upcoming PC titles that incorporate PhysX technology include Cryostasis, Backbreaker, Aliens: Colonial Marines, with close to 20 more PC titles expected before the year-end holiday seasons.
Haha, EA. They’re publishing Mythic’s Warhammer MMO, one of the reasons I won’t be investing any money into that.