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You are here: Home / Engines / Bring Your Video Games To Life With PhysX

Bring Your Video Games To Life With PhysX

PhysX System Software
If you know your way around technology, whether you are a hardcore gamer or a casual computer user, the chances are that you have heard of Nvidia. They’re the company responsible for some of the most powerful graphics cards you can get on a gaming rig.

For nearly 30 years, Nvidia has been bringing quality to computers everywhere. But they don’t just dabble in graphics.

As gamers and developers, we love to be immersed in some of our favorite games. You really don’t appreciate the physics of a game until you see what they’re like without them. They’d be drab, dull, and lifeless.

Open-source engines like PhysX is an excellent opportunity for gamers and game developers to harness some of the impressive horsepowers that Nvidia offers.

Table of Contents:

  • What is PhysX System Software?
    • Classical Dynamics
    • Soft Body Dynamics
  • Features
    • It’s Open Source
    • Discrete and Continuous Collision Detection
  • How It Works
  • What’s New
  • Supported Platforms
  • Installation
  • Games Made with PhysX
    • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Blood, and Wine, Hearts of Stone
    • XCOM 2
    • Batman: Arkham Knight
    • Battlefield V
    • Borderlands 2
    • Darkest of Days
    • Hawken
    • Mafia 2
    • Metro: Last Light
      • More games…

What is PhysX System Software?


PhysX is an open-source physics engine development kit, also known as an SDK. PhysX, along with the catchy name, is a piece of middleware from Nvidia. This means that PhysX provides accessibility to other platforms along with the one it was initially intended for.

PhysX deals heavily with the two main facets of physics in games:

  • classical dynamics; and
  • soft body dynamics

What’s the difference?

Classical Dynamics


Classical dynamics are physics that we’re more familiar with in real life. This includes the motion of objects like projectiles, how machines move and operate, and the way the universe looks and acts. These are basically the building blocks for everything that PhysX does.

Soft Body Dynamics


Soft body dynamics are more specified toward computer graphics and gaming. Soft body dynamics aims to create realistic simulations for gamers and game developers to have aspects of the game’s more minute details, like the way a character’s shirt billows in the wind, all the way to the more critical information, like how bricks in a building move after a violent explosion.

Features

So what makes up the bulk of PhysX’s features?

It’s Open Source


I hear you rejoicing because I know I am. Open Source, which means that the course code is open for all to use for free, is a fantastic way for developers and creative minds to engage with the game development process for no investment at all but their free time.

Discrete and Continuous Collision Detection


Always improving the gaming physics experience, PhysX deals in both discrete and continuous collision detection. What that boils down to is that they’re using the top software to further immerse gamers by making particular objects interact with the world appropriately.

A Gamedev.tv user, Jaoa_Dalvi, sums it up beautifully:

“Discrete collision updates the collider position once per fixed frame and detects collision between the overlapping colliders. So if the object is fast enough to pass through the other in between fixed frames. Continuous collision makes the object trace the route and detect the collision with static colliders even between frames. Objects with this mode won’t pass through object with static colliders (without rigidbody)”

How It Works


Since it is developed by Nvidia, you can expect PhysX to perform at an extremely accelerated rate. This commitment to some of the fastest processing cores allows for PhysX to deal primarily with fantastic environmental and physical effects. Things like incredible explosions, debris, realistic smoke and fog, detailed character animation and looks, and most breathtaking, realistic clothes and fabric behavior.

There’s nothing like playing a game and seeing a character like Batman has his suit torn by amazing action and have the environment realistically interact with him.

These are just some of the features in which you can engage in when using the PhysX engine.

What’s New


Nvidia is continually releasing world-class graphic cards and applications for gamers to get lost in. This includes the newest version of PhysX, PhysX 5.0, released in 2020.

Along with the much-anticipated PhysX 5.0, PhysX’s latest release has some new features, namely things like:

1) Finite Element Model (FEM); 2) For liquid simulations, developers will be able to use discrete particle simulations to model fluids and granular flow; 3) implementation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH); 4) Arbitrary meshes can be simulated as cloth or rope using PhysX 5.0’s constrained particle model.

Supported Platforms


The list of the supported platforms for PhysX is a long and impressive one.

  • Microsoft Windows
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • PlayStation 2
  • PlayStation 3
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox 360
  • Xbox One
  • Wii
  • iOS
  • Android

Installation


Since Nvidia has made PhysX an open-source engine, you can easily download it right from the company’s site at no cost.

Now that you have a better idea of what you are dealing with, let’s start installing the engine, shall we? Mosey on over to the NVIDIA PhysX System Software download page. Here you’ll find the system specs and release history.

All you have to do is press’ download now,’ to begin your download, imagine that! After this, it will alert you that the PhysX download contains the NVIDIA display driver and GeForce Experience application.

Continue on and click on ‘Save’ to begin the download to your browser. When this download completes, open up the containing folder and follow the installation steps given to you by Nvidia.

Can I uninstall Nvidia PhysX system software?

Yes and no. Like with any programs on your system, you can remove Nvidia’s PhysX software through the ‘add/remove program’ feature. The tricky thing is, it’s actually challenging to get all of the software entirely removed from the system. It has a hard time removing the entirety of the AGEIA Technologies aspects of the program.

This boils down to a strange situation where you can technically uninstall PhysX, but parts remain on your system. People are still trying to figure out the myriad ways of removing it.

Games Made with PhysX


PhysX software seems to have had a hand in the development cycles of some of the most iconic games that have ever been created in our modern gaming landscape. When it comes right down to it: if you have picked up a gaming controller in the past 15 years, you have definitely played a game developed with the help of PhysX and Nvidia.

What games use PhysX system software?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Blood, and Wine, Hearts of Stone


The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Blood, and Wine, Hearts of Stone

  • Developer: CD Projekt
  • Initial Release Date: May 19, 2015
  • Multiple platforms

XCOM 2


XCOM 2

  • Developer: Firaxis Games, Feral interactive
  • Initial Release Date: February 5, 2016
  • Multiple Platforms

Batman: Arkham Knight


Batman: Arkham Knight

  • Developer: Rocksteady Studios
  • Initial Release Date: June 23, 2015
  • Multiple Platforms

Battlefield V


Battlefield V

  • Developer: DICE, Criterion Software
  • Initial Release Date: November 20, 208
  • Multiple Platforms

Borderlands 2


Borderlands 2

  • Developer: Gearbox Software
  • Initial Release Date: 18 September 2012
  • Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, Classic Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Linux

Darkest of Days


Darkest of Days

  • Developer: 8monkey Labs
  • Initial Release Date: 7 September 2009
  • Platforms: Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS

Hawken


Hawken

  • Developer: Adhesive Games
  • Initial Release Date: 12 December 2012
  • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Mafia 2


Mafia 2

  • Developers: 2K Czech, Hangar 13, Feral Interactive
  • Initial Release Date: 23 August 2010
  • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS

Metro: Last Light


Metro: Last Light

  • Developer: 4A Games
  • Initial Release Date: May 14, 2013
  • Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

More games…

  • Cyberpunk 2077
    • Developer: CD Projekt, CD Projekt RED
    • Initial Release Date: September 17, 2020
    • Multiple Platforms
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
    • Developer: Infinity Ward
    • Initial Release Date: October 25, 2019
    • Multiple Platforms
  • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
    • Developer: Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Singapore
    • Initial Release Date: October 2, 2018
    • Multiple Platforms
  • Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
    • Developer: Eidos-Montréal, Nixxes Software BV, Feral Interactive
    • Initial Release Date: August 23, 2016
    • Multiple Platforms
  • Far Cry 5
    • Developer: Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Ukraine, Ubisoft Reflections, Red Storm
    • Initial Release Date: March 27, 2018
    • Multiple Platforms
  • Grand Theft Auto IV (incl. “Episodes from Liberty City”)
    • Developer: Rockstar North, Rockstar Toronto, Rockstar New England
    • Initial Release Date: April 29, 2008
    • Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
  • Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
    • Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
    • Initial Release Date: March 11, 2014
    • Platforms: Android, iOS, Macintosh operating systems, Microsoft Windows
  • Injustice 2
    • Developer: NetherRealm Studios, QLOC
    • Initial Release Date: May 11, 2017
    • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows
  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance
    • Developer: Warhorse Studios
    • Initial Release Date: February 13, 2018
    • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
  • League of Legends
    • Developer: Riot Games
    • Initial Release Date: October 27, 2009
    • Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
    • Developer: Kojima Productions, Konami Digital Entertainment
    • Initial Release Date: September 1, 2015
    • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
  • Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
    • Developer: Studio Ghibli, Level-5, QLOC
    • Initial Release Date: November 17, 2011
    • Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows
  • Overwatch
    • Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
    • Initial Release Date: May 24, 2016
    • Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
    • Developer: Rockstar Games, Rockstar North
    • Initial Release Date: October 26, 2018
    • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, Microsoft Windows
  • Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice
    • Developer: From Software
    • Initial Release Date: March 22, 2019
    • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
    • Developer: Bethesda Game Studios, Iron Galaxy
    • Initial Release Date: November 11, 2011
    • Multiple Platforms
  • Vampyr
    • Developer: Dontnod Entertainment, Saber Interactive
    • Initial Release Date: June 5, 2018
    • Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch & Xbox One
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III
    • Developer: Relic Entertainment, Feral Interactive
    • Initial Release Date: April 27, 2017
    • Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh operating systems
  • Yakuza 0
    • Developer: Sega, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Amusement Vision, Sega Sammy Holdings
    • Initial Release Date: March 12, 2015
    • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows

Whew! How about that list? Believe it or not, but there is a lot more where that came from. The main conclusions that you can quickly draw are that PhysX and Nvidia have had an influential hand in nearly all of the modern gaming hits of today.

Can you benefit from using PhysX?

Absolutely! If you use PhysX in your game that you are developing, chances are that you will be dealing with powerful, open-source software that the top professionals in the industry use. The best way to do so is to get your hands on the engine and watch some in-depth tutorials.

You can find some of the best, most helpful videos on creating in the PhysX engine on the YouTube channel nvidiacuda.

Overall, Nvidia’s open-source PhysX engine provides developers and gamers alike with some seriously powerful development tools to experience. Whether you’re a developer, a player, or both, everyone wins when interacting with Nvidia’s PhysX engine.

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Written by Bryan Wirtz - Updated on March 19, 2023

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About Bryan Wirtz

A graduate of Penn State University and a Philadelphia native, Bryan has been a gamer since day one. Using his vast experience of gaming, game culture, and all things tech, Bryan aims to deliver the most up-to-date and captivating game design content to readers.

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