NVIDIA is pretty proud of its PhysX technology, it seems. "Interactive entertainment's most pervasive physics engine," it's used in more then 140 shipping titles for all current-gen video game consoles. Anyway, they want you to download the GeForce Power Pack, a free compilation of games, demos and mod packs for the PC which also brings PhysX to the world's most popular platform:
On the PC, PhysX technology harnesses the power of any CUDA-enabled general-purpose parallel computing processor, including any NVIDIA GeForce® 8 Series or higher GPU, to handle 10-20 times more visual complexity than what’s possible on today’s traditional PC platforms. All of the 80 million plus GeForce 8 Series and higher GPUs in the field are CUDA-enabled, the largest installed base of general-purpose, parallel-computing processors ever created.
NVIDIA claims "competitive solutions" do not offer hardware scaling capability; only PhysX can "leverage the best of both CPU and GPU architectures to deliver the ultimate, immersive, end user experience." Hmm.
Upcoming PC titles that will incorporate the technology include Cryostasis, Backbreaker, andAliens: Colonial Marines, with nearly 20 more expected before the holiday season.
“Game physics is essential in enabling deeper interactivity and real-world effects in any game. Epic is pleased to offer PhysX as a standard feature within Unreal Engine 3 to enable such effects,” said Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games. “The introduction of GPU acceleration for PhysX promises both additional potential effects and faster performance. You can get a glimpse of the possibilities of what PhysX is able to do with the special levels for Unreal Tournament 3 where damage effects greatly enhance the gameplay.”
So, as of today, anyone with a GeForce 8 Series or higher GPU can benefit from this, and many power packs of this kind are planned for the future, too.
The PhysX-enabled content from this first GeForce Power Pack includes the following:
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 environmentAll new NVIDIA “Fluid” tech demo—a simulation of realistic fluid effects with a variety of liquidsIn conjunction with the Power Pack, new WHQL-certified drivers are available which enable PhysX acceleration for all GeForce 8, 9, and GTX 200 Series GPUs. This new driver also adds support for PhysX-accelerated features in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.
The company is boasting with these drivers much higher levels of interactivity, effects, realm, and speed, stating "the PhysX-enabled levels of Unreal Tournament 3, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ runs 180% faster than on the AMD Radeon HD 4850."
“Seeing really is believing and is the reason why we compiled all of this great PhysX content into a free download for our end users,” said Ujesh Desai, general manager for GeForce GPUs at NVIDIA. “We want GeForce owners to experience for themselves these amazing effects to get an idea how PhysX will make games much more lifelike in the years to come. Physics-accelerated content is already here, and there are a ton more titles on the way. We can’t wait for our customers to jump in, get wet, and tell us what they think!”
If you're buyin' it, feel free to download via the location below.
