Glossary:PhysX
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Nvidia Corporation | |
PhysX is a middleware from Nvidia to enable complex physics effects and simulations, and have been used in various game engines such as Unreal Engine 3 (and onward), Unity, Gamebryo, and more. Games making exclusive use of PhysX and promoting it in partnership with Nvidia often featured additional physics effects such as extra particles (dust, smoke, debris) or advanced cloth simulation.
PhysX does not require hardware acceleration to run physics simulations,[Note 1] but hardware acceleration was typically required to achieve a playable framerate for the most demanding titles.
As of 2020 most games making use of PhysX run the physics effects exclusively on the CPU regardless of hardware, with hardware accelerated physics being limited to older games.[2]
General information
System Software versions
- These provide the PhysX runtime necessary for every pre-2.8.4 game, and the occasional title-specific update for those afterwards[3]
There are two releases of the PhysX driver that should be installed:
Version | Release Date | Operating Systems | SDK versions | Supported Products | Notes |
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9.19.0218[4] | 2019.03.08 | Windows 7 64-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, Windows 8 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 10 64-bit, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista, Windows 10 32-bit, Windows 8 32-bit, Windows XP | 2.7.1, 2.7.3, 2.7.4, 2.7.5, 2.7.6, 2.8.0, 2.8.1, 2.8.3, 2.8.4, and above | all GeForce 9‑series, 100‑series to 900‑series GPUs, and the new 1000 series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory | |
9.13.0604[5] | 2013.07.18 | Windows 7 64-bit, Windows XP, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista, Windows 7 32-bit | 2.7.0 and prior as well as 2.7.2 | all GeForce 8-series, 9-series, 100-series, 200-series, 300-series, 400-series, 500-series, and 600-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory | These SDKs run on the CPU only |
- NVIDIA PhysX System Software for games built on any runtime version that supports GPU acceleration[Note 2]
- PhysX Legacy System Software for all the others, generally found up to ~2008 (using version 2.7.2 or before 2.7.1)
If you are using an Nvidia graphics card the first package may be already included with the drivers.
PhysX v2.5.2 compatibility
- The NVIDIA PhysX Legacy System Software does not include v2.5.2; this is known to affect Infernal and The Void but there may be other affected games.
Download missing DLLs[citation needed] |
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Secondary PhysX card with an AMD/ATI video card
- Nvidia only allows a secondary Nvidia card to be used for PhysX if the primary card is also an Nvidia card (or since 372.70, if any monitor is reported attached to it[6]).
- Windows 7 or Windows XP/Windows 2003 are required (Windows Vista will not work)
Install necessary files[7] |
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Notes
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Issues fixed
"The program cannot start because PhysXLoader.dll is missing from your computer" error at launch
Install latest versions of the PhysX System Software |
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Games prefer private own libraries to system ones
- This was originally a developer hack to quickly deploy early UE3 builds without using the PhysX redist. Some games eventually nerfed it by the time they shipped. Others included a removal mechanism that still left to be desired[8], while others just altogether assumed this was the proper way things were supposed to work in the first place.[9]
Kill local hack[10] |
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Notes
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Delete/move/rename PhysXCore.dll , usually found in game executable directory
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Notes
References
- ↑ Geforce 8 or later cards that don't support PhysX? - PinoyPC Forums
- ↑ Verified by User:Aemony on 2023-08-31
- Hard to nail this down exactly, but as of 2023 there hasn't been any major games using GPU accelerated PhysX for almost close to a decade or so maybe? Meanwhile Unity games all used CPU accelerated PhysX for all of its physics.
- ↑ The Evolution of PhysX System Software | PhysXInfo.com (retrieved)
- ↑ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/physx/physx-9-19-0218-driver/
- ↑ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/physx/physx-9-13-0604-legacy-driver/
- ↑ Hybrid GPU-pairing is finally "legal" (aka Hybrid PhysX reloaded)
- ↑ Hybrid PhysX - PhysX Wiki (retrieved)
- ↑ V4 Checklist · ME3Tweaks/ALOTInstaller - GitHub
- ↑ Making Mass Effect not require administrator rights, or maybe how not to write a boolean check - ME3Tweaks Blog
- ↑ PhsyX, Mirror's Edge, and You - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)