At the PS4 event in New York tonight, Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4. We have been eagerly awaiting the next-generation consoles for several years now to see what they have hardware-wise in hopes that with the next-generation of consoles we will start to see physics used more in games and move beyond the simple eye-candy and same old effects we have been seeing the past several years with PhysX. During the event, Sony played an Unreal Engine 4 demo along with a Havok Physics demo that showed a new Havok Physics engine that is GPU accelerated. Although it was not discussed during the event, the actual hardware specs of the PlayStation 4 have also surfaced which uses an AMD 8-core 64-bit x86 “Jaguar” Bulldozer CPU , with an AMD Radeon GPU capable of 1.84 TFLOPS, and 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. Not only did the rumors that the next-generation PlayStation would use an AMD Bulldozer and Radeon GPU come to true, the specs are pretty powerful to allow for some impressive physics in games. Hopefully we will now see game developers use physics more in games. The PS4 is not due out until the 2013 holiday season, so hopefully we will get to learn more about physics and the PS4 before then, I will definite be posting about anything I learn so stay tuned!

Sony has released a PDF press release that covers the specs and features in detail. The exciting part for us is that it talks about how the GPU has been designed for general purpose computing (GPGPU) such as physics and other simulation tasks. Check it out here.

The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has been enhanced in a number of ways, principally to allow for easier use of the GPU for general purpose computing (GPGPU) such as physics simulation. The GPU contains a unified array of 18 compute units, which collectively generate 1.84 Teraflops of processing power that can freely be applied to graphics, simulation tasks, or some mixture of the two.

Havok Physics Playstation 4 Demo:

[Source Havok Physics YouTube Channel]

Source Kotaku: PlayStation 4 Tech Specs Released
Source Engadget Sony details PlayStation 4 specs: 8-core AMD ‘Jaguar’ CPU, 6X Blu-ray

Mercenary Online, is a Free-to-Play Third Person Shooter, powered by Unreal Engine, featuring Nvidia PhysX. The official Mercenary Online YouTube channel has posted a nice PhysX comparison video showing off some of the PhysX features implemented into the game. Check it out below.

Source: Mercenary Online

Now this is pretty cool. Boris Novikov has been working on a UDK based Minecraft blocks that are 100% APEX PhysX destructible. Check out the video below and the Epic games forums for the original thread with more information.

Source Epic Games Forums.

NVIDIA has released an official video showing off the PhysX effects in Hawken. Hawken makes heavy use of GPU Physx with advanced particle, turbulence and other Apex PhysX features that really add to the environment. Check it out below.

From Advanced PhysX Effects Coming Soon To Free-To-Play First Person Shooter:

Hawken is an action-packed, fast-paced, free-to-play, mech-based, multiplayer first-person shooter, set in a visually-rich future setting destroyed by corporate greed.

Developed using Unreal Engine 3, Hawken looks fantastic, putting players in the cockpits of lethal mechs, each with their own weapons, loadouts, and perks. Through kills and match victories, players will rank up and unlock new items for their mechs, opening up new tactical opportunities and new play styles. Being a free-to-play title, players also have the option of speeding progress along through the use of real money transactions, though these do not grant additional power or a competitive edge over players who progress through exclusively through the use of experience.

On the tech side of things, Hawken is a tour de force, sporting the aforementioned, advanced Unreal Engine 3 graphics, but also GPU-accelerated NVIDIA only PhysX effects that add destruction particles, extra, and realistic weapon effects. This video also demonstrates a soon-to-come PhysX feature in Hawken: APEX Turbulence. APEX Turbulence is a PhysX feature which uses velocity fields to simulate particle motion. You will see this in action inside of Hawken with energy collectors, mech death embers, deployed shields, and mech health orb embers.

We hope you enjoy the video. To play the game for free visit: http://www.playhawken.com/

Souce NVIDIA GeForce.com

I decided to pick up the EVGA Geforce GTX 660 Ti to replace my aging Geforce GTX 460 SC. I went with the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC to get the Free Borderlands 2 With GTX 660 Ti Purchase. I will try to cover a lot about the PhysX in Borderlands two and so some PhysX benchmarks with the new GTX 660 Ti paired with other dedicated PhysX card so stay tuned! If you have not been following Borderlands 2 and its hopefully great PhysX effects then check out the latest NVIDIA Borderlands 2 GeForce GTX PhysX Trailer and GeForce GTX 660 Ti Launch Video Shows New Borderlands 2 PhysX features.

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I posted a few months ago about the Havok Vision Engine Physics Demoed on Android Tablet with ARM Mali GPU. Now a few more videos of the the Havok Fantasy and Havok Canal tech demos have appeared on YouTube showing Havok physics working on the Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone. Check them out.

Fantasy by Havok™ on Samsung® Galaxy SIII (ARM® Mali™-400 MP)

Canal by Havok™ on Samsung® Galaxy™ SIII (ARM® Mali™-400 MP)

Source [Havok.com]

NVIDIA has released a nice video showing off the GPU PhysX features that will be in Borderlands 2. The video has some cool footage of particle, fluid, and cloth PhysX effects with side-by-side comparisons of what the game looks like with PhysX enabled and disabled. Check it out below.

From NVIDIA Borderlands 2 GeForce GTX PhysX Trailer:

Check out this preview of Borderlands 2 running on a GeForce GTX graphics card with all settings on max. Loaded with NVIDIA’s GPU-accelerated PhysX technology, the video shows you the incredible effects you can witness in Borderlands 2 when gaming on a GeForce GTX system. Creatures, such as the Crystalisk, spew simulated fluids comprised of hundreds of thousands of particles, allowing explosions and physical interactions to manipulate them after the fact, rendering an unprecedented level of detail previously unseen on any platform. Our GPU-accelerated PhysX technology enables the dynamic, realistic movement of flags, banners, and tarps that react and tear realistically when taking weapons fire, and weapons generate particle fluids, sparks and debris that add extra explosive action to your visceral gaming experience. Borderlands 2 is available September 18th, and for a limited each GeForce GTX 660 Ti sold at a participating retailer or e-tailer includes a free Steam copy of the game: http://www.geforce.com/landing-page/free-game-borderlands-2 Enjoy!

Borderlands 2 Release Dates
September 18th in North America
September 21st Internationally

GeForce.com link: http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games/borderlands-2

Source [Geforce.com]

YouTube user DespiteMN has been at work with the UDK and Apex PhysX. He has made some cool demos including this awesome map that is completely destructible. In the video he plays against bots in deatchmatch while the entire level is destroyed in the process. Check it out below.

Source [DespiteMN YouTube Channel]

NVIDIA’s Andrew Coonrad talks about the features and technology of the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti in a nice video overview of the card that shows off some nice footage of the PhysX features that will be in Borderlands 2. I have been excited about Borderlands 2 since I saw the Borderlands 2 GPU PhysX Tech Demo which showed off some really impressive PhysX effects that will be in the game. In the video you can see some cool particle, fluid, and cloth effects. Now it will be interesting to see if these full effects will be in single player only or also in multiplayer and not scaled down. Check it out below.

From Meet Your New Weapon: The GeForce GTX 660 Ti. Borderlands 2 Included.

And speaking of Borderlands 2, NVIDIA has put together a sweet deal; for a limited time, anyone who purchases a GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics cards through an authorized e-tailer in North America or Europe (Amazon, Newegg, TigerDirect, etc) will receive a free Steam copy of the game. Needless to say, Borderlands 2 runs great on the GTX 660 Ti, letting you play the eagerly anticipated game at 1920×1080 with all settings, including GPU PhysX, maxed out. GPUs slower than the GeForce GTX 660 Ti can make use of the PhysX effects also, though none are able to show them all at a fluid 60 frames per second at 1920×1080, with all other features maxed out and enabled, making the GTX 660 Ti a perfect upgrade for all Borderlands fans.

Source [Geforce.com]

Well it is been a while since I have posted and need to get back into the swing of things, so I think posting these awesome UDK Apex PhysX destruction videos would be a good start. The NVIDIA APEX Destruction Project – Destroy Aarhus by Allingby is very impressive, an entire level that is 100% destructible. Check them out below.

NVIDIA APEX Destruction Project – Destroy Aarhus by Allingby

UDK – Apex PhysX Destruction – Presentation by MRGV

UDK | PhysX APEX Destruction Test by TormyJai