PhysX

thumb|A BFG Technologies|BFG Physx card PhysX is an open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as part of the Nvidia GameWorks software suite.

Key facts

Software.logo: 300px
Software.name: PhysX
Software.author: NovodeX (ETH Zurich) Meqon (Meqon Research AB)
Software.developer: Nvidia Corporation(2008-present)Meqon(2005)Ageia(2004-2008)NovodeX AG(2001-2004)
Software.latest_release_version: Blast 5.0.6; PhysX SDK 5.5.0; Flow 2.1.0; PhysX System Software 9.23.1019
Software.repo: https://github.com/NVIDIA-Omniverse/PhysX (5.x) https://github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks/PhysX (4.x and 3.4) https://github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks/PhysX-3.4 (3.4)
Software.programming language: C++
Software.operating_system: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, iOS, Android
Software.genre: Physics simulation
Software.license: BSD-3
Software.website

~10 min read

Article

14 sections

Contents

History
Features
Hardware acceleration
PPU
GPU
APEX
Nvidia FleX
Criticism from Real World Technologies
Usage
PhysX in video games
PhysX in other software
See also
References
External links

thumb|A BFG Technologies|BFG Physx card PhysX is an open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as part of the Nvidia GameWorks software suite.

Initially, video games supporting PhysX were meant to be accelerated by PhysX PPU (expansion cards designed by Ageia). However, after Ageia's acquisition by Nvidia, dedicated PhysX cards have been discontinued in favor of the API being run on CUDA-enabled GeForce GPUs. In both cases, hardware acceleration allowed for the offloading of certain physics calculations from the CPU, allowing it to perform other tasks instead.