Physx marketing scam?... UT3 doesn't use physx?

[niz]

There's been a big deal made about UT3 Engine using Physx, so perhaps unsurprisingly, when you install Unreal Tournament 3 it also installs a PhysX engine.
I have been experiencing occasional temporary in-game lock-ups (~5-10 secs) in UT3 (only). It usually happens several times during a game which is very frustating, especially if one happens right at a critical moment.
I checked the Physx website to see if the Physx library had a later version in case that might be the cause of the lockups. Sure enough there is a later version available than the one that UT3 installs, so I uninstalled the old one and downloaded but didn't install the new one.

I rebooted then ran UT3 and guess what, UT3 still plays just fine without Physx being installed at all.

This shouldn't be possible as its the physx engine that is meant to be doing the physics calcs (even if you don't have a physx card, it still is meant to be doing it, but in software so using the CPU) but I've uninstalled it and everything still works. Whats going on?

I'm guessing Ageia convinced Epic to include physx installer in UT3 just so they can claim UT3 uses it, even though it actually doesn't really benefit from it.

I fact I don't seem to get as many lockups since uninstalling physx so UT3 seems to work better without it. I'm a great believer in keeping my PC free of as much redundant resource-hogging sh[t as possible. It does seem that is exactly what the physx driver is, just redundant sh[t, at least if you're not one of those handful of people who actually bought a physx card.

 

[stemnin]

uh.. there's a specific map pack for the Aegia card users, the physx card is only used in those maps.

I think this is the map pack
http://www.fileplanet.com/108145/0/0/0/section/Map_Packs

There is no difference with the default maps (the ones that came with the game).

All games that i've seen so far that have physx support, install a physx driver, it's quite annoying as I will probably not buy a physx card in the near future.

 

[Guest]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3171

 

[niz]

OK I accept that UT3 might require the physx package if you have a physx card installed, but its certainly not appearing to use it otherwise.
UT3 still works (even maybe smoother) if you uninstall the physx package it installs by default.
Hopefully other UT3 owners will post here with their experiences after completely uninstalling physx.

 

[stemnin]

the driver does nothing if you don't have a physx card

the card and driver does nothing if you're not playing the downloadable map-pack made for physx card owners.

the map pack for physx card owners can barely run on non physx card equipped pc's

suggest you go to epic's forums.. http://utforums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20

there are a few that have the aegia cards, I doubt anyone here has.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Hey Niz,

Like most games using Ageia PhysX cards, the game will run without it and therefore it is not a requirement to hold these cards. The install or drivers is there in case you own one of these and is used as a patch-driver most of the time.

However, with PhysX-brand games, PhysX card owners will benefits from greater physics/processing with the engines put in place in the game. GRAW uses a similar strategy where PhysX card owners will see more particles during explosions, etc.

You'll most likely see a hunge difference in particles flying everywhere if you use it with the Ageia Map Packs in this case.

 

[Raenydyne]

You retards, NVidia cards have PhysX built in and if you are running UT3 you probably already have a card with PhysX on board and don't need the card, just needs the drivers and to be turned on.

 

[jay_l_a]

You retards, NVidia cards have PhysX built in and if you are running UT3 you probably already have a card with PhysX on board and don't need the card, just needs the drivers and to be turned on.

All of them? REALLY?



REALLY?

 

[terr281]

Nvidia reference site for PhysX.

http://www.slizone.com/object/sli_cuda_learn.html

Nvidia cards with support:

PhysX™ supported GPUs: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory
---------
This is the reason why, when I recently upgraded from a 8600 GT SLI graphics setup to a single 9800 GT, I kept a single 8600 GT in my system in "PhysX SLI" with my 9800 GT.

Whenever I do play a game that has compatibility with PhysX, I'll have the additional support already in place.

 

[djcoolmasterx]

You retards, NVidia cards have PhysX built in and if you are running UT3 you probably already have a card with PhysX on board and don't need the card, just needs the drivers and to be turned on.

You retard, the thread comes from 2007, before physx ran on Geforce cards.

 

[Raenydyne]

Haha, when I googled this thread, it had no useful information. Now it does. Retard or genius?

 

[djcoolmasterx]

Retard as you didn't read the post dates and then you called the people back in 2007 retards for not knowing something that happened in 2008.

 

[Raenydyne]

The last post about this (due to the thread not being answered) was late 2007, long after the announcement. The point is, nobody bothered to update this and there are people that might want to search for this information. I meant no harm, it was just my frustration with finding threads about things over the years and signing up so I can answer them. After all they are showing up as top results in google.
I apologize for the way I went about this, but I was just searching for threads about PhysX games and this one seemed to be misinforming. Regardless of the date. A thread to nowhere with no new responses until now. Even if there is an updated thread, this one is indexed more than all the others.

 

[djcoolmasterx]

The last post about this (due to the thread not being answered) was late 2007, long after the announcement. The point is, nobody bothered to update this and there are people that might want to search for this information. I meant no harm, it was just my frustration with finding threads about things over the years and signing up so I can answer them. After all they are showing up as top results in google.
I apologize for the way I went about this, but I was just searching for threads about PhysX games and this one seemed to be misinforming. Regardless of the date. A thread to nowhere with no new responses until now. Even if there is an updated thread, this one is indexed more than all the others.

Nvidia actually bought Ageia in Feb 2008

It was just a bit silly to be replying to an old thread and calling them retards for not knowing something that hadn't happened at the time.

Not all threads need to be updated, if that was the case then you would have to go into almost every old thread and update it, tech moves fast. Eg:an old thread suggesting that the best card out is the 7950GX2, it isn't now, so should this kind of thing really be updated to say that a GTX295 or HD4870X2 is better in every single thread?

 

[Raenydyne]

This is talking about current technology though, UT3. I think I was wrong in that I was confused over the dates of the cards vs when the technology came to the cards. It is not a bad thing to say google something, find a bunch of info that is old and update it. I usually find that I am already signed up for whatever board pops up. I've been online for since AOL was $14/hr and try to get involved wherever I can. I always despise the threads that say use google and don't take a minute to update the thread or just give an answer. Are we really that busy? Google is sometimes useless because it shows threads with old information. Of course I know this was old but did not realize PhysX was so new. I learned something here, thanks.
A lot of threads even if they are old, have a lot of people saying (it can't be done, etc) things that just need an update. This was saying UT3 is false advertising because it doesn't need PhysX and nobody came to the defense of NVidia, PhysX, Developers of the game. It struck a nerve so I had to say something. Don't defend everyone blindly because they were here first and that was then, blah blah blah.

 

[djcoolmasterx]

If you really want to update threads then you can start in the CPU & Componants section.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/continuation-10-61440.html

From roughly around December 2000 to today, you can work your way though all 61,000 of them keeping them up to date incase someone google's them keeping them all usefull the instant something changes.

When you are done you can start on the Overclocking section.

You better get cracking, you have 713509 posts to read.

 

[Raenydyne]

LOL. I just want google to answer me not an eternity updating threads...If only I had been a better person

 

[djcoolmasterx]

Thats the thing with google, it needs the user to determine if something is relevant and with tech that advances so quickly, checking the post date is important.

brb, found a thread where someone said, in 2006, that they want to get a 8600Ultra(was never released) to tell them they are an idiot.