PhysX Makes it to MMOG with APB

[btarunr]

Often underappreciated by those who only casually play games, fast and accurate physical models and calculations are a key to a game's playability and realism. From the effect of explosions on nearby objects, to the impacts of car accidents, to how a character reacts when hit, physics is as important to realism as high-quality graphics. Because of this, Realtime Worlds' upcoming massively multiplayer online game, APB, will take advantage of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs and PhysX technology to enhance the game's free-form combat and real-time driving environments.

APB will bring players into a living, breathing city where cash is king and territory equals respect. Scheduled for release in 2009, APB is one of many titles to take advantage of NVIDIA PhysX technology, the world's most pervasive development platform for physics acceleration in interactive entertainment.

"Realtime Worlds, by our very name, defines what games we aim to create," said Dave Jones, the CEO of Realtime Worlds. "APB is a vastly ambitious project, combining the key elements of action gameplay in a living, breathing world with millions of players around the globe. In order to fully realise the vision of APB, it was essential to include next-generation physics in our game world. This is why we choose to standardize our development on GeForce GPUs and NVIDIA PhysX technology, the combination of which has given our developers the power and freedom to deliver the first action and physics based combat gameplay into the massively multiplayer online space."

NVIDIA PhysX technology consists of a robust physics engine, API, and middleware platform that give developers the ability to add additional levels of realism into their games across all major gaming platforms, including Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC. PhysX technology can run on either the CPU or any CUDA general-purpose parallel computing processor, including many current and all future NVIDIA GeForce GPUs. But the massively parallel architecture in GeForce GPUs can handle 10 to 20 times more visual complexity than what's possible today on a CPU alone and can leverage the best of both GPU and CPU architectures to deliver the ultimate experience to the user. More importantly, PhysX supports hardware scaling with the GeForce GPUs to deliver much faster performance and richer environments on multi-GPU gaming platforms.

"We are very excited that Realtime Worlds is incorporating PhysX technology into APB," said Roy Taylor, NVIDIA vice president of content relations. "APB is a marvel in free form story innovation and promises to bring an entirely new approach to multiplayer online gaming. We can hardly wait to play!"

NVIDIA PhysX technology is already included in more than 140 shipping titles for Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and the PC. For more information on NVIDIA PhysX technology, please visit the PhysX page.

About APB
APB is an action-based, massively multiplayer online title being developed by Realtime Worlds (creators of the award-winning Xbox 360 title Crackdown). The game utilizes cutting-edge technology (Unreal Engine3) in order to bring the polish of next-generation art and gameplay into the massively multiplayer online space. For more information on APB, please visit APB.

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[Hayder_Master]

i see a great physics works in battle filed bad company in xbox 360

 

[theJesus]

gah, i just wanna know wtf APB stands for damn it

 

[PP Mguire]

Yea me to. So far PhysX has been nothing but hype and i dont exactly think its that great right now.

 

[theJesus]

I hated Havok, and I'm not big on the idea of PhysX, or any other current physics engine used in games for that matter. I'm all for having realistic physics, but I don't think that's what these engines offer. All I really see from these engines is rag-dolls and attempts at movie-like physics . . . not life-like physics.

 

[ktr]

gah, i just wanna know wtf APB stands for damn it

apb - All Points Bulletin

 

[theJesus]

hmm, that's a weird name. Any explanation for it, do you know?

 

[ktr]

hmm, that's a weird name. Any explanation for it, do you know?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_points_bulletin

 

[theJesus]

Thank you for doing what I was too lazy to do

Hmm, seems like the game may be interesting then based on that.

 

[tkpenalty]

I hated Havok, and I'm not big on the idea of PhysX, or any other current physics engine used in games for that matter. I'm all for having realistic physics, but I don't think that's what these engines offer. All I really see from these engines is rag-dolls and attempts at movie-like physics . . . not life-like physics.

um... example? I don't see people in games that have a physics engine fly backwards when shot... i only see people just drop on the floor.

 

[TUngsten]

um... example? I don't see people in games that have a physics engine fly backwards when shot... i only see people just drop on the floor.

I think that's what usually happens when people get shot...not the crazy kickback silliness we see in 80's Ahnold action movies

 

[chron]

I think that's what usually happens when people get shot...not the crazy kickback silliness we see in 80's Ahnold action movies

Wrong. Just the other day I smashed into a room where my daughter and wife were being held captive, and after pumped one shot into the capture's chest, his body flew through a brick wall and exploded. It happens.

 

[theJesus]

um... example? I don't see people in games that have a physics engine fly backwards when shot... i only see people just drop on the floor.

Well, for one, most bodies with the Havok engine definitely just act like rag dolls and that looks really weird to me in some games. And as far as the movie-like physics, one of the devs for Force Unleashed even stated they were going for that and not life-like physics.

edit: I may have been exaggerating about movie-like physics, but the physics in games are far from life-like if you ask me. All most of the devs care about is making physics that can be done fast. To be back me up, from wikipedia (ragdoll physics):

"The term ragdoll comes from the problem that the articulated systems, due to the limits of the solvers used, tend to have little or zero joint/skeletal muscle stiffness, leading to a character collapsing much like a toy rag doll, often into comically improbable or compromising positions."

" * Extremity bones such as fingers often go unsimulated.
* Simple joints are used instead of actual constraints imposed by a true skeleton. (For example, human knee joints are often modelled as a rigid hinge even though an actual human knee allows some rotation.)
* Simplified collision hulls are used to detect contact with other rigid bodies rather than detecting collision with the mesh."

From wikipedia (physics engine):
"The primary limit of physics engine realism is the precision of the numbers representing the position of an object and the forces acting on that object. When the precision is too low, errors can creep into the calculations due to rounding, causing an object to overshoot or undershoot the correct position. These errors are compounded in situations where two free-moving objects are fitted together with a precision that is greater than what the physics engine can calculate. This can lead to an unnatural buildup energy in the object due to the rounding errors, that begins to violently shake and eventually blow the objects apart. Any type of free-moving compound physics object can demonstrate this problem, but it is especially prone to affecting chain links under high tension, and wheeled objects with actively physical bearing surfaces. Higher precision reduces the positional/force errors, but at the cost of greater CPU power needed for the calculations."

Now before anybody tells me about how much processing power would be necessary to fix those sort of problems . . . isn't that the whole point of having a dedicated physic processor?

 

[vbigjames]

I was hoping they would have the physics system from GTA, but at least they brought Physics into the game.

I have been following it for a long time over at www.apb-evolved.com seems like the only good APB forums.

 

[kid41212003]

gah, i just wanna know wtf APB stands for damn it

Action Player Bullcrap.

 

[Darkrealms]

At least they are trying to get some kind of physics into games. I won't get into the arguement of who has better physics but at least some developers are dabling in it. I'm sure it will suk at first but we'll eventually see a standard developed. Similar to all the Ray-tracing competitions.