What was your first impressions of PhysX (Mafia II)

Mr Krugga · 14 Aug 2010 at 18:47

Nico_Joey said:
I think the latest Nvidia drives tried to fix that but no idea if its still abit borked, ati cards seem to be running it fine afaik though which is nice

ATI cards don't run it at all (PhysX), CPUs do. And yeah, medium PhysX with TP clothes off works just fine.

nlr · 14 Aug 2010 at 18:50

Are game developers allowed to make them run on the cpu or is the idea tied to nvidia giving us no options.

MOOGLEYS · 14 Aug 2010 at 18:51

nlr said:
Are game developers allowed to make them run on the cpu or is the idea tied to nvidia giving us no options.

Game developers recieve funding from Nvidia to not allow physics on the cpu using other options like Havoc etc...

So you buy Nvidia or go without.

HW91 · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:10

MOOGLEYS said:
Game developers recieve funding from Nvidia to not allow physics on the cpu using other options like Havoc etc...

So you buy Nvidia or go without.

it's more you go with nvidia or you get really bad performance unless you get a good cpu

Mr Krugga · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:13

MOOGLEYS said:
Game developers recieve funding from Nvidia to not allow physics on the cpu using other options like Havoc etc...

So you buy Nvidia or go without.

I don't think it's how it works. Nvidia surely paid the developers to use their technology but PhysX is limited by itself to be used by Nvidia cards only. It can be run with CPUs though.

I bet there wouldn't be any physics in the game if not for Nvidia. It's pure marketing tbh.

RavenXXX2 · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:13

Or go with Nvidia and still get really bad performance.

PaulyD · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:21

I don't think it added much at all, dev's have been able to do this stuff on CPU alone for years, looking better than what we got

Seriously, they recommend a 285 just to render some debris!? come on..

OK, forgot about clothes, but again, they can prog this stuff easily enough - really not much point on doing it on NCP's as well

Geckovich · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:22

RavenXXX2 said:
Or go with Nvidia and still get really bad performance.

Would you be willing to take a few minutes to test something for me Raven? Run the demo with task manager open in the background to check CPU usage.

I've got a feeling that either physX still isn't being handled by the GPU, or, it's only being handled by the GPU in set ups that have a second nvidia card (based on the rigs of users who're saying it's running really well).

To test this would another user who has 2 nvidia cards also run the game with task manager open so we could compare CPU usage?

RavenXXX2 · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:29

M8 it runs the same on one GPU as it does on a dedicated GPU, I done all the tests, plenty of others have to.

oweneades · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:33

Ok I have finally managed to get it running with Physx (a complete delete, re-download and reinstall did the trick).

Um, I wish I hadn't of bothered. Apart from a few extra particles and some moving clothes (which don't look realistic at all) I am struggling to see what else it has added.

The penalty - halving my frame rate (I have applied no tweaks here so I know I can get better performance).

(GPU - GTX460 @ 725/1450/3600)

Overall I am not impressed at all. The effects are there for the sake of being there rather than adding any real benefit.

bee · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:55

initial impressions weren't good but the those 2 performance tweaks completely changed my mind, if i can play it maxed out including physx with 3D vision on and now 4xaa forced through drivers, i don't really see the performance problem people are complaining about

http://imgur.com/tUGdL.gif

that's pretty impressive to me

coupe69 · 14 Aug 2010 at 19:57

RavenXXX2 said:
We got the power, the game just does not use it, 20-50% GPU usage for the most part with high phsyx.

RavenXXX2 said:
Or go with Nvidia and still get really bad performance.

I think somethings wrong with your setup tbh, I'm getting usually between 80-99% usage on my main gpu and 30-60% on my dedicated 260.

kylew · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:02

coupe69 said:
Well that's your opinion, and we're all entitled to our own opinions. I for one will be playing the full release with PhysX on high and enjoy the game which generally runs over 60fps anyway

I'm a bit confused as to why you complain about people who don't like PhysX and its implementation in Mafia 2 when they don't have an nVidia graphics card, but then say "well that's your opinion, we're all entitled to our opinions" when someone with an nVida graphics card say they don't like it. :confused:

The same people generally, thought it was just as much of a joke when it was Ageia PhysX.

Rroff · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:10

I'm somewhat dissapointed - they've obviously sacrificed a lot of stuff so that GPU Physics is optional rather than a minimum requirement i.e. the pillars don't break and crumble properly when shot - you just get a large sections just dissapear and replaced with some random debris which don't even match the pattern of the original pillar... and it only happens on areas that are immediatly in the expected line of fire - go off the beaten track a bit and the effect hasn't been implemented.

That and the fact that the physics designers seem to be a bit out of their depth (and they supposedly had help from nVidia) doesn't show PhysX off as well as I'd hoped.

So I don't think its going to set the physics world on fire but it is atleast another faltering step along the road.

Bit tired of the people going "you could do this on the CPU" - if you understood whats actually being processed - no you can't - well you could but even on the best software API you'd be talking 1-2fps.

coupe69 · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:22

kylew said:
I'm a bit confused

Nothing new there then

I'm a bit confused as well. It works fairly well imo, granted it could be better, but I think a lot of people just haven't set up there pcs properly or are expecting far too much out of their kit, just have a look at my screenshots above, it's nice to see bits of the wall still scattered all over the floor instead of just fading away to nothingness. How people can moan about it without even owning a Nvidia card is beyond me :rolleyes:

It's the same old people who moan about anything Nvidia, jigger yourself and up until recently raven, it becomes very tiring tbh and smacks of bitterness.

Rroff · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:27

Its the "fashionable" thing to bitch about anything nVidia... same old tired arguements.

HW91 · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:28

I'm wondering if it's possible that the GPU usage shown is only that done by PhysX

it would explain the low GPU usage

kylew · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:28

coupe69 said:
Nothing new there then

I'm a bit confused as well. It works fairly well imo, granted it could be better, but I think a lot of people just haven't set up there pcs properly or are expecting far too much out of their kit, just have a look at my screenshots above, it's nice to see bits of the wall still scattered all over the floor instead of just fading away to nothingness. How people can moan about it without even owning a Nvidia card is beyond me

It's the same old people who moan about anything Nvidia, jigger yourself and up until recently raven, it becomes very tiring tbh and smacks of bitterness.

But I pointed out that the same people thought it was a joke when it was owned by Ageia. Additionally, bitterness? :confused:

coupe69 · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:33

Rroff said:
Its the "fashionable" thing to bitch about anything nVidia... same old tired arguements.

I know, it's a shame though that anyone that frequents this forum are likely to be swayed by the same old ATi zealots who instantly dismiss anything from the green team without even trying it.

RavenXXX2 · 14 Aug 2010 at 20:34

Coupe nothing wrong with my setup, I could PWN you in most benchmarks that are not gimped by physx.