UT3 Demo + physx card

I don't think the demo support the ppu yet. I select the hardware physx option in the menu but when I exit the game and reenter, that option is not selected.

Really? Mine stays selected, though I'm not noticing any sort of vast PhysX improvement or anything.

I think with the hardware on, it sends some of the PhysX stuff to the card to assist in the processing. I'm getting a full 60 FPS without any sign of slowdown on my system.

I'll try to test it with it off to see if there is any difference when I'm back home later tonight.

Today I selected hardware physx and It stayed checked after reentering the game. Weird
I think we would see more physx effects in single player mode, because of bandwidth saving.
Multiplayer is more gameplay then effects, and the game run very smooth, 60 fps all the time, it's one of the smoothest unreal3 engine games.

UT3s usage of PhysX is disappointing. Nothing is destructible, and the only objects appear to be blown up vehicles, as far as i could tell

I did some testing, ran Suspense a few times (should be the map that strains physics simulation the most, having a lot of vehicles and destroyable architecture)

First up a few screenshots with Hardware Physics Acceleration OFF:



Now, a few shots with Hardware Physics Acceleration ON:



In terms of visual quality, I can see very little difference, this comes as no shock though, since it wouldn't make sense to add extra debris to the scene when a card is slotted in.
However, I am pleasantly able to announce to you that when playing with the physics card in, I was seeing a performance gain of up to 10 frames per second, something that I was not expecting, but was indeed hoping to see.

In terms of raw numbers, this spells out like this:
When physics are going on, that means debris flying all around, explosions etc. Judging from the screenshots, with the physX card off, I'm seeing 29-30 FPS
With the Card in, in similar situations, I'm seeing 39-40 FPS.

SafeFire said:

However, I am pleasantly able to announce to you that when playing with the physics card in, I was seeing a performance gain of up to 10 frames per second, something that I was not expecting, but was indeed hoping to see.

In terms of raw numbers, this spells out like this:
When physics are going on, that means debris flying all around, explosions etc. Judging from the screenshots, with the physX card off, I'm seeing 29-30 FPS
With the Card in, in similar situations, I'm seeing 39-40 FPS.

Click to expand...

Nice to hear, that has been one of the most used arguments, that the physx was a de-accellerator (people blaming the PPU for the lack of GPU power), but looks like it has been solved now.

DarkAngel_ZERO said:

Really? Mine stays selected, though I'm not noticing any sort of vast PhysX improvement or anything.

I think with the hardware on, it sends some of the PhysX stuff to the card to assist in the processing. I'm getting a full 60 FPS without any sign of slowdown on my system.

I'll try to test it with it off to see if there is any difference when I'm back home later tonight.

Click to expand...

DarkAngel, do you ever get into a game starting out at 30 FPS and it rises to 60+ over the course of 5-10 seconds?

I wouldn't really use a 'beta' 'demo' to judge what the PPU can do in UT3, especially one that was stripped down to maintain file size. Its main appeal is in PhysX enhanced maps which the demo does not include.

Will have to wait till the full game is out before making judgements.

SafeFire said:

I did some testing, ran Suspense a few times (should be the map that strains physics simulation the most, having a lot of vehicles and destroyable architecture)

First up a few screenshots with Hardware Physics Acceleration OFF:



Now, a few shots with Hardware Physics Acceleration ON:



In terms of visual quality, I can see very little difference, this comes as no shock though, since it wouldn't make sense to add extra debris to the scene when a card is slotted in.
However, I am pleasantly able to announce to you that when playing with the physics card in, I was seeing a performance gain of up to 10 frames per second, something that I was not expecting, but was indeed hoping to see.

In terms of raw numbers, this spells out like this:
When physics are going on, that means debris flying all around, explosions etc. Judging from the screenshots, with the physX card off, I'm seeing 29-30 FPS
With the Card in, in similar situations, I'm seeing 39-40 FPS.

Click to expand...

What are the specs of your system?

Asus P5K Deluxe Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4ghz (stock speed) CPU
BFGtech Nvidia geforce 8800GTS 640mb Graphics Card
Corsair XMS2 2x2GB DDR2-800 Ram
and of course an Asus PhysX P1 card

Let it be known though, that I was running with an FPS cap of 200 at that point, and was therefor getting quite low FPS, I have now set it to 70, and am therefor getting roughly 15 higher fps.

JStudrawa said:

DarkAngel, do you ever get into a game starting out at 30 FPS and it rises to 60+ over the course of 5-10 seconds?

Click to expand...

I've been having slight computer troubles this week, so I was able to only test it for a little bit. The FPS seems to be at a constant 60 for me, even at the match start when it's loading all the texture material (pretty shitty way of doing it if you ask me...loading the lowest LOD texture to speed up "load time" and quickly changing it once the person is already in game).

Scalability is wow! Iinstalled this game on a xp2600+ with a FX5950Ultra and it run smooth (low setting), also installed the game on my gaming rig 7950GT in SLi (1680x1050 quality to 4/5 on all settings), dang I wish all games would scale like this.

I tried with ppu and w/o, yep there is definitly an edge in performance just like City of Heroes.

Atech said:

Nice to hear, that has been one of the most used arguments, that the physx was a de-accellerator (people blaming the PPU for the lack of GPU power), but looks like it has been solved now.

Click to expand...

The primory goal of ageia PPU is make a lot more Physics possible for dev's to implement, due to offloading this Much Physics to hardware dedication wich can handle it.

Of course a Dev can use a PPU just like a Sound procesor to offload to get a Tad more FPS. Offload CPU lite Physics.

So in the first case of adding more Physics the value for UT3demo is zero. Compare to a game like Warmonger. Or UT3 Tornado Map. wich the value is much higher.
But in
Second case of offloading the value for enhancing is still zero but you gain a few FPS. The value in that is a bit larger for midrange Gamerigs where high-end have enough FPS.

The problem is the first reviews is, they treat it as a GPU on games who use it to enhance the game instead of pure offloading. Boost Effect & gameplay Physics.

So the de-accelerator view comes from reviewers who don't have a clue to review a Physics accellerator in the beginning.
You trade +5 tot 10 fps in of 50FPS for mucho Physics.

This means with PPU the game load is much heavier system wide.


So for enhancing I value a PPU like in $ from 100 to 300 whatever budged you like to blow for a good enhanced game.
For offloading I think more in line of Prices of a budged NiC or Sound card with a dedicated NPU / APU. So in $ from 25 to 100.

In the second case a more powerfull CPU/GPU set will be better depending on the FPS bottleneck or both.

I have it checked and I dont even have a card and it stays checked.
How do you uncap FPS ?

i havnt played it yet...

there are several issues usually:

1. check your display settings/vid card that vsync is off/auto (if on, you get smoother gameplay but cap at 60fps)

2. if vsync is on in game (then again cap 60fps)

3. autoexec.cfg or some type of cfg file that states the maximum frames, then you can uncap it

to be honest the human eye can't tell the difference between 100% smooth 60fps and 100fps... because 60fps constant is a steady speed, 2x faster then the human eye and also at the same rate of lcd monitors (less flickering)

if more people played with vsync on, you'd see an increase in accuracy and less headaches from 3d choppy or fps changes

my fiance swears she gets more headshots with vsync on because its smoother. with it off, you sometimes get motion distortion when turning

Another imbecile who thinks the human eye sees 30 FPS.

I honestly don't know how it is possible to be that ignorant.

Fel said:

Another imbecile who thinks the human eye sees 30 FPS.

I honestly don't know how it is possible to be that ignorant.

Click to expand...

I don't know who is more imbecile here but the fact is average eyes can see around 60Hz (60 fps), so anything less will appear as flickering. My eyes see higher than 60Hz because if I set my CRT monitor to 60Hz, I can still observe flickering which will make eyes tired more easily, so my CRT monitor is set at 85Hz. LCD monitor doesn't scan like CRT monitor, so at 60Hz (which is standard for LCD monitor) is comfortable.

Fel said:

Another imbecile who thinks the human eye sees 30 FPS.

I honestly don't know how it is possible to be that ignorant.

Click to expand...

I agree.
Form the web page below: "Seeing framewise is simply not the way how the eye\brain system works. It works with a continuous flow of light\information."
http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm

So we need motion blur with and 30fps will be enough.

SuperGee said:

So we need motion blur with and 30fps will be enough.

Click to expand...

It is ok for the eyes but in the actual playing first person shooter, 30fps will be very sluggish, which means not responsive.

instead of being nerds go trying playing your games with vsync on... if you have a powerful enough vid card for the game... css or team fortress2 a 7600+ vid card should be able to do it