PhysX SDK access denied?

#1 Do you have a link to where they say this? I'm not finding anything on their site or any stories showing up via Google.

#2 My access was cut off temporarily as well.

I signed up for a new account and got it within a day or so.

@Scott - Its when you go try to download the SDK. Its now placed behind an account login.

#3 Hi, Kenneth

I have a question for you.

According to what you said in your post, once Nvidia deactivates your physx license, you cannot use the physX SDK anymore.

I don't really understand this point. If you had downloaded the physX SDK in the past and you had installed it onto your computer already, why does it matter if Nvidia deactivated your physx license. Do you mean that every time when you are trying to build your project in Visual Studio 2008, before the linker can link your project with any .dll files of physX, the physX SDK will run something in serect to check if your physx license is valid?

Or do you mean that you had downloaded the phyX SDK setup.exe in the past. However you had not installed the SDK. Now that after Nvidia deactivated your license, you tried to install it. But, at the time of the installation, it checked that your physx license was not valid anymore, thus thereby stopped your installation. Is this the case?

Please answer my question, anyone, as it is a very important question for me to know. I hate that if I have made a game in the future, it could not run because Nvidia may decide in the future that its physX SDK is not free anymore, thus deactivating all the license and forcing me to pay.

In any case, I rather work hard and integrate ODE to 3D Torque instead. Anyone would point me to how this can be done, since I am very new to 3D torque.

Thanks

Chin Liu

#4 basically what happened was they required an update to the system software manager or whatever it was to reenable, i basically could no longer run the physx demo without re-registering and given access to the updated developer system software. Physx is still free, though my irritation stemmed from the fact that A, I had to re-regester, and B. that it took a really stinkin long time,(2 and a half weeks) after reviewing it made some sense as the restructuring nvidia did was to pare down the non useres who were cluttering their system from the actual users, so i do not personally at least see any reason why using physx in a project is an issue, all you need to do once registered is log in to nvidia,s developer zone every 6 months, to keep your account active and be able to update your nvidia system software.

I didnt even need to reinstall the sdk just some small system update dl and everything works great agian.

also if you want bullet its already being integrated, and if you pick up GMK it is already integrated

#5 Hi, Kenneth

Please, I need to ask two more questions about it, sorry about that

One thing I don't understand is, the phyx SDK, is nothing but just some .dll, .Lib and header files, just HOW they can force and request you to update? Also, what is the system software manager you mentioned in your second post, is it part of the Windows operating system?

Please, tell me also, if I understand your post correctly, 3D Torque has two more integrated physics engines, and they are bullet and GMK. Tell me very please if I am correct on that. I need to get the physics engine going fast. Also, are bullet and GMK free just like Open Dynamics Engine are?

I purchased 3D torque 3 days ago, and had send request to Nvidia for the account, but they have yet to approve me (2 days now). I am very impatient now, as I want to start to make some progress in my game development. But the physics engine is a showstopper for me. Please help me......

Thank you so very much, and sorry for asking too many questions

Chin Liu

#6 There is a message on PhysX developer support site:

"Important

We are having issues with our secure download server and so SDK downloads are not available at this time. Please check back periodically for any updates. We apologize for the issue and we are working to bring it back online as quickly as possible."

So, maybe it is the problem. Be patient.

I got new account in 1 day, so do not worry,just wait.

And you can start to create games without physics engine, start from level creation, AI, whatever...

Hope it helps

#7 Hi, Zealander, thank you for your kind reply

May I ask you if it is true that Torque 3D has two more integrated physics engines, and they are bullet and GMK?

Thanks

Chin Liu

#8 No, it is not.

GMK uses PhysX or Bullet for Torque3D and ODE for TGE. It is add-on, here is the price: http://www.torquepowered.com/products/gamemechanicskit

Torque3D uses PhysX, Bullet at the beginning(but they will be equal in the future 1.2 release AFAIK) and inner physics(maybe simply - collision detector).

But there is physics abstract layer, so you can use even Havok, very good choice too, but it is free only for PC game development AFAIK.

If you are interested to compare this engines read this article:

http://physxinfo.com/news/1000/popular-physics-engines-comparison-physx-havok-and-ode

and read more articles about PhysX there http://physxinfo.com. Look at PhysX future here: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/apex.html

Here is more popular engines: http://bulletphysics.org/wordpress/?p=88

So it was my favorite physics engine's advertisement :-)

#9 And you even can download free GMK demo and try to create simple game with physics right now. I personally like ragdolls the most there.

#10 Thank you, Zealander.

I know a lot more now.