PhysX Integration and known issues
by Brett Canter · in Torque Game Engine · 11/07/2007 (7:41 am) · 4 replies
Gang,
I've successfully integrated Ageia's PhysX into TGE, but I was wondering if someone could explain the terrain limitations to me? I am new to 3D programming, so the language and terminology throw me off sometimes. Perhaps there's a learning source that will help me better understand the limitation?
For reference, I am speaking about Shannon's resource on integrating PhysX with TGE:
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=10258
At the end of his article, he mentions the known issue with terrain. Simply put, I don't quite "get" what he is saying. Like I said, I'm new to 3D programming. Any information to point me in the right direction would be fantastic. Thanks!!!
Brett
I've successfully integrated Ageia's PhysX into TGE, but I was wondering if someone could explain the terrain limitations to me? I am new to 3D programming, so the language and terminology throw me off sometimes. Perhaps there's a learning source that will help me better understand the limitation?
For reference, I am speaking about Shannon's resource on integrating PhysX with TGE:
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=10258
At the end of his article, he mentions the known issue with terrain. Simply put, I don't quite "get" what he is saying. Like I said, I'm new to 3D programming. Any information to point me in the right direction would be fantastic. Thanks!!!
Brett
#2
11/10/2007 (12:30 pm)
The SDK doesn't seem to like collision meshes of > 256 verts. Now, technically, the terrain only HAS 256x256 verts (right?), so I'm not entirely sure where the problem is, but it's notable -- objects periodically fail to interact correctly with terrain. It's too bad, in fact, because PhysX is a very solid physics engine, and this implementation, though lacking in certain ways, is pretty decent. 
#3
11/10/2007 (12:35 pm)
Again we're using the TGEA version of that resource. In the PhysX Remote Debugger tool i can see our entire terrain just fine and we've yet to see any failure to detect collision with the terrain. Whatever the resource does... it works.
#4
Anyway.. wow. Amazing. The performance is fantastic, and I haven't seen a single error so far. You could ship commercially with this implementation and feel pretty darn good about it.
11/12/2007 (7:07 am)
Apparently I had no idea how far this resource had come. The update date on the post seems to be inaccurate, as there are changes from as recently as 4/07 in the download.Anyway.. wow. Amazing. The performance is fantastic, and I haven't seen a single error so far. You could ship commercially with this implementation and feel pretty darn good about it.
Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games