Can you post the link to the license agreement? A google search of the terms in your post took me to the NVIDIA PhysX SDK/Driver page .
If that is the correct page then what you read is the license agreement for “NVIDIA PhysX” - NVIDIAs implementation of the open PhysX standard. Im sure NVIDIA can license its implementation of PhysX in whatever way it wants. In this case, NVIDIA is the owner for code of NVIDIA PhysX, but the binaries are available for free . This does not make PhysX a proprietary standard.
For example, the C language is an open standard (similar to PhysX). Borland makes a compiler/tool for developing in C, calling it Turbo C (similarly NVIDIA PhysX). Borland can license Turbo C with whatever conditions it wants, just like how NVIDIA does with NVIDIA PhysX. This doesnt mean that others cant write C language compilers nor does it make the C language a proprietary standard. People are free to implement their own C compiler and license the compiler with whatever terms they choose.
The PhysX standard (not the implementation) is open and ATI is free to implement it on their own graphics card. Heck, they can even develop a new graphics card for it. They can call it, for instance, ATI PhysX and release the ATI PhysX SDK/engine with whatever licensing they choose.
The implementation (NVIDIA PhysX) is different from the standard (PhysX) and can have completely different licensing.
and it was inevitable that this would happen too… now there’s no reason to be pissed at nvidia
Modded GeForce drivers: unlocked PhysX for Radeon ? | PhysXInfo.com - PhysX News
muzux2
October 3, 2009, 5:00am
43
According to AMD, PhysX is a proprietary standard and will be irrevelant..
I think decent physics can be a good thing for gamers… but it should be for ALL gamers. When it’s available for everyone, game developers will be able to make physics an integral part of gameplay, rather than just extra eye candy. This requires a physics solution built on industry standards. That’s why DirectX 11 is such a great inflection point for our industry–DirectCompute allows game physics that can be enjoyed by everyone. There are several initiatives (some open-source) that will deliver awesome GPU-based physics for everyone, using either DirectCompute or OpenCL. You’re absolutely right–industry standards will make any proprietary standard irrelevant.
Icrontic AMD comments on NVIDIA dropping PhysX support when ATI hardware is present
@All check these things and End discussion…
AMD is sure going after Batman and the fact that anti-aliasing integrated in the game doesn’t work on ATI cards. Nvida was happy to talk about it and we’ve learned a lot about “The way Its Meant to be played” ways.
First of all let’s say that the latest Batman title is a ‘The way its meant to be played’ game and that Nvidia did get some cool looking PhysX in this game. This is the first important title that got PhysX right in the game and made the experience much better than without it. This hurts ATI as they don’t have PhysX.
When it comes to anti-aliasing in the game, this is not a feature you turn on and Nvidia had to program and make it work on this title. They did it for their cards and due to the time they didn’t test if it works on ATI cards. This was ATI’s job as ATI also have a smaller developer relations team that was supposed to get AA in this game. They didn’t do it and we can only speculate on the reasons. This communication was supposed to take place between game developers and ATI, and Nvidia claims that they would not and didn’t ever prevent a developer to talk to another graphics card vendor.
So getting anti-aliasing in that game was a feature that was done by Nvidia and the company actually made the game look better. This is not something you need to apologize for and the good thing that comes from TWIMTBP is that games do look better than on consoles and this is a really important for the overall future of gaming.
ATI certainly won’t apologize for getting DirectX 11 in Dirt 2, STALKER and Alien vs Predator, as they do have DirectX 11 hardware and Nvidia doesn’t. Nvidia will have it, but not in the next few weeks. We simply believe that ATI has to confront Nvidia and its TWIMTBP as these guys make a difference that hurts ATI in the long run. The more games TWIMTBP touches and more PhysX they get inside of the important titles, will generally make ATI’s hardware less competitive as it can’t support it.
If it weren’t for them, PC games will look like console games
The way its meant to be played is Nvidia’s program for working with developers and its been criticized more then once, but this time Nvidia Vice President Toni Tamassi and Director of this program Ashu Rege talked about it.
They explained that some 50 developers involved in the program are working around the clock to make games look better. The big problem of computer gaming as a whole is that games are being developed for consoles and simply ported on the PC.
If they leave them like that, any given game will look like a console version of it, and since consoles are a cheaper gaming environment, gamers might just forget about a PC and migrate to console gaming. Since you have teams such as one at The way its meant to be played and since ATI has something similar but just with lesser manpower, these teams are trying to implement some fancy effects such as DirectX 10, 11 support, post processing, PhysX and many other things you can only get on DirectX 10 and 11 hardware, simply to make PC games look better.
Xbox 360 has ATI’s R500 chip inside, while Playstation 3 has RSX aka Nvidia’s G70-class GPU inside and both these are stuck with DirectX 9 and cannot do anything better than that.
So if you want DirectX 10, 11, Anti-aliasing, Shader model 4 or 5 effects, hardware tessellation, PhysX effects, the work of at least 50 engineers at Nvidia makes things look better. You should not criticized them and we should actually thank them for it, and if Nvidia would not do this, the PC games could become an endangered species.
madnav
October 3, 2009, 6:48am
45
read the topic title and please explain how it is relevant to nvidia’s decision to ‘disable ’ physx in presence of a non-nvidia card…!!!
not to mention, linking articles by people like fuad or charlie in these kinds of discussions is always quite pointless
Anish1
October 6, 2009, 9:32am
47
Just saw that article, after all the arguments
Patch Re-Enables PhysX When ATI Card is Present
thats what I was about to say.. now its only software work, and can be hacked/modified by a good programmer to make it work
zopeon
November 25, 2009, 2:38pm
49
I had heard about some drivers were being written to support PhysicsX on ATI cards( Only ATI cards not ATI + Nvidia). So as of now does it work on ATI??
