1. What is PhysXforQuest?

2. What are the basics of using PhysXforQuest?

3. What type of documentation are we looking at, are there tutorials?

4. What's the licence, is it free?

5. What are the limits?

6. Can I add code to it? Can I create spin off's?

7. Can I make games using PhysXforQuest and sell them?

8. What platforms does it support. Does it run on Linux?

9. What version of Quest3D do I need?

10. What version of PhysX™ do I need?

11. What version of PhysXforQuest do I need?

12. Why is it sometimes called Novodex and the other times it's called PhysX™?

13. What types of shapes does it have? Can it do tri-meshes?

14. I noticed there is a Character Controller channel, can I do an FPS?

15. Do you support the PhysX™ PPU?

16. Is there a networking feature?

17. How do use the skin width feature to stop objects from inter-penetrating?

18. Will Nvidia hardware be supported?

1. What is PhysXforQuest?
   It is a plug-in for NVIDIA PhysX™ to Quest3D. The majority of core functionality in the PhysX™ SDK is implemented via Quest3D channels to allow you to use PhysX™ as your physics system.
   Quest3D currently supports ODE and the recent implementation of Newton physics (version) now directly included with Quest3D as of version 4 (currently in development).
   PhysXforQuest is an alternative to these physics systems. It provides additional real-time physics capability such as vehicles, soft-body, a full cloth system and also fluids.
   
   Note:
   PhysXforQuest and NVIDIA PhysX™ is both a software and hardware implementation. You can run applications as software based but some features due to the demanding nature of real-time physics will result in slower frame rates.
   The advantage of PhysX™ is that you can implement demanding physics by implementing a dedicated hardware PPU.
   Depending on your realtime3D requirements and scene requirements you may need to require hardware support for your system. Fluids although possible as software is best run when the NVIDIA PhysX™ PPU card is installed on the system.
   
   
2. Basics of Using PhysXforQuest
   As with other development of 3D in Quest3D, you drop channels or channel templates onto the authoring window and connect channels to create the physics system. Rendered objects requiring physics are associated via a link to the output motion matrix from a PhysXforQuest Actor channel to the 3DO object.
   The channels have been developed with an open dynamics philosophy. Any parameter that is potentially changeable or requiring a set or get is available as a child to a value channel. This means you can make dynamic changes to an actor in runtime.
   You are not prevented to changing because the property or parameter has been embedded in a dialogue of the channel.
   The extensive flags of PhysX™ are also open via a bitwise operator channel allowing you to create and set any flag in runtime.
   
   All the core PhysX™ classes involving scene, actor, character etc are implemented as channels. Simply attach in the correct sequence a construction of channels, hook a 3D objects motion matrix up and PhysXforQuest will do the rest.
   
   
3. What type of documentation are we looking at, are there tutorials?
   Unavailable
   
   
4. What's the licence, is it free?
   Commercial licence per developer seat or site developer.
   A trial version will be made shortly after version 1.00 has been released.
   
   
5. What are the limits?
   Unavailable
   
   
6. Can I add code to it? Can I create spin off's?
   Unavailable
   
   
7. Can I make games using PhysXforQuest and sell them?
   Yes. NVIDIA has released a new EULA with PhysX™ 2.6.0 (which applies to 2.7.3) that allows you sell commercial games that use PhysX™.
   
   
8. What platforms does it support.  Does it run on Linux?
   At the moment PhysXforQuest (as does Quest3D) only works on Windows. As of PhysX™ 2.6.0 NVIDIA have released a Linux version, but no work porting PhysXforQuest have been done yet.
   
   
9. What version of Quest3D do I need?
   You need Quest3D version 3.6.6 or above.  Currently this is the most recent stable release version from Act3D-BV.  PhysXforQuest is NOT backward compatible to any earlier versions of 3.6 or 3.5. Users are encouraged to use 3.6.6.
   
   When version 4 of Quest3D is available we will evaluate the development path to upgrading PhysXforQuest.
   
   
10. What version of PhysX™ do I need?
    Current beta versions and the final release version (when released) will use NVIDIA PhysX™ 2.7.3. This is available as a download from NVIDIA's web site.
    
    A much smaller 'game' installer is available for distribution, instead of packaging all version of PhysX it simply contains the required version, which in this case is 2.7.3. The game installer is ~3MB compared to ~38 for the full version.
    
    
11. Why is it sometimes called Novodex and the other times it's called PhysX™?
    Novodex was the name of the original company that developed the software. NVIDIA purchased the software and via the company NVIDIA have developed the first hardware based PPU (Physics Processing Unit) dedicated to running physics code, thus reducing the load on the CPU.
    
    Hardware implementation provides increases in performance and is generally required for scenes involving real-time extensive fluid dynamics.
    Go to the NVIDIA site for further information on the software and hardware.
    
    
12. What types of shapes does it have? Can it do tri-meshes?
    PhysX™ 2.7.3 has:
    
    • Plane shape
    • Box shape
    • Sphere shape
    • Capsule shape
    • Heightfield shape
    • Triangle Mesh shape
    
    Triangle Meshes are a very efficent and excellent feature in PhysX. Users can import entire sections of their levels and create a triangle mesh actor from it within minutes. This then allows their characters to navigate the level with almost no performance loss.
    
    
13. So what are the tutorials exactly?
    Unavailable
    
    
14. I noticed there is a Character Controller class, can I do a FPS?
    PhysX provides a physics object specifically for character control. PhysXforQuest implements all of the core features, making it easy to create a character that can slide against walls, move objects etc. There are 2 sample files that show some ways for doing character control which when used with PhysXforQuest make it easy to make FPS or other character controlled simulation. Plans are for a further sample to be developed soon that deals with implementing all core character controller requirements.
    
    
15. Do you support the PhysX™ PPU?
    PhysXforQuest supports PhysX™ hardware in version 1.0.
    
    
16. Is there a networking feature?
    There is currently no networking ability in PhysXforQuest. This does not mean you can't create your own networking features. The general idea is to periodically syncronize the global poses and states of physics objects by passing this data to clients.
    
    
17. How do use the skin width feature to stop objects from inter-penetrating?
    Unavailable
    
    
18. Will Nvidia hardware be supported?
    There is a good possibility that it will. Currently however this has not be released to market so no definite answer can be given.

Connecting a main child physics type such as an Actor does nothing until it has a descriptor channel, AND, it is called. Calling occurs the first time you run the channel group in the animation window.

When it is called, the actual physics object for an Actor will be created. So long as the Actor remains connected the Actor channel will manage the physics object.

An Actor cannot be created unless there is a Core and a Scene channel present and created.

If you disconnect, again for example an Actor; that physics object has not been deleted, it is there until the Actor channel itself is deleted in Quest3D.

You can reconnect the Actor as you would other Quest3D channels.

You should however, for quality and process, delete channels that you no longer need, certainly before publishing.

At runtime, the Actor is created on the first call to the Actor channel. It is retained unless there is a command to delete an Actor (not currently permitted in PhysXforQuest).

You can call 'Clear Actor' (see: Actor Commands: Actor Command) this will set the Actor channel to empty. This will only be allowed if the Actor is NOT an 'Initial Creator'. Check the Actor dialog to get the state of 'Initial Creator'.