Question regarding the PhysX engine and possibility of hybrid PhysX configurations.

[Omniverse]

Hello,

(warning, the following is theoretical...leading up to a question)

So KSP runs on Unity.

The Unity engine uses Nvidia's PhysX feature to do physic calculations in the game.

usually, the PhysX used by KSP can be run thru any CPU without issues. Unless, a Nvidia graphics card with a PhysX PPU (physics processing unit) is installed on a computer, in which case, the PhysX calculations done by the CPU are reduced and given to the PPU... this causes a significant increase in performance because it takes a load of the CPU, especially when there are multiple objects loaded in space (like if you have a multi-million-part space station).

I am a hardcore AMD user and and even hardcore-er KSP player (this game is incredibly, everyone here knows that).... so I went looking for ways to optimize my game even further and possibly use hardware-based PhysX in an AMD system.

I came across this thing called hybrid PhysX. which allows a computer with AMD main card(s) to use an Nvidia card just as a sole physics processor (so basically, its putting in another graphics card to use solely for physics calculations).

more information found here:http://physxinfo.com/wiki/Hybrid_PhysX

This would allow the Hardcore-est KSP+AMD users to buy a chap ~50$ Nvidia card (even a plain PCI one can work, not even PCIe) to use PhysX and enhance the game to even further reduce the stress on the CPU.

my question is... would this work?

-is the unity engine benefited by PhysX hardware components?

--if yes, does KSP allow the same use of hardware-based PhysX to lighten CPU load?

---if yes, is there any easy solution for AMD users to use PhysX on a different core or somewhere that doesn't interfere with the game performance?

----if no, would hybrid PhysX work with KSP/Unity to achieve the desired result?(and i understand this part of the question is better asked on the PhysX forums)

-and yes, I am overthinking it slightly... but until Unity goes 64-bit i'm optimizing everything I can.

-if there is any documentation on KSP's use of graphics features (like PhysX) i would love to find and see that...

Thank you for your time,

Omniverse

[vexx32]

Moved to Suggestions and Development Discussion.

The Unity engine does not currently utilise nVidia's hardware for PhysX calculations, no. That was not introduced until a certain version of the PhysX module, which to my knowledge has not been introduced to the main Unity build as of yet -- Unity's package of PhysX is many versions behind the standalone PhysX package.

Unity does not presently use graphics cards for anything but graphics, unfortunately, and until they integrate a more up-to-date version of PhysX into their code, none of this will be of any use, I'm afraid

[marach]

and until they integrate a more up-to-date version of PhysX into their code,

ACK no! Anything but a new version of PhysX, Bullet would be the better option it's open and uses ANY GPU for acceleration (plus people have already done this and it works really well)

[Omniverse]

Moved to Suggestions and Development Discussion.

The Unity engine does not currently utilise nVidia's hardware for PhysX calculations, no. That was not introduced until a certain version of the PhysX module, which to my knowledge has not been introduced to the main Unity build as of yet -- Unity's package of PhysX is many versions behind the standalone PhysX package.

Unity does not presently use graphics cards for anything but graphics, unfortunately, and until they integrate a more up-to-date version of PhysX into their code, none of this will be of any use, I'm afraid

Drats! Oh well... one can only hope I suppose that one day unity will catch up the times

Thank you for clarifying this btw... I was planning to buy a Nvidia graphics card from my holiday money on a hunch that all this worked... now I will not waste my money

Omniverse