NVIDIA Makes PhysX and Flow Libraries Fully Open Source
NVIDIA has announced that its PhysX and Flow SDKs are now fully open source under the permissive BSD-3 license, marking a significant milestone for developers and modders in the gaming and simulation industries. This decision includes the release of GPU simulation kernel source code, which was previously unavailable, enabling deeper customization and optimization of these powerful physics simulation tools
What Are PhysX and Flow?
PhysX : A real-time physics engine designed to offload complex calculations to GPUs using CUDA. It supports features like rigid body dynamics, fluid simulations, soft body dynamics, and cloth simulations. PhysX has been integral to many games since the 2010s, including Mirror’s Edge and Batman: Arkham Asylum
Flow : A gaseous fluid simulation library used for real-time smoke, fire, and gas effects. It complements PhysX by simulating dynamic fluid mechanics in 3D environments
Complete Open Source Transition : While parts of PhysX were open-sourced in 2018, this release includes the GPU simulation kernels, making the libraries fully accessible to developers
Enhanced Developer Opportunities : Developers can now modify and integrate PhysX and Flow into custom applications or optimize them for specific hardware. This is particularly beneficial for running legacy PhysX-based games on newer GPUs like NVIDIA’s RTX 50-series
Support for Advanced Features
Finite Element Method (FEM) soft body dynamics.
Position Based Dynamics (PBD) for liquids and cloth.
Rigid body collision based on Signed Distance Fields (SDF)
Gaming : Modders can adapt older games with 32-bit PhysX implementations to work with modern GPUs, while developers can leverage advanced physics simulations for new titles
Simulation : Applications in robotics, autonomous driving, factory automation, and visual effects can now access high-fidelity physics tools
Open Source Collaboration : The release fosters innovation by allowing communities to build upon NVIDIA’s technology
The source code for both PhysX SDK 5.1 and Flow 2.0 is available on GitHub under the BSD-3 license. NVIDIA plans to add Blast, its real-time destruction system library, soon
This open-source initiative solidifies NVIDIA’s commitment to empowering developers with cutting-edge tools while expanding the use cases of its technology beyond gaming into broader domains like digital twins and autonomous systems