A Golden Season for Developers
Game developers are living through a kind of golden season. Both Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5 are free, DirectX 12 promises major performance improvements, and now Nvidia joins in by publishing the code for PhysX on GitHub. But this should be seen as a limited opening, since the company imposes conditions before granting access.
Nvidia's Uneasy Relationship With Open Source
Nvidia's relationship with the open source world has always leaned toward the poor. The company provides drivers and the Tegra platform under its own terms, which has caused conflicts in the past, including a colorful statement from Linus Torvalds. Its latest Shield console still runs Android, and we all know there's a Linux kernel behind it. That's why the arrival of PhysX code on GitHub is so significant. As Nvidia highlights in its official announcement, more than 500 titles with PhysX support are on the market, and the technology is integrated into major engines like Unreal Engine and Unity.
The Limited Opening of PhysX
From a certain point of view, the "partial opening" of PhysX is related to recent changes in Unreal Engine 4. Tim Sweeney highlighted that UE4 developers will be able to access not only the binaries but also the C++ code for the CPU implementation of PhysX 3.3.3. All modifications to the code will be shared with Nvidia, who in turn will evaluate and add the benefits to the main PhysX trunk, and by extension to future UE4 versions. Accessing the PhysX code requires registering on Nvidia's developer portal and accepting the terms of use. If all goes well, those interested should receive the formal invitation in less than an hour.
Beyond Windows, With Limits
With enough development, PhysX could expand its influence beyond Windows and gain a foothold on platforms like OS X and other Linux distros... but I think we were all expecting a bit more. With a total and unlimited opening of its code, the physics platform would be able to cross borders and run on hardware not made by Nvidia. Maybe we're asking too much with that, though dreaming costs nothing...
