PhysX on Linux

[Nerdy]

I am super happy that we got a Linux port of this and I've already installed and played a bit on my SteamBox. However, what I want to know is if there is some way to enable PhysX.

I have a 780 in this thing and I want to be able to take proper advantage of it and get the full experience. I've only been able to play Borderlands 2 on my laptop before this which is much weaker and as such had to turn down a bunch of the settings. I was really looking forward to maxing all the settings and going to town with a few friends.

[Mountain Man]

Nvidia's Linux drivers do not support PhysX.

[Nerdy]

Originally posted by Mountain_Man:

Nvidia's Linux drivers do not support PhysX.

Doesn't mean it can't run on the CPU. Also I've heard that Nvidia is working on drivers that will enable PhysX on Linux and that they will be released soon. It'd be good to implement it now so that it can be enabled either for running on the CPU or when the new drivers ship.

[Nerdy]

I found out that you can edit the config files to turn on PhysX ( or turn it up from low ) to high. All it requires is changing one number, however, when attempting to load a save after this change it crashes. The game starts up just fine but as soon as you get out of the loading screen you crash.

It'd be nice to have some input from one of the Devs working on the port, so we could know if any PhysX support is forthcoming.

[Mind Boggling Ball Buster]

yeah i got 780 also, and it sucks that we cant play to our rigs' full capacity. If only people would start improving the gaming world of linux :)

[Nerdy]

Originally posted by Hazaiki:

yeah i got 780 also, and it sucks that we cant play to our rigs' full capacity. If only people would start improving the gaming world of linux :)

It's also not like Nvidia is gonna just leave the drivers gimped. I just read a news article about how Nvidia is going to bring something new out that is built on PhysX and it's going to be on Linux as well as the other OSs.

[VENDETTA]

Does it take some important part away from the game if PhysX is missing? I only know the linux version of BL2 so it would be interesting to know how important it really is for the game.

[Nerdy]

Originally posted by VENDETTA#LINUX:

Does it take some important part away from the game if PhysX is missing? I only know the linux version of BL2 so it would be interesting to know how important it really is for the game.

This has a good display of what PhysX effects do in the game. There are other things it adds like the port-a-potties having a wall of liquid flow out every time you open one and some other silly things.

[VENDETTA]

Thanks for ths video link. I'm glad the difference is just optical. It's nice to have this great port for now and I'm sure linux drivers/games support in general will get better so that future games can offer the same features as other versions :)

[Nerdy]

Originally posted by VENDETTA#LINUX:

Thanks for ths video link. I'm glad the difference is just optical. It's nice to have this great port for now and I'm sure linux drivers/games support in general will get better so that future games can offer the same features as other versions :)

I was trying to point out that it can support it now by letting it run on CPU if the GPU doesn't support it because of driver issues. That way when Nvidia updates the drivers with PhysX support soon we'll get it working right away and won't have to try and get these guys to update BL2 again with PhysX support.

[Mountain Man]

Originally posted by VENDETTA#LINUX:

Does it take some important part away from the game if PhysX is missing? I only know the linux version of BL2 so it would be interesting to know how important it really is for the game.

PhysX is used exclusively for eye-candy. The reason being that if it added anything to the gameplay, it would eliminate every consumer who doesn't have an Nvidia card, and that'd be bad for business.

I miss the good ol' days when physics engines like Havoc didn't require proprietary hardware, and developers could do some really interesting and creative things with physics modeling. PhysX, in my opinion, is a step backwards for game design.

[N30N]

Originally posted by Mountain_Man:

Nvidia's Linux drivers do not support PhysX.

Nvidia have now added support[developer.nvidia.com]!

I have sent Aspyr a support ticket (also mentioned current crashing if set to medium/high) and will report back if I hear anything.

[Cybolic]

Really hoping this will get patched in! :D

[Jake]

I have reached out to Aspyr on reddit and they told me they are looking into implementing the new, Linux-supported version of PhysX but that it will likely be too complicated. Maybe Nvidia will add support for older versions to the drivers...

[N30N]

Yeah I go a similar reply in my support ticket:

Originally posted by support@aspyr:

Borderlands 2 uses an older version of PhysX that does not support hardware acceleration on Mac/Linux so we will not be adding it to the game.

They seems to skip over CPU/non-accelerated support and their login system is broken so I can't reply to the issue any further.