Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter – Screens and Videos
Since Ghost Recon is the title game for the PhysX PPU release today, we’ll be spending most of our time with that title. It also happens to be the only game we had that could be played both with and without the PhysX hardware installed — our other two demos required the PPU to run.
In GRAW, PhysX PPU setup is done without the user’s intervention as there aren’t any options to disable or enable it. If you have the hardware installed, it worked and if you didn’t have the hardware, it reverts to standard CPU-based physics processing.
Before getting into performance, we’ll see what a difference having the PhysX PPU actually creates in Ghost Recon with some screenshots and full resolution video as well.
No PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
With PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
Comparing our first set of screenshots, you can see that the sparks and reflection system on the PhysX enabled screen have more color, are bigger and there are more of them. The sparks aren’t scripted and generated randomly based on the angle of fire, where as in the standard physics the sparks are more dull.
No PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
With PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
Here we are blowing that same car up with a handy grenade. In the PhysX enabled screenshot you can see there are many more particles that are ‘exploding’ off of the destroyed vehicle while the standard game shows only two pieces. In both versions the light pole to the left of the car gets bent during the explosion as well.
No PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
With PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
Shooting a grenade from the launcher into a wall above me created a good explosion worth seeing as well. Even though the non-PhysX version looks pretty good, there PhysX enabled version does more particles, more dust overlaid with the same results the first screenshot shows.
No PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
With PhysX PPU (Click to Enlarge)
Taking another grenade and blowing up a nearby newspaper stand has different results between the two screenshots as well. In the PhysX version, there is much more debris from the explosion that interacts with the environment, such as the burnt papers that blow across the screen during the ensuing fire fight.
