Physx

Gearbox and Nvidia have teamed up to give Nvidia card owners a special treat. If they have a card that is Physx capable they will be able to see effects in the game that other card owners will not. With Physx set to low (the only option available to owners of ATI video cards) nothing special will be seen by the user during gameplay.

 With the setting changed to medium, players will start to notice some different stuff going on in the world around them. There will be minor changes, such as the way that shots interact with the ground and the world around the player and spent shell casing piling up all around after a big gun battle. The more major effects that players will start to notice fluid effects, such as the blood from enemies pooling on the ground, and overflowing toilets (loot boxes) throughout Pandora.

They will also notice that the cloth in the game is very fluid and life like, it will move with the players as they try to walk through a dangling banner, and it will start to fall to pieces as a player shoots holes in it.

 While on medium settings some liquid and cloth particle effects are turned off to make for a much smoother frame rate. When on high settings, the player will see the best particle effects possible. The water and cloth will be as lifelike as possible and make for the most immersive game for the player. I had to use medium settings for most of my gameplay because of my system limitations, but it still made for a very immersive and enjoyable game.

 It was certainly more enjoyable than playing with the setting on low, which I did for about twenty minutes before my eyes grew bored. I can only feel bad for users with an ATI card, not because they own an ATI card, but because they won’t get to see any of the cool stuff that Gearbox and Nvidia have been able to do.