[gameprogrammer] RES: Re: Physics for games

Hi,

I'm glad to tell you that PhysX is really free of charge for PC development.
Here is the full license and the answer in Ageia Developer Support FAQ

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How do I become a licensed developer and what are the licensing terms?
Costs
At present, the following two options are all that are available.  We will
likely never provide any sort of royalty-based license. Open-source usage is
limited only to the most middleware-friendly license model--in other words,
we retain full ownership and rights to our own IP, and what you ship of ours
will still be specified by contract.

Free: 
Commercial & non-commercial use on PC 
Must keep registration information currect 
Must agree to the EULA at the time of download (pops up, but is copied
below) 
Available for Windows & Linux (soon) 
No PhysX HW support requirement
PS3 platform (through Sony pre-purchase) 
All platforms through some of our middleware partnerships, such as UE3,
Gamebryo 2.2, and others
$50k per platform: 
Xbox 360 
Fee may be waived at our discretion for multi-platform developers providing
PC HW support 
Fee may be waived at our discretion for some Tools & Middleware providers
Developing for HW
You can purchase complete systems for PhysX HW development from the likes of
Dell, Alienware and Falcon Northwest, or purchase add-in cards for existing
systems from ASUS and BFG. You can also prepare for HW simulation by using a
SW simulation scene on a dual-core CPU system to emulate the effect of HW
(though it is useful to keep in mind the features that make the most of HW
simulation).

During development, your place to submit questions is the Public Forum, as
this is the only way we can efficiently support our thousands of developer
users. Direct email and phone calls are only part of special service
agreements.

The EULA (End User License Agreement)

At the time you request the download of one of the Core PC installers, the
following EULA will pop up for your acceptance.  Once you click "ACCEPT", we
will have a record of your download request to show that you have agreed to
abide by the licensing terms.  That's all there is to it!

AGEIA Technologies, Inc.
AGEIA PHYSX SDK END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Welcome to the new world of reality gaming brought to you by PhysX™
acceleration from AGEIA™.  

AGEIA Technologies, Inc. is willing to license the PHYSX SDK and the
accompanying documentation to you only on the condition that you accept all
the terms in this License Agreement (“Agreement”) and accurately maintain
all required information on your AGEIA Developer Site Profile ("My
Support->My Profile").

IMPORTANT: READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE USING THE
ACCOMPANYING AGEIA PHYSX SDK.

BY CLICKING ON THE "ACCEPT” BUTTON BELOW, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ
THIS AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS
AGREEMENT.  IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, AGEIA IS NOT
WILLING TO LICENSE THE PHYSX SDK TO YOU.  IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE
TERMS, YOU MAY, WITHIN 15 DAYS, RETURN THIS ENTIRE PRODUCT TO THE LOCATION
WHERE YOU ACQUIRED IT OR PROVIDE WRITTEN VERIFICATION OF DELETION OF ALL
COPIES OF THE ENTIRE PRODUCT IF YOU HAVE ACQUIRED THE PRODUCT BY DOWNLOAD. 

1. Definitions.  “Physics Application” means a software application designed
for use and fully compatible with the PhysX SDK and/or AGEIA PhysX processor
products, including a video game, visual simulation,  movie, or other
entertainment product. PhysX Software Development Kit or “PhysX SDK” means
the set of instructions for computers, in executable form and in any media
(which may include diskette, CD-ROM, downloadable internet, hardware, or
firmware) comprising AGEIA’s proprietary Software Development Kit and
related media and printed materials, including Redistributable Code, Sample
Code, reference guides and manuals, installation routines, PhysX drivers,
API’s, libraries, any subsequent  updates or adaptations provided by AGEIA,
whether with this installation or as separately downloaded.
“Redistributable Code” means the Sample Code and any object code files
located in the “\SDKs\lib\” and “\Tools\NXuStream2” directories of the PhysX
SDK.  “Sample Code” means the sample interface or application source and
object code files contained within the PhysX SDK’s “Samples” directory or
made available for download from the PhysX developer site and designated as
sample code.  

2. License.  AGEIA Technologies, Inc. (“AGEIA”) grants you (“you”) a
limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable world-wide, royalty-free license to
(a) internally install, use and display the PhysX SDK, solely for purposes
of developing Physics Applications; (b) internally use, copy, modify and
compile the Sample Code to design, develop and test Physics Applications;
and (c) reproduce and distribute the Redistributable Code only in object
code form and only as fully integrated into Physics Applications, provided
you meet and comply with all requirements of this Agreement.  Any terms or
conditions appearing on the face or reverse side of any purchase order,
purchase order acknowledgment or other order document that are different
from, or in addition to, the terms of this Agreement will not be binding on
the parties, even if payment is accepted.  Except as expressly granted
herein, no other license under any patent, copyright, trade secret,
trademark or other intellectual property right is granted to or conferred
upon you by this Agreement.  All other rights are expressly reserved by
AGEIA and its licensors.

3. Redistribution; Physics Applications.  Any redistribution of the PhysX
SDK or portions thereof must be subject to an end user license agreement
including language that (a) prohibits the end user from modifying,
reproducing, de-compiling, reverse engineering or translating the PhysX SDK;
(b) prohibits the end user from distributing or transferring the PhysX SDK
other than as part of the Physics Application; (c) disclaims any and all
warranties on behalf of AGEIA and its affiliated companies and licensors;
(d) disclaims, to the maximum extent permitted by law, AGEIA’s, its
affiliated companies and its licensors' liability for all damages, direct or
indirect, incidental or consequential, that may arise from any use of the
PhysX SDK and/or Physics Application; and (e) requires the end user to agree
not to export the PhysX SDK and/or Physics Application, directly or
indirectly, in violation of any U.S. laws.  Upon request, you must provide
AGEIA with two (2) copies of any Physics Application and related
documentation that is commercially released subject to a license enabling
AGEIA to use and publicly display reasonable portions of such Physics
Application for advertising purposes.  Physics Application(s) should be sent
to:

AGEIA Inc.
82 Pioneer Way, Suite 118
Mountain View, CA  94041
Attention:  Vice President of Business Development

4. Ownership, Protections.  The PhysX SDK is owned by AGEIA and AGEIA
licensors, and is protected by United States copyright laws, international
treaty provisions, and other applicable laws.  With regard to any copies
made, you agree to reproduce any copyright notices and other proprietary
legends included on the original.  AGEIA copyright notice(s) may appear in
any of several forms, including machine-readable form, and you agree to
reproduce such notice in each form in which it appears.  Title and
copyrights to the PhysX SDK and any copies made by you remain with AGEIA and
its licensors.  You acknowledge that the PhysX SDK contain valuable
proprietary information and trade secrets and that unauthorized or improper
use of the PhysX SDK will result in irreparable harm to AGEIA and its
licensors for which monetary damages would be inadequate and for which AGEIA
and its licensors will be entitled to immediate injunctive relief.  Subject
to the rights of AGEIA and its licensors in the PhysX SDK and the Sample
Code, you own your modifications to the Sample Code.

5. Restrictions.  You will not, and will not permit others to: (a) modify,
translate, decompile, bootleg, reverse engineer, disassemble, or extract the
inner workings of any portion of the PhysX SDK except the Sample Code, (b)
copy the look-and-feel or functionality of any portion of the PhysX SDK
except the Sample Code; (c) remove any proprietary notices, marks, labels,
or logos from the PhysX SDK or any portion thereof; (d) rent, transfer or
use as a service bureau all or some of the PhysX SDK without AGEIA’s prior
written consent, except in the form of Physics Applications and subject to
the requirements of this Agreement; or (e) utilize any computer software or
hardware which is designed to defeat any copy protection device, should the
PhysX SDK be equipped with such a protection device.  Unauthorized copying
of the PhysX SDK, or failure to comply with any of the provisions of this
Agreement, will result in automatic termination of this license. 

6. Attribution Requirements and Trademark License.  You must provide
attribution to AGEIA and the AGEIA PhysX SDK in the “About” or “Info” box
menu items (or equivalent) of all Physics Applications using any portion of
the PhysX SDK in the format set forth below, or as otherwise specified or
approved in writing by AGEIA:

PhysX™ technology provided under license from AGEIA Technologies, Inc.
(Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 AGEIA Technologies, Inc., USA.
All rights reserved.  http://www.ageia.com.

Except as expressly set forth in this Section 6, or in a separate written
agreement with AGEIA, you may not use AGEIA's trademarks, whether registered
or unregistered, in connection with the Physics Application in any manner or
imply that AGEIA endorses or otherwise approves of the Physics Application
or that you and AGEIA are in any way affiliated.  Your use of the AGEIA name
under this Agreement does not create any right, title or interest in the
AGEIA name or any AGEIA trademarks and all goodwill arising from your use
inure solely to the benefit of AGEIA.

7. DISCLAIMER.  EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE EXPRESS LIMITED WARRANTY, THE PHYSX SDK
IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND AGEIA AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE, AND YOU RECEIVE, NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR IN ANY
COMMUNICATION WITH YOU.  AGEIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY OTHER WARRANTY
INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  AGEIA DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE OPERATION
OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE
SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED.  AGEIA MAKES NO WARRANTY WITH RESPECT TO THE
CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF THE SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the
above exclusion may not apply to you. 

8. Remedies.  The entire liability of AGEIA and its licensors, and your
exclusive remedy under the warranty provided herein will be, at AGEIA’s
option, to replace any Media found to be defective within the warranty
period, or to refund the purchase price and terminate this Agreement.  To
seek such a remedy, you must return the entire PhysX SDK to AGEIA, with a
copy of the original purchase receipt within the warranty period.

9. Confidential Information.  All technical and business information
disclosed by AGEIA to you under this Agreement, including but not limited to
source code, documentation, technical assistance and any confidential
information pertaining to AGEIA’s business or products, are to be considered
“AGEIA Confidential Information.” You will not disclose any portion of AGEIA
Confidential Information to any third party and will protect all AGEIA
Confidential Information with the same degree of care as you use to protect
your own information of a confidential or proprietary nature, but always
with at least a reasonable degree of care.  This obligation of
confidentiality will survive termination and/or expiration of this Agreement
for any reason.

10. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.  THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF AGEIA AND ITS LICENSORS
UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FOR DAMAGES WILL NOT EXCEED $100 IN THE AGGREGATE.  IN
NO EVENT WILL AGEIA OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY NATURE,
INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST BUSINESS PROFITS, OR LIABILITY OR INJURY
TO THIRD PERSONS, WHETHER FORESEEABLE OR NOT, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER AGEIA OR
ITS LICENSORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.  Some
jurisdictions do not permit limitations of liability for incidental or
consequential damages, so the above exclusions may not apply to you.  

11. Customer and Technical Support.  You will be solely responsible for
providing customer and technical support to end users of the Physics
Application for all features of the Physics Application, including those
features that relate to integration, functionality or compatibility of the
Physics Application with AGEIA products.  AGEIA may provide you with
technical support related to use of the PhysX SDK under terms and conditions
as posted on the AGEIA PhysX developer website, which may, in AGEIA’s sole
discretion, be changed from time to time.

12. Term of License; Termination.  Your right to use the PhysX SDK will
begin when you click the “ACCEPT” button below, which constitutes acceptance
of the terms and conditions herein.  The license is effective until
otherwise terminated.  You may terminate it at any time by destroying the
PhysX SDK and all portions thereof, together with all copies in any form.
If you fail to comply with any material term or condition of this Agreement
and do not cure the noncompliance within 30 days of receipt of written
notice of noncompliance from AGEIA, AGEIA may terminate your rights to
conduct any further development under Sections 2(a) and (b) of this
Agreement ("Partial Termination").  Upon Partial Termination, you will
certify to AGEIA in writing that the original and all stand-alone copies, in
whole or in part, of the PhysX SDK have been destroyed.  Upon Partial
Termination, you may continue to distribute any Physics Application that has
been commercially released prior to such termination subject to prospective
compliance with this Agreement.  Upon any other termination, you will
certify to AGEIA in writing that the original and all copies, in whole or in
part, of the PhysX SDK have been destroyed, including those portions
contained within any unshipped Physics Applications. 

13. Governing Law.  This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the
United States of America to the extent that they apply and otherwise by the
laws of the State of California, without reference to principles of
conflicts of law.

14. Export.  You agree and certify that no portion of the PhysX SDK nor any
other technical data received from AGEIA will be exported outside the United
States except as authorized and as permitted by the laws and regulations of
the United States.  If you have rightfully obtained the PhysX SDK outside of
the United States, you agree that you will not re-export any portion of the
PhysX SDK nor any other technical data received from AGEIA, except as
permitted by the laws and regulations of the United States and the laws and
regulations of the jurisdiction in which you obtained the PhysX SDK.

15. Assignment.  You may not sublicense, assign or transfer this Agreement
or the PhysX SDK except as expressly provided in this Agreement.  Any
attempt to otherwise sublicense, assign or transfer any of the rights,
duties or obligations hereunder is null and void. 

16. Survival.  The parties agree that where the context of any provision
indicates an intent that it will survive the term of this Agreement, then it
will survive.  All terms of this Agreement survive Partial Termination
except Sections 2(a) and (b).

17. Entire Agreement.  This Agreement contains the parties’ entire agreement
regarding your use of the PhysX SDK and may be amended only in writing
signed by both parties.

IF THE FOREGOING TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE ACCEPTABLE TO YOU, PLEASE INDICATE
YOUR AGREEMENT AND ACCEPTANCE BY CLICKING BELOW ON THE BUTTON LABELED
“ACCEPT”.

IF THE FOREGOING TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO YOU, PLEASE
CLICK ON THE “REJECT” BUTTON BELOW.

PhysX SDK, © 2006 AGEIA Technologies, Inc.  All rights reserved.

AGEIA and PhysX are trademarks of AGEIA Technologies, Inc. with
registrations pending in the US Patent & Trademark Office and elsewhere.
All rights reserved.

US AND INTERNATIONAL PATENTS PENDING.

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-----Mensagem original-----
De: gameprogrammer-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:gameprogrammer-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] Em nome de Jason Zaphyr
Enviada em: sexta-feira, 2 de fevereiro de 2007 22:07
Para: gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assunto: [gameprogrammer] Re: Physics for games

Seriously, I haven't even thought about using Physx engine, because of the
50K pricetag for commercial use.  I mean, given the fact that most of us
indie developers don't have access to the physx adapter card yet, so true
hands on development testing, and getting it to work with some of the more
popular indie engines such as dark basic pro, which they even mentioned it
in one of their newsletters, and made it seem like you could only use it in
a commercial game given you purchase a license.  They stated that you could
use it for test work, and in their competition they had, but if you wanted
to use the adapted libraries / addon for dark basic pro in a commercial
work, even a shareware title, you would have to purchase a license from
Ageia, if not, your game would have to be limited to using the hardware
versions of the functions.  Also I was getting the same information from the
Torque newsletter also...  So I do believe there is a lot of
misunderstanding, and misinterpretation of the terms, and what we can, or
can not use it for / in.

I for one, would be up for attempting to use it in a major project I am
involved in, if I knew for sure, the license wasn't going to be biting me in
the end, when I went to try and distribute said game.  Lord knows, their
library would simplify at least the hardest part of my previous project,
where it is essential for buildings to crack, crumble and seem to fall apart
/ gib if you will upon collision with vehicles and / or certain weapons, or
explosive weapons.

I have tried to use several different physics libraries and find them all a
bit difficult to work with, always end up hitting a brick wall, pardon the
pun, meaning either in lack of documentation on how to do certain types of
FX, such as getting an object like a building formed from many different
model chunks, with bone type animation, to crumble and fall apart, more and
more, the more the vehicle hits said building.

I think what is missing for the most part in game development info for the
indie developer is examples, and better explanations in the form of
tutorials or documentation, explaining in an easy to read format, instead of
pretending the user, has a master in physics, and knows all the laws of
physics, and how to setup an object as either static or dynamic, and setting
all the required properties, like gravity, rebound, spring tension, etc..

Why can't someone just wrap one or more of these libraries, with simpler
functions, that say, like you load an object, say for instance a *.x model,
and have the function so that it auto calculates the mass, the min and max
sizes needed, and just give you a couple of options like either gravity true
or false, passed into the function, and tell it the starting location for
the object, and then stuff like slide or moveable true or false, and let it
take care of the more tedious stuff itself internally, this would make
creating the game much more simpler, just load all your *.x objects needed
for the game level to begin with, including the main character, npc's, all
the level objects, the terrain and / or plane objects, set their positions,
and the props I mentioned, and let the wrapper greatly simplify all the
dirty hard to understand stuff.

I'm sorry I rattled on and on for so long, but this game I have been working
on for about two years now, has seen many variations in many different
engines, and was even close to completion in 3D Game studio, but since I
only had the commercial edition, I had to try and use the newton engine for
physics, no small feat, so then I thought, maybe I could just make the
building in sections, connected via bones and joints, and then try to do all
the different animations needed for each hit, this sorta worked, except it
was hard to get a realistic looking building to fall apart in a realistic
manner, with the pieces shaped like chunks of concrete, and broken glass
shards, etc.. and then have the stuff disappear after a time period like
gibs, leaving behind money signs floating and rotating, I had some luck got
a single test level to work, with many buildings in it, but then ran into
issues with when you destroyed one building, other buildings began to go
through their kill sequences as well.

If anyone here, can help with an idea, or two, or even some example model,
or code to make this type of thing happen upon collision with a vehicle,
please, please email me directly at: comedy@xxxxxxxxxxx and I would be more
than willing to send any in game screen shots, and bounce ideas back and
forth.  I am also interested in not only which is the best physics engine,
but the easiest, stupid proof engine, to make it easier to create a physics
controlled game world, for us non-super math geeks, but old school game
developers used to moving objects normally around a level, or world.

Any tutorials, ideas, libraries, websites, whatever is more than welcome,
thanks soooo much for starting this topic.

Ken


-----Original Message-----
From: gameprogrammer-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:gameprogrammer-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Olofson
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 5:30 PM
To: gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gameprogrammer] Re: Physics for games

On Friday 02 February 2007 21:36, Matthew Weigel wrote:
> David Olofson wrote:
> 
> > Either way, $50k doesn't exactly sound like free to me... I
> > suspect becoming a "licensed developer" involves substantial costs
> > as well, even by AAA title measures.
> 
> http://devsupport.ageia.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=378

[...totally different story...]

> From the same page, "Open-source usage is limited only to the most
> middleware-friendly license model."  Which is surprisingly
> enlightened, they don't mind if your use of the PhysX API is visible
> for all to see.

That sounds a lot better.

These guys might want to make the rest of the site to reflect the 
actual deal a bit more clearly, to avoid scaring people off before 
they even think about the fine print...


//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

.-------  http://olofson.net - Games, SDL examples  -------.
|        http://zeespace.net - 2.5D rendering engine       |
|       http://audiality.org - Music/audio engine          |
|     http://eel.olofson.net - Real time scripting         |
'--  http://www.reologica.se - Rheology instrumentation  --'

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