Error on starting Railworks - re: PhysX

[OZINOZ]

Having been away from RW for almost a year, I have just managed to get back involved, have bought some payware add-ons and thought I would update my 2 year old video drivers. I am running an 8600Gt card - not great I know, but adequate for the time I could devote to RS/RW. Big mistake! Downloaded and installed the latest NVidia 260 release drivers, but now my RW crashes at start up with "Unable to initialise PhysX" I have tweaked everything I can find and eventually rolled back the driver, but still getting the crash.


Can anybody suggest what I need to look at to get by this?

Here's hoping...

Cheers

[Kromaatikse]

The PhysX software is available by itself from http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/physx-9. ... er-uk.html. At the bottom of that page, there's also a link to an older version which may prove useful.

[transadelaide]

The PhysX software is available by itself from http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/physx-9. ... er-uk.html. At the bottom of that page, there's also a link to an older version which may prove useful.

There is also a copy of the installer for the older version included with RailWorks that sits in C:\Program Files\steam\steamapps\common\railworks\Install\ to run instead of downloading it.

The 260 driver package is working fine for me.

[xguerra]

Hello

I am also having problems with Physx. But I have Railworks2.

I can enter the game but when I click on a train, the game crashes. Is this related to Physx?

And which version is compatible with Railworks and Railworks2?

[iceman2117]

hi, ...

I mean the physics Steam files automatically download and install.
Also in the box version should be on the physics of the DVD.
The Nvidia physics that you can download it, I think not compatible with RW / 2

g'ice

[AndyM77]

The Nvidia physics that you can download it, I think not compatible with RW / 2

g'ice

Nope, incorrect - the latest version of PhysX that is included with the latest nVidia drivers (And standalone) work perfectly fine with Railworks2. On a clean install of Windows I always install the latest WHQL and / or stable drivers and when I install Railsimulator / Railworks / Railworks 2 the "Supplied" PhysX runtime won't install (silently or not) if you've a higher version already installed.

The PhysX distributions are similar to Direct X installations, i.e it'll install any versions that are missing on your computer. I'm currently running PhysX 09.10.0513* which includes all libraries prior to that version - quick way to check go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Engine" (omit the x86 if you're running on a 32 bit OS), within there I've 25 folders each containing "NxCooking.dll" & "PhysXCore.dll" starting at V2.3.1 up to v2.8.3 (obviously not sequential otherwise there would be more than 25 folders!).

So, make sure that you've installed the PhysX software as administrator if you're running "Vista" OR "Windows7", system restart not normally needed, but sometimes it helps.

*09.10.0513 is installed with the driver set that I'm running (258.96) - yes, there are newer drivers available on nVidia.com for my graphics card, but I usually only upgrade if a "fix" affects one of my games or if a driver has issues such as "Fans not working" back on a 1xx release.

[FoggyMorning]

Yep, can confirm that later versions of PhysX work with RW - recently had to install v.10.02 for another game and had no adverse effect on RW

Steve

[OZINOZ]

This is interesting.
Last night I reinstalled the latest Nvidia 260 drivers and again all I could get out of RW was the "unable to initialise Physx" error. I rolled back to the 185 drivers but still no joy. I then did a custom install of the 260's, without installing the imbedded Physx drivers (or the 3D) and then installed the Physx application from within the RW2 install folder.
Restarted RW2 and now all is good - not sure what the difference was but not complaining.
Just something to remember I guess...

Now off to resume my scenerio creating...

Cheers and thanks for the help

[iceman2117]

The physics of Rail Works is not the same as the Nvidia driver Physik.
You need Railworks owncustomized physics.

I think, ...
Nvidia Phsik is for the Driver Software.
Railworks Physik is Game Software Physik.

g'ice

[AndyM77]

I'm not gettting at you, really I'm not.. BUT PhysX is PhysX!

The driver supplied by Steam / Railsimulator / Railworks / Railworks 2 is the last AGEIA release of the drivers (AGEIA PhysX v6.10.25 is stated on the file properties) - nVidia bought the IP (intellectual property) from AGEIA and decided to ditch the "PPU" standalone units for the GPU based GPUPP.

The nVidia drivers still have to work on the original "PPU" units for the poor souls that spent money on them.

The GPU implementation of the PhysX has to be coded in the game, there is NO seperate driver for the GPU acceleration therefore the latest releases from nVidia are exactly the same as the AGEIA supplied one with Railworks2, but the only difference is that the new drivers have newer libraries and PhysX engines available to use.

The reason why RSAdam asks users to install the Steam / Game supplied Version is NOT because it's the only one that works, it's so that he knows that the "end user" whom is having trouble at least has "PhysX" installed on the system and the RS support team have a baseline to work from.



Edit: Late addition

Imagine if the supplied PhysX was custom built for Railworks, the second I install another game that uses a higher version of PhysX the earlier AGEIA version will become useless. There are plenty of games that include newer PhysX routines in thier installations, games such as MafiaII, Zombie Driver, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Crazy Machines 2, Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason, Dark Void, Darkest of Days, Metal Knight Zero Online, Mirror's Edge, Nurien, Sacred 2, Star Tales, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Unreal Tournament 3, Unreal Tournament 3: Extreme Physics Mod, U-WARS, 3DMark Vantage, etc.. so if any of us own and use these games then we are using the latest version and the very same versions that are available via nVidia.com. These game have not broken my Railworks installation, nor do I see strange behaviour.

It really is time RS.com explained the PhysX usage AND / OR supply the latest version with the main game (properly bug tested on their end of course) and it'll stop some of these misconceptions!

[captaincooke]

I too suffered from the 'Unable to initialise PhysX' problem.

I uninstalled NVidia version 260 drivers back to 197. On running RW2 I was told the PhysX library was missing. Re-installed PhysX from my steam installation and now all is right as rain.