Getting Started - initial questions

I'm excited about getting started with PhysX and NxOgre, but I'm waiting for the Ageia folks to approve my application for registration. Of course this means I don't have the PhysX code downloaded yet, which means I can't build NxOgre, or Cake.

So I was looking for some sort of "Getting Started" guide, or a manual, or a wiki, to help prepare me for what I need to do.

I found the thread titled "NxOgre Links and Stuff" and had high hopes, but there's almost nothing in there! It did help me download the NxOgre code from the SVN, but again, I can't build it yet.

I found the Cake thread, which mentions Cake3 is available on the SVN, but there are no instructions on how to get it, or even why I would want Cake3. I poked around after downloading NxOgre from the SVN and guessed that it might be at "/Cake3", but it won't let me browse that folder, so I don't know how to get it. Is the ZIP file in the OP of the Cake thread (I downloaded that, but again I can't build it) the same as what's in the SVN? Or do I need some sort of password or different address to download Cake3 from SVN?

I also stumbled across some sort of web-based "Betajaen's Short Guide to NxOgre 0.9", and looked it over. It seems incomplete, and I'm not even sure if the information is correct. Is this a resource I should be using?

In short, I went through all 9 of the sticky threads in this forum, but I still have no solid basis of background information to start with.

Did I miss something?

If not, then would someone who has a bit more experience with NxOgre please make a Sticky thread with a really obvious title like "GETTING STARTED", showing the following information:

1. description of what PhysX is and how it's different from the alternatives
   description of what NxOgre is, and how it's different from the alternatives (i.e. other wrappers for PhysX)
   SVN address for NxOgre
   SVN address for the latest version of Cake, and a description of what it is and how it's relevant to NxOgre
   links to any API documentation (if they exist)
   links to any manual or Getting Started guide (if they exist)
   link to a new NxOgre wiki (if it exists)[/list:u]
   A wiki would be a great asset, since lots of people who have used NxOgre could contribute their knowledge and it wouldn't all have to come from betajaen.
   
   Anyway, thanks in advance!

Yes, yes I know. It's pretty poor. I spend nearly all my time in the code itself than the documentation stuff.

But for the purposes of my sanity:

- PhysX is a physics engine which is comparable to Havok in features. It's free for use, but you have to pay for the source.
- NxOgre is a wrapper for PhysX with Ogre.
- There are no other PhysX wrappers for Ogre.
- http://svn.nxogre.org
- Betajaen's Guide to NxOgre is the documentation. A book is coming but it's a while off.
- Cake is an example and playground to use NxOgre. It's available from the Cake thread.
- There is no wiki.


I'll clean up the stickies when I have some time, and condense the information somewhere.

Thanks for the fast reply betajaen. I didn't realize I could use svn.nxogre.org, I thought it was only latest.nxogre.org.

I also didn't realize that NxOgre is the only PhysX wrapper. Thanks for that info. I saw a few references to others such as Gangsta, Nogredex, OgreNX, etc. I guess those have all gone away since then, meaning that NxOgre is the best one!

I have a couple of follow-on questions if you don't mind:

1. Do I need the PhysX sources? I think it's $50.00 if I want them, is that correct?

2. Just for clarity, the link I found for the documentation page is http://www.nxogre.org/shortguide/. Is that the correct one?

3. I don't understand the references to "Cake3". Is that the same as what's in SVN and also in the ZIP file at the top of the Cake thread? Is there any difference between "Cake" and "Cake3"?

4. I assume the recommended version right now is 0.9?

Thanks!

Its 50 000 USD for the source, I am sure if it was 50 or even 500 everyone would get it.

1. 50k and no you don't need the source
2. Yes
3. Cake3 is for NxOgre 0.9, Cake SVN is for Bleeding
4. Yes

Wow nice! I think I can do without it for now then, hehe. Not sure where I got the idea it was $50.00.

Thanks for the info.

Decimal point and a truncated zero perhaps? In Europe sometimes we use the decimal point as a thousand separator.

3. Cake3 is for NxOgre 0.9, Cake SVN is for Bleeding

Hmm, now I'm confused! Where do I get Cake3 from? I only see one version (called "Cake") in the SVN. Is the ZIP file from the forums Cake3?

I assume when you say "Bleeding" you mean the 1.0 version of NxOgre in SVN?

http://get.nxogre.org/Cakebox.zip

Not quite. 1.0 isn't out yet, but the version before it "Bleeding" is. It's the version between 0.9 and 1.0

Thanks so much for the new sticky FAQ betajaen, it's fantastic!

One thing that's never mentioned though is exactly which versions of the PhysX and SystemSoftware are required to work properly with the version of NxOgre that I have. I could install 2.7.2 or 2.7.3, but I'm not sure which is supported.

For that matter I don't actually know which version of NxOgre I have either. I downloaded it from the SVN 0.9 folder, but I'm not sure if it's 0.9'37, or 38 or 39. Is there a way for me to find this out?

Ah, I've figured out that I have NxOgre 0.9-38 by checking in the changes.txt file. Sorry for not looking there sooner.

Does 0.9-38 support PhysX 2.7.3 or should I stick with 2.7.2 for now?

Thanks.

It should work with PhysX 2.7.3, there has been no massive interface changes in PhysX for a long time.

Thanks again betajaen! Your prompt support always amazes me!

Thank you for this post, is very useful

I don't know if this question could go to cake thread but it's actually a basic question.
I have seen the cake example but there the author changes the renderer and a lot of other things that confuses me.
Is there any simpler example or is cake the simplest I can find that uses nxOgre?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Xavi

Cake is the simplest application (that I know of) that uses NxOgre.

However all the bits in Cake that setup/destroy and use NxOgre are in the Cake.cpp file in public view, if you wanted to you could literally transplant them over to samples in Ogre and it would work.

Thank you betajaen, I work with this example but I will restructurate in classes the example to understand it better

I'm really not joking when I say it's three lines. It is three lines of code to implement NxOgre.

mWorld = new World(...);
mScene = mWorld->createScene(...);
...
delete mWorld;



You don't have to do anything to Ogre, you don't need to do anything to PhysX, you don't have to setup any framelistener code, It really is easy.

Ok, but with the mRoot object what i should do?
Do I creat it too? I put the camera with mRoot?

Sorry for this essential questions but I'm confused if World replace Root or not.

No World does not replace Root, they work alongside each other. Just like your input system and audio system.

You setup Ogre as normal, if anything needs to be done for Ogre for NxOgre's purpose, NxOgre will do it itself - automatically.

Ok, thank you very much!