Connecting nxOgre and PhysX over network?

Hi everybody!

I have decided to use PhysX and/or NxOgre in my next networked game. However, I *need* to make the server dedicated, which means I can't use nxOgre for the server (right?). Instead, the server will have to use PhysX directly instead of through NxOgre.

Now to the question; is it better to use NxOgre or PhysX directly in my client? I need to run the simulation exactly the same on both the server and the client, right?

Nope.

You have NxOgre on server. You use only actors not bodies there. So, you calculate the physics there only.

On client, You need Ogre only. Create all graphical nodes there.

Calculate physx params on server, stream down position and orientation for all objects and inject them to the graphical nodes.

You need not to forget to sync the clients!

I disagree.

Server:
PhysX with a very light wrapper to send positions of the Actor on the server to the clients.

Client:
NxOgre and a light wrapper around that. Actors on the server are kinematic actors (so the collisions are one-way) these are updated every network update. Non-Gameplay/LOD actors i.e. particles can be simulated on the client.