Nvidia GameWorks

Nvidia GameWorks is a middleware software suite developed by Nvidia.^[1] The Visual FX, PhysX, and Optix SDKs provide a wide range of enhancements pre-optimized for Nvidia GPUs.^[2] GameWorks is partially open-source.^[3] The competing solution being in development by AMD is GPUOpen, which was announced to be free and open-source software under the MIT License.

Nvidia GameWorks

Developer(s)	Nvidia
Initial release	2014
Repository	github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks
Operating system	Windows
Platform	Windows, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5, Android
Type	Video game development middleware
License	Proprietary/Commercial
Website	developer.nvidia.com/gameworks

Components

Nvidia Gameworks consists of several main components:

• VisualFX: For rendering effects such as smoke, fire, water, depth of field, soft shadows, HBAO+, TXAA, FaceWorks, and HairWorks.
• PhysX: For physics, destruction, particle and fluid simulations.
• OptiX: For baked lighting and general-purpose ray-tracing.
• Core SDK: For facilitating development on Nvidia hardware.

In addition, the suite contains sample code for DirectX and OpenGL developers, as well as tools for debugging, profiling, optimization, and Android development.

See also

• PhysX
• GPUOpen
• TressFX
• Havok (software)