Putting the Demos back in the PhysX Control Panel

 If you don't feel like reading, you can also view the Video Tutorial below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE6WK-Awjkw

When updating to newer PhysX drivers (older than 9.09.0720), some of you may have noticed that there are no more PhysX demos left under the Demo Tab in PhysX Properties. Nvidia cut back on the demos to save space on the newer drivers, but there is a way for you to make the Demo Tab useful again...

If you managed to hold on to the older PhysX demos, you're off to a good start and you can go ahead and skip the following paragraph! However if the PhysX control panel doesn't exist, then you are using some of the latest Nvidia PhysX drivers and may either:

• Rollback to an older Driver (9.09.0720 or older)
• Follow the PPU Restoration Tutorial to restore the PhysX control panel with the Latest Nvidia Drivers

To recollect those demos, uninstall your current PhysX drivers and reinstall them starting with an older, Ageia Driver. After installing that, go to the AGEIA Technologies folder in Program Files and copy the bin folder and save it in a separate area of your choosing. Then install the Nvidia 8.09.04 PhysX driver, return to the AGEIA Technologies folder and copy the demos folder and save it elsewhere. Upon installing a newer PhysX driver (apart from PhysX driver 9.09.1112 and above, where they completely remove the PhysX Control Panel), restore those two folders you saved back to their original location (as their contents were deleted when updating drivers).

Now you simply need to make links to them by doing a little registry editing, open up the registry editor (regedit.exe) and find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/AGEIA Technologies.

Find the PhysX Demos folder, then right click, select new, string value. Type in the Name of the Demo you wish to add in place of "New Value #1", then right click the new Value, and select Modify. Here you will enter the location of the demo followed by backslash, the title of the demo followed by ".exe".

(Example: C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Engine\bin\AGEIAPhysXBoxes.exe)

After returning to the PhysX Control Panel and checking if the demo you just added is working properly, you have officially reestablished that particular PhysX Demos back into the Demo Tab, you can now proceed to restore the remaining Demos in there if you wish. The locations of the other demos can be found in the following places:

Within Original AGEIA PhysX Drivers

•  C:\Program Files (x86)\AGEIA Technologies\bin\

Within 8.09.04 Nvidia PhysX Driver

•   C:\Program Files (x86)\AGEIA Technologies\demos\

With Modified Nvidia PhysX Drivers with Restored PPU Support

• C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Engine\bin\
• C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Engine\demos\

Once all's said and done, you should have a completely renewed PhysX Demos Tab, you can even get a little crazy and add a few more "Demos" there if you wish. (ie: Nurien, StarTales, Mars Benchmark, even all your PhysX games!)

Stay groovy, stay crazy, happy gaming!