Mirror’s Edge PhysX

Being built on the Unreal Engine 3 and having been specially revamped by Nvidia, there’s one notable thing in Mirror’s Edge PC that we haven’t yet covered and which puts it ahead of the console version.

That thing is hardware accelerated physics; or PhysX more specifically.

The original PhysX hardware got a lukewarm reception from gamers when it first debuted admittedly, much of which was due to the fact that you needed to spend yet another £100 if you want to use in any of the small number of games that were designed for the system.

Fortunately though, PhysX has since been bought out wholly by Nvidia, who have coded the PhysX software to run on their latest graphics cards. Put simply; if you have an 8 series Nvidia card or higher (we played on a GTX 280 with no problems at all) then you’ll be able to enable extra PhysX content in Mirror’s Edge. All the physics calculations have now been shifted to the graphics card, rendering dedicated physics hardware redundant, but it will use up some of your graphics hardware causing a slight hit to FPS performance. We found that (thankfully) this hit wasn’t really noticeable though.


The PhysX content that’s been added to Mirror’s Edge PC has been subtly introduced so that it doesn’t interfere with the actual gameplay at all – actually enhancing it in more than a few situations. The additions are rarely anything dramatic – mainly curtains or banners made of physically modelled cloth – but there are a few notable benefits. In one section for example a huge glass chandelier has been added that can be shot down to slow down enemies.

Our opinion? The PhysX content is good. It enhances the gaming experience without infringing on it, giving a tangible benefit to being an Nvidia card owner. Running down empty corridors is all very well and good, but it’s always more fun if there’s stuff actively swooshing around you. Swoosh!

The PhysX content itself is toggleable using a simple switch in the graphics options, one which only becomes available if you have the required hardware. Above you can see the type of benefits that Nvidia PhysX brings to Mirror’s Edge. Bear in mind that, while it may not look like much, we found it doesn’t affect the framerate at all so there’s no reason not to enable it if you have the option.

Texture Quality

Again, Texture Quality is a fairly vague descriptor for a setting like this. Does it mean change the texture resolution? The number of unique textures? Texture enhancements, like bump-mapping? All we know is it comes in five different flavours, which you can sample below.


So, there are two questions here; how many poodles can you see and how many birds have they caught? Also, what differences can you spot?

Personally, we can’t see much of a difference in Texture Quality for the first few screenshots. The colours are all vibrant and crisp and the amount of detail and clarity on the in-game models is astonishing. Mirror’s Edge may not be the most complex looking game we’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly one of the sharpest.

All that changes though when you look at the Lowest Texture Quality setting, which suddenly makes the game look muddier than a hobo at Glastonbury festival. The writing on the boxes in the bottom left, for example, suddenly get blurry and unreadable compared to those on the settings above.

As we pointed out before though, the recommended settings for Mirror’s Edge aren’t that steep, so most everyone should be able to handle the Medium setting at least. If you can’t manage that though then just consider it another reason to upgrade to a new Nvidia card – you can read our suggestions on all that in our monthly buyers guide though.