• Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 83

Topic: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

I can't figure out where you actually have the command set to launch PhysX, and what sets that command. I'd imagine that it would all start at BASE or DPsFnshr because PhysX doesn't have an INI file with it, so something has to detect that it's there. What is it?

  • From: Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 6,226

Re: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

LOL, nvidia calls the physx installer from within their .inf (same with their HDaudio installer).  The installation happens around T-34.

[nv_commonBase_addreg__03]
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",HDAudioInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",PhysXInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
[Strings]
REG_DWORD = 0x00010001

It's magic! big_smile

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  • Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 83

Re: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

Gah! No wonder nothing was turning up.


Do you know if there is an easy way to change the command line that's actually passed to launch the installer? (the one above simply tells it to instantiate the installer, but it doesn't lead to the command line that's executed)


Basically, what I'm doing is pulling the MSI out of the installer EXE, then doing an admin install of the MSI,  and repackaging it. This should significantly reduce the size of my PhysX DriverPack. But in order to do it, I need to change the command-line to execute my MSI instead of Nvidia's EXE.


Any ideas?



edit--

On second thought, I could actually do what you guys do with SETUP.EXE, and just create an EXE file that tells it to execute my MSI file at a specified time or upon a specified trigger. That would probably be better anyway because it would significantly reduce the amount of space that's taken up when the files are extracted (since the MSI would only have to appear once in the DriverPack).

I'll toy around with it and see what I can come up with.

Last edited by dumpydooby (2010-01-10 10:37:25)

  • Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 83

Re: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

I don't have an Nvidia card.


Anyone want to give it a shot?

Download: http://xp.xpdnc.org/temp/DP_Graphics_Ph … 001dd1a.7z
md5: 0746926668f9c9cf0e6fe23544447318
compressed: 9.2MB | decompressed: 10.6MB


What's in it:

%SystemDrive%\D\
%SystemDrive%\D\G\
%SystemDrive%\D\G\PhysX.exe
%SystemDrive%\D\G\N1\
%SystemDrive%\D\G\N1\PhysX_9.09.1112_SystemSoftware.exe
%SystemDrive%\D\G\N3\
%SystemDrive%\D\G\N3\PhysX_9.09.1112_SystemSoftware.exe
%SystemDrive%\D\G\NM\
%SystemDrive%\D\G\NM\PhysX_9.09.1112_SystemSoftware.exe

PhysX_9.09.1112_SystemSoftware.exe will execute the following:

..\PhysX.exe -ai
  • From: Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 6,226

Re: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

We could just as easily add an .ini discriminator and let DriverPacks Finisher handle the install.  But I prefer to leave everything alone and have the drivers digitally signed whenever possible.
But having three instances of the identical software in the same Third Party DriverPack bothers me.  I wish we could have a single installer and have un7zip extract the one to the three directories.

I'll have to play around with your idea.  I'll test and report back.

*Edit
Works perfectly.  Great job!

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  • Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 83

Re: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

Having the file repeated three times in a single archive doesn't noticeably increase the size of the archive. The problem is that the Nvidia installer uses terrible compression, and it can't be compressed down much more due to the Shannon limit (I think you guys have it going from 35MB down to 30MB or something). By decompressing everything, I am able to then compress it the right way down to 8-9MB (down from a whopping 100MB or so). I made it into a "multimode" application because those are what I prefer.



Anyway, a couple of questions/ideas:

- Does my modification break the signature of the driver?

- Do you want me to change anything about PhysX_9.09.1112_SystemSoftware.exe? I can make it look for PhysX.exe, or I can make it do stuff with command-line paramters, check the registry, or whatever. As of right now, it's literally one line of code with zero fail-safe. If PhysX.exe isn't present, then it will return an error alert. While this isn't a problem on a fresh install, it might cause problems with KTD if a person deletes physx.exe, but the "dummy" file remains in tact.

  • From: Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 6,226

Re: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

- Does my modification break the signature of the driver?
NO.  Running sigverif.exe confirms all the nvidia crap is still signed. smile

- Do you want me to change anything about PhysX_9.09.1112_SystemSoftware.exe?
Nope.  It's fine the way it is.  If you want to tinker with it to add more checks/failsafes, go for it if you've got time to waste.

Although, we'll probably still maintain the original PhysX installers for those nitpicky types who only want original (untouched) installers.
But it's nice to have alternatives for space-conscious folks like yourself.

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  • Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 83

Re: Quick question: How is the PhysX installer launched?

I still squeeze everything onto a 700MB disc. I like to keep it old school.


Anyway, thanks for testing and helping me out. If you guys change your mind, you're more than welcome to use the pack however you please.