Batman: Arkham City PC edition dated, PhysX effects unveiled

With the console editions of Batman: Arkham City out the Bat-door, publisher Warner Bros. has announced that the delayed PC version will follow on November 15. In celebration, graphics card manufacturer Nvidia is showing off the shiny PhysX and DirectX 11 effects exclusive to PC.

As in Batman: Arkham Asylum, PhysX will be used for a variety of purely visual effects, Nvidia reveals. It'll spew clouds of physics-simulated smoke, newspapers, dollar bills, and other particles, and have cloth simulation effects too. Here's a peek at the graphical bells and whistles in motion:

Annoyingly, only Nvidia graphics cards support GPU-accelerated PhysX effects, leaving AMD Radeon users cold--another casualty of the graphics card wars.

Nvidia also released a single, solitary screenshot showing off the shape-smoothing DirectX 11 tessellation effects. As it's plain old DX11, tessellation should run just fine on AMD cards too.

The PC edition supports Nvidia 3D Vision too, along with anaglyphic 3D.

Lastly, those who were waiting for Arkham City to appear on Steam before pre-ordering can now go right ahead--though it's not available in certain regions yet. 20% is knocked off the price if you own Arkham Asylum or LEGO Batman on Steam.