Godot 4 Gets Experimental PhysX 5 PXTGI Lighting System

Godot 4 is receiving an experimental global illumination system called PXTGI, developed by Wild Ox Studios as part of its ongoing NVIDIA PhysX 5 integration project.

Developer uno1982 introduced PXTGI, short for PhysX Proxy Traced Global Illumination, on October 23, 2026, before sharing a new technical demonstration on October 24.

In the original Godot development discussion, the developer described a software-based lighting approach that combines screen-space information with simplified PhysX 5 collision geometry.

Unlike traditional baked lighting, PXTGI is designed to respond dynamically to changes in the environment without requiring precomputed lightmaps or manually configured illumination cascades.

The developer claims that its processing cost is approximately half that of Godot's existing SDFGI solution. However, that performance comparison has not been independently benchmarked.

PXTGI is also intended to work across compatible GPU hardware rather than requiring NVIDIA CUDA acceleration for its lighting calculations.

The technology builds on Wild Ox Studios' broader PhysX 5 module, which introduces advanced rigid-body simulation, cloth physics, fluid systems, destruction effects, and optional GPU acceleration.

Earlier demonstrations included a fluid simulation involving 90,000 particles at a reported 144Hz, although those figures remain developer-provided results.

The module currently supports experimental Godot 4.7 development builds on Windows and Linux, with additional work targeting Godot 4.8.

PXTGI remains under active development, and the PhysX integration is distributed separately from Godot's official engine releases.

The project has not been incorporated into Godot's standard rendering pipeline, and its lighting technology should not be confused with an official NVIDIA graphics feature.