PhysX3: Getting started

There has been a major revamp of the PhysX API from version 3. I will try to convert all of the existing tutorials into PhysX3 so here I go with the first getting started tutorial.
Visual studio2008 project include directories
To ensure that you can follow smoothly along with me in the rest of the tutorials, make sure that the visual studio project directories contain the following directories in the include path. (This option is accessible through Tools->Options->Projects & Solutions->VC++ Directories. Here YOUR_PHYSX_PATH is where the PhysX3 folder is stored on your harddisk.)
YOUR_PHYSX_PATH\SDKs\PhysXAPI
YOUR_PHYSX_PATH\SDKs\PhysXAPI\foundation
YOUR_PHYSX_PATH\SDKs\PhysXAPI\extensions
YOUR_PHYSX_PATH\SDKs\PhysXAPI\common
YOUR_PHYSX_PATH\SDKs\PhysXAPI\pxtask\include
YOUR_PHYSX_PATH\Samples\SampleFramework\framework\include

Lib path
This path is added in the lib paths.
YOUR_PHYSX_PATH\SDKs\lib\win32

Getting started with NVIDIA PhysX3
We need to include the headers first.

#include <iostream>
#include <gl/freeglut.h>
#include <pxphysicsapi.h>
#include <pxdefaulterrorcallback.h>
#include <pxdefaultallocator.h>

using namespace std;

#pragma comment(lib, "PhysX3_x86.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "Foundation")
#pragma comment(lib, "PhysX3Extensions.lib")

The PhysX header is now PxPhysicsAPI.h. This header is needed for PhysX. The rest are for c++ output/input stuff and freeglut API stuff. I like to programmatically add the linker libraries. For this basic startup demo, we need PhysX3_x86.lib/dll, Foundation.lib/dll, PhysX3Extensions.lib/dll so we link to them.

const int WINDOW_WIDTH=1024,
  WINDOW_HEIGHT=768;

static PxPhysics* gPhysicsSDK = NULL;
static PxDefaultErrorCallback gDefaultErrorCallback;
static PxDefaultAllocator gDefaultAllocatorCallback;

IN the above lines, we setup the window dimensions. Then we store the PhysX object pointer. In the previous sdk, only first parameter was needed now all of the parameters are needed. These include the allocator and error callback handlers. The sdk provides default handlers so we use them.

void InitializePhysX() {
   gPhysicsSDK = PxCreatePhysics(PX_PHYSICS_VERSION, gDefaultAllocatorCallback, gDefaultErrorCallback, PxTolerancesScale() );
   if(gPhysicsSDK == NULL) {
 cerr<<"Error creating PhysX device."<<endl;
 cerr<<"Exiting..."<<endl;
 exit(1);
   }
}
void ShutdownPhysX() {
   gPhysicsSDK->release();
}

Like before, we call the PxCreatePhysics function and pass it all the parameters. If the call succeeds, we get the object otherwise we prompt an error and exit. For release, we need to call the release function of the sdk object reference.

Thats it. The code should not give u any errors. To make sure everything is fine and there are no problems, copy PhysX3_x86.dll to the current solution directory. Hope you will enjoy the rest of the tutorials.
Source code