I could swear i saw a file called physx while patching for a split second a few days ago. Does this game use it actually? Should i turn it off in the control center to get better performance? Did physx cause the heat trouble people are reporting? Not many games support this feature so do you have this enabled?

yeah it flashes up when patching saw it and my jaw dropped since thats an nvidia program thats on my comp for using with STO but I got an ATI 5750 video card???

Im not sure about overheating issues. My computer is pretty stable at 24C when running sto in high settings.the case i have displays the temp. XCILO brand rocks for air cooling.

I bet the overheating is mostly caused from crappy cases that dont have good air flow.
Im using 295's from nvidia and have zero problems with the graphics. works great.

I havent run 3d yet but mabye tomorrow ill check it out.

Physics is not NVidia only. Physx is. You have multiple forms of Physics.

Most games use CPU Physics from havox or a in house Physics engine. Very few games use the Physx from nVidia's (cuda). nVidia even baned the old Agia Cards.

I also saw Physics effects in the game on my ATi card. So this must be CPU Physics. nVidia wont allow ATi to use Physx. ATi (AMD) would have to pay and modify there cards to be CUDA compatible. But i dont see that happening.

DX11 also has something called Compute Shaders (Dx10.1 also has compute shaders but from DX11 they are a must and have more flexibility) The compute shaders can also be used to do Physics or be used to calculate AI. But i dont think this game uses the compute shaders from DX11.

But i do wonder if they use some DX11 features. Because Ambient Occlusion is also a DX11 feature, But i could be that they implemented it on a other way. It can also be that DX11 has some acceleration for AO.

ok I understand that and all but I have an ATI 5750 card and STO has installed Nvidia Physx on the computer and i'm a little confused as to why since my video card can't use the nvidia one?

It's pretty obvious.

To do the CPU "Emulation" of PhysX you need the software*.
No matter wich GPU you're using.

To use GPU PhysX you need the Software and a Nvidia GPU GF8 + Series.

To clarify what .unity said:

Many games use PhysX technology without performing the PhysX calculations on the GPU. You can check nVidia's PhysX website for lists of games that use PhysX, and games that use GPU-enabled PhysX. Games that do not require a nVidia GPU but still use PhysX do the work using the CPU.

This still leaves the question of whether or not ST:O actually uses PhysX, either GPU or CPU version.

Given that STO installs the PhysX modules along with the game, it's pretty obvious that it does. The "max physics debris objects" slider in video options is what adjusts the complexity.

the only thing i noticed what could be releated to PhysX are those debries chunks when you destroy the Borg Nodes in the Tutorial or when a Turret from an Engeneer get's destroyed.

When a Borg Cube explodes there is hardly any PhysX involved... would have been nice though.

I have the same card too, i have had zero problems either, until i got to one system, i forget its name, its the mission to goto Epok Nor.
If you are captain/admiral and havent been there. check it, see if you have prob's.