PhysX Accelerators: Which games?

geeza said:
ok then, so what would happen if you had one of these card and had all the fancy physics on but i didnt as i dont have a card. Then (taking it to a simple level) if you shot a barrel at my face, i wouldnt be able to see it as i dont have physics on so would i just die?

All physics objects that are an integral part of gameplay (as in not just a visual effect) will also be able to run in software mode. There's no way they would release a game with such obvious flaws for people who don't have a physX card. Unless it required one for the game to work but I can't see that happening until these things become mainstream.

I think it's a good start that there's already a decent sized list of games that will support these. Hopefully in a few years an open standard will emerge so different chip manufacturers will be able to make compatible chips.
 
Psyk said:
All physics objects that are an integral part of gameplay (as in not just a visual effect) will also be able to run in software mode.

thats what i dont understand. how they will achieve this software mode compaired to hardware mode. (as its not like turning fancy graphics things off)
 
Psyk said:
All physics objects that are an integral part of gameplay (as in not just a visual effect) will also be able to run in software mode. There's no way they would release a game with such obvious flaws for people who don't have a physX card. Unless it required one for the game to work but I can't see that happening until these things become mainstream.

if you check the vids on the ageia site you'll see how it works, in ghost recon a grenade is fired at a vehicle and it explodes a bit, debris goes flying etc. but with the physx card it's a big hollywood-style explosion and looks much more impressive. the game works perfectly fine without the card, it's like HDR, its an option you can make use of or not, look at DOD, u can have it on if your card runs it okay, if not u can still play as usual but it won't have the bells and whistles.
 
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I hope it's not one of these gimmick things in which you have to have certain hardware to use a certain function even though it woulld run fine without it. I.E the Skype Inter issue in which AMD CPU's were denied from using such a feature, even though technaly they could.
 
geeza said:
thats what i dont understand. how they will achieve this software mode compaired to hardware mode. (as its not like turning fancy graphics things off)
The same way physics are done without a physX card. The work will just been done by the CPU instead, which will result in slower frame rates as it takes the CPU longer to do the same calculations. But since some physics effects won't actually affect gameplay and are purely visual then they can just be turned off.
 
what about dual cpus , why cant they just use the second cpu too doo the physics bits ?

that way people arnt paying 200 quid for a card that can only be used for one thing :/

seems silly to me
 
andy8271 said:
what about dual cpus , why cant they just use the second cpu too doo the physics bits ?

that way people arnt paying 200 quid for a card that can only be used for one thing :/

seems silly to me

That has been discussed previously in the physx discussions...

The thing is, a general CPU is built to handle a tonne of different operations with different tricks and techniques to speed them up.

If you could build a processor for an individual task, such as physx, or graphics, or AI, or even different processors for image editing, video encoding.. you can tremendously increase the speed at which those operations are completed because the CPU has an exact design to complete said tasks quickly, without the compromising aspects a general CPU has to include.
 
^ so perhaps soon their will be a card for about 10 different things? then in a few more years the 10 things will be added to a single chip (cpu)

so, why dont manufacturers add physics, ai etc processs to cpu's that are being made/developed now?
 
It's just the next step in computer gaming. Games graphics are slowing in their improvements. The thing that is improving is interaction with the game world it's self. Most games now come with the slogan "Improved physics" or something similar.

I think that 200 quid for something that you can't really use is a little OTT having said that look when the x1900xt graphics cards came out they were 411 quid and now they're 350ish. Prices are always high at the start to get as much money out of early adopters as possible. See how prices are in a few months and if any games are out. UT2007 is ment to be out around September.

Jim
 
PC gamers are a minority, you cannot build this stuff into the CPU as it would be wasted on most people.

But I do agree that this may not take off. If it was under £100 would be a bit more useful. They are gonna have to try hard to beat Nvidia and ATI. They have a much stronger position as they can just shove it on the card, I imagine it is also easier for them to get dev support but we will see how it goes.
 
Ageia give their very nice physx software out to developers for free! These developers as you can imagine are more than happy to use this free software rather than having to pay out for another physics engine such as havok... which isnt even on the same level imo.

Games made with their API can run in both software and hardware which i think gives ageia quite a big advantage in the future!

Shed loads of info here... http://personal.inet.fi/atk/kjh2348fs/ageia_physx.html
 
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n3x said:
Ageia give their very nice physx software out to developers for free! These developers as you can imagine are more than happy to use this free software rather than having to pay out for another physics engine such as havok... which isnt even on the same level imo.

Games made with their API can run in both software and hardware which i think gives ageia quite a big advantage in the future!

Shed loads of info here... http://personal.inet.fi/atk/kjh2348fs/ageia_physx.html

plus its in the playstation 3, so i'm sure developers will make use of it
 
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