The physics in Ageias PhysX in question?

[SteveOBHave]

Interesting to see the physcists are siding with the GPU physics gaming solution. Essentially saying that a PPU, whilst able to do more physics calculations, is directly influenced by the constraints of hardware defined algorithms as opposed to alterable algorithms used by GPU based physics.

Either way, hardware physics is here to stay...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/08/03/the_scientists_opinions_on_gaming_physics_uk/

Kenny Erleben, assistant professor at the Datalogical Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, is working on physics-based animation and simulation modelling. He says that from a researcher's theoretical viewpoint, and from what he's heard so far, the PhysX card doesn't look promising, for two main reasons. First, the physics algorithms are locked into the hardware, which prevents programmers from changing the algorithms if they find better ones. Second, as we mentioned earlier, the factors that influence physics cannot be simplified into an equation in a satisfying way. This basically means that you're stuck with what you have and cannot go forward.

 

[FreeStream]

Interesting. Could this nudge the physics card out of existance?

Edit: Then he says it should be handled by multi-core CPUs, somehow I agree :/

 

[SteveOBHave]

Interesting. Could this nudge the physics card out of existance?

Edit: Then he says it should be handled by multi-core CPUs, somehow I agree :/

mmm... I think that it is here to stay, one way or another, just not in the way that Ageia might like. I'd imagine that the PhysX card is well covered by a patent on both the hardware and the math and programming behind it. That counts for not a whole bunch if the patents are no longer relevant.

Personally it irks me that I have to spend any money on hardware physics acceleration idependant of either a GPU or the CPU. I'm more than happy to write it down to the money grubbing nature of the graphics card companies and the inherently lazy nature of game code (not the coders). Almost goes without saying that the current hardware can be much better utilised...

 

[FreeStream]

mmm... I think that it is here to stay, one way or another, just not in the way that Ageia might like. I'd imagine that the PhysX card is well covered by a patent on both the hardware and the math and programming behind it. That counts for not a whole bunch if the patents are no longer relevant.

Personally it irks me that I have to spend any money on hardware physics acceleration idependant of either a GPU or the CPU. I'm more than happy to write it down to the money grubbing nature of the graphics card companies and the inherently lazy nature of game code (not the coders). Almost goes without saying that the current hardware can be much better utilised...

Yep, everything is down to a budget If everything was perfectly coded then BF2 would work at high on a XP-M with a 9700 Pro

 

[SteveOBHave]

Yep, everything is down to a budget If everything was perfectly coded then BF2 would work at high on a XP-M with a 9700 Pro

LOL - lets not get too extreme here