When are physics cards going to take off?

jim5000 · 2 Jun 2006 at 01:14

If at all? They are on sale already, but it obviously isn't worth getting one until their are games that support it. Are there going to be many games that support them in the near future? I can't imagine developers making games for a card which most people don't have. Physics are integral to the game, so I can't see how they can be scaled, ala graphics, for those without them, or those with older cards a few generations down the line...

PC games aren't the highest selling, and putting out a game that will probably cost a lot to develop (because it's using brand new hardware\software ), which requires an expensive card that most don't have doesn't seem such a good idea?

nin9abadga · 2 Jun 2006 at 08:25

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter uses it, about the only game that does i think atm. it's bundled on the front of overclockers today.

according to some of the feedback on the forums i've read the physics card doesn't improve things and actually makes it worse in some cases. it's like everything, with new technology there are always teething problems and these early adopters will iron them out for us people who are slower on the uptake

nin9a

Psyk · 2 Jun 2006 at 08:37

Some physics effects can be scaled down, if they are purely visual. For example you could have grass that moves and deforms as you move through it, or if blood uses fluid physics it could be replaced by the standard sprite method. I think UE3 will be able to use it and since it's such a popular engine a lot of games might use one.

AS_Dodger · 2 Jun 2006 at 08:59

City of Heroes/Villains uses it pretty extensively in the upcoming issue 7. Things like explosions blowing leaves off trees, mailboxes exploding and throwing letters everywhere etc.

Lagmeister · 2 Jun 2006 at 09:17

UT2007 is going to make or break the PhysX cards, if it performs like a pile of steaming dog leftovers like on GRAW while playing it with enhanced physics then the whole thing will be a complete flop.

WHAT!!! · 2 Jun 2006 at 09:30

I remember watching the E3 video from gamespot about this card and i think they said there was 6 or 8 games already out which make uses of this card with many more being made to use it such as UT07.

I think it will really start to take off when the damn prices become reasonable

I would definately start to think about including one of these cards if it was £100 or less.

I'll be shocked if Crysis does'nt use this card as the amount of pyhics what will be in this game will make it worthwhile having such a card.

n3x · 2 Jun 2006 at 09:53

crysis doesnt use a physx card so be shocked

Sleepery · 2 Jun 2006 at 10:18

When are physics cards going to take off?

When pigs do

Black Dog · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:22

I don't think it will.

If I want 2 cards in my pc then I'll go SLI instead

.

Rilot · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:25

I don't think they will ever take off. With dual and quad core CPUs rapidly becomming the norm, and with the difficulty in coding games to be multi threaded, I expect that coders will put that second, third, and fourth CPU to creating the physics.

Stellios · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:31

I dont think they will, if GRAW is anything to go by, all they do is make a game look stupid with little ice cubes flying everywhere.

With quad core CPUs and GFX cards appearing i really cant see these taking off. They give very little visual or performance improvement. Its a toy for those that can afford anotehr £200 on to of what they already have.

Psyk · 2 Jun 2006 at 18:05

I think maybe a GPU based solution will catch on better. I think this is the idea Havok and Nvidia have been playing with. Instead of handing the work over to a seperate physics chip, it can be handled by the GPU since they are good at the type of calculations needed.

Buzza · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:35

I think 200 quid is way to much for a the card to become widespread enough to be worth supporting.

The first generation of these cards needed to be very cheap to get the ball rolling and into as many peoples PCs as possible. Like someone said, they should be part of a popular Graphics card.

masterk · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:54

I hope (and think) they dont, we dont need a extra £200 component in PC's.

LabR@t · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:54

it will go onto the GPU load

NV+ati have already hinted as much

locutus12 · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:54

When are physics cards going to take off?

masterk said:
I hope (and think) they dont, we dont need a extra £200 component in PC's.

as with the above poster, i too hope they dont for the same reasons... its all very well and good for the rich as they dont have to worry about what the hell they spend there cash on, but for 90% of pc games players who know enough about hardware, also know that adding another £200 to the price tag is simply adding another 200 reasons to sell up, quit PC`s and buy a Console.

imagine if you will, 2/3 years from now, if every time you upgrade your pc you needed to spend £1500 minimum to be compatible with the current games and capable of playing them to a high (not maximum, just good enough) standard on it and the games were unplayable at a decent quality level in under 9 months of purchase, that is where we are heading if we are not careful and that would kill the PC gaming markets for average joe like me who quite simply cant afford stupid addons like physics cards, i have other more important things to buy... like rent.

AS_Platinum · 2 Jun 2006 at 22:22

How exactly do these work, ie: how does it bridge itself between the g-card and the physics card, surely it must bottle-neck and is entirely dependent on how good your graphics card can output the movement of say "grass" plus the millions of other bits of movement to your monitor (if you get what I'm saying)

Seems a lot like a very old addon graphics card accelerator (can't remember the name) where you would plug the vga out from main graphics card to other card and from that card upto your monitor. (thats how I see it anyway)

locutus12 · 2 Jun 2006 at 22:46

AS_Platinum said:
Seems a lot like a very old addon graphics card accelerator (can't remember the name) where you would plug the vga out from main graphics card to other card and from that card upto your monitor. (thats how I see it anyway)

Orchid Ritcheous, and 3Dmaxi Gamer (which was the cheaper card) that tech spawned the idea for Voodoo to run 2 graphics cards in a single pc, and thus SLI was born. not many people seem to realise SLI is a decade old technology thats been cleverly revamped for modern use.

sajtion · 2 Jun 2006 at 22:53

i think the only reason this company is selling these graphics cards is to get bought out by ati or nvidia. i bet those guys can't wait for million sum offer

HangTime · 4 Jun 2006 at 09:33

I think the trouble is that the cards are currently priced too high for all but the most extravagant gamers to invest in. If you have an extra £200 to invest in a computer, that money would be much better spent getting a faster gfx card or CPU.

Then the fact that GPU manufacturers will be putting their own physics solutions on their cards causes further problems. By the time PhysX cards are well supported by games, this is likely to be on the horizon.

I still reckon physics accelerators might be best suited to soundcards (in the same way that gameports used to get bundled with them). People don't replace their soundcards very often, so it would be a great way of encouraging them to do so. There's nothing that really makes me want to move away from my Audigy2, but if I could get an X-Fi with physics accelerator onboard for a reasonable price then I'd definitely be interested.