The PC games industry is going nuts, ridiculeing.. or just giving thier opinion on ATI's hardware physics solution. Meanwhile, Ageia, the company who origonally mentioned Hardware Physics shrugs it off like it's nothing. "We are happy they are into the idea, but we still do it better" (http://www.firingsquad.com/news/news...searchid=10584).
But the should be affraid. Why? Well let's take a look at the only game to use their hardware solution. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Many reports so far say that the PPU actually slows down your frame rate. Because it dosen't work? No... because it provides more eye-candy. Generates more objects, therefore it's a bigger load on the video card that has to process the extra objects that the PPU is generating. Many argue that with a PPU dedicated add on, The physics that it helps process can only add eye candy, and will never come into play, because they can't count on everyone to have one.
But the way to make something like this useful, is to put the physics in the game, regardless. Make it like Half-Life 2, or F.E.A.R. where the physics are part of the game, wether you like it or not. But what's something both of those have in common? Their Physics are done by Havok. Now, Ageia, their solution is only available on thier own hardware. While, now.. both of the high-end graphics cards can be used to excellerate Havok FX. So Havok has the background of being supported by the industry for a few years already, and has more compatability. And simply it works very well without excelleration. What PPUs are going to for, espically for at least 5 years, is to speed up framerates.
So that gives Agiea 2 choices. A) open thier engine to be accelrated like Havok FX's, though GPU power. I mean... logic does dictate that dedicated hardware will always run it faster and better..... but $300 and another used up PCI slot for a tad more eye candy is a hard sell to those beyond the hardcore of the hardcore. But to say that, you can offload some to unused GPU, or use your Old GPU as a PPU... That's a bit easier to work with.. And the more people with the ability, the more it is used. Second choice is to let their PPU run Havok FX. More compatability in games, makes it more valuable and attractive to gamers. And the speed of it being dedicated will deffinatly sell. I mean, look at what happend in the world of 3D graphics and 3D sound. What happend to Glide, Rendition Redline, Number Nine Ticket To Ride... or A3D. Creative has the brand recognition that made the infirior EAX dominate. But there has been Microsoft's DirectSound3D
Which brings about the 3rd posibility. Microsoft has hinted that they will impliment a physics accelerator API in the new verison of DirectX. And who knows.. someone may be working on OpenPL..... So a standard may make it all Moot. It will support GPU acceleration, and Agiea's Hardware PPU.
But the should be affraid. Why? Well let's take a look at the only game to use their hardware solution. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Many reports so far say that the PPU actually slows down your frame rate. Because it dosen't work? No... because it provides more eye-candy. Generates more objects, therefore it's a bigger load on the video card that has to process the extra objects that the PPU is generating. Many argue that with a PPU dedicated add on, The physics that it helps process can only add eye candy, and will never come into play, because they can't count on everyone to have one.
But the way to make something like this useful, is to put the physics in the game, regardless. Make it like Half-Life 2, or F.E.A.R. where the physics are part of the game, wether you like it or not. But what's something both of those have in common? Their Physics are done by Havok. Now, Ageia, their solution is only available on thier own hardware. While, now.. both of the high-end graphics cards can be used to excellerate Havok FX. So Havok has the background of being supported by the industry for a few years already, and has more compatability. And simply it works very well without excelleration. What PPUs are going to for, espically for at least 5 years, is to speed up framerates.
So that gives Agiea 2 choices. A) open thier engine to be accelrated like Havok FX's, though GPU power. I mean... logic does dictate that dedicated hardware will always run it faster and better..... but $300 and another used up PCI slot for a tad more eye candy is a hard sell to those beyond the hardcore of the hardcore. But to say that, you can offload some to unused GPU, or use your Old GPU as a PPU... That's a bit easier to work with.. And the more people with the ability, the more it is used. Second choice is to let their PPU run Havok FX. More compatability in games, makes it more valuable and attractive to gamers. And the speed of it being dedicated will deffinatly sell. I mean, look at what happend in the world of 3D graphics and 3D sound. What happend to Glide, Rendition Redline, Number Nine Ticket To Ride... or A3D. Creative has the brand recognition that made the infirior EAX dominate. But there has been Microsoft's DirectSound3D
Which brings about the 3rd posibility. Microsoft has hinted that they will impliment a physics accelerator API in the new verison of DirectX. And who knows.. someone may be working on OpenPL..... So a standard may make it all Moot. It will support GPU acceleration, and Agiea's Hardware PPU.
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