Ageia PhysX PPU may not change the way we play or add any immersion like good acting, story and good dialogues (all which Doom 3 lacked compared to System Shock 2) but we don't know that yet! I believe a PPU can add thousand times more excitement to a game than a regular GPU can.
- The lack of a real write-back method on the GPU is also going to hurt it in the world of physics processing for sure. Since pixel shaders are read-only devices, they can not write back results that would change the state of other objects in the "world", a necessary feature for a solid physics engine on all four counts.
- Another interesting issue that AGEIA brought up is that since the Havok FX API, and any API that attempts to run physics code on a GPU, has to map their own code to a Direct3D API using Shader Models then as shader models change, code will be affected. This means that the Havok FX engine will be affected very dramatically every time Microsoft makes changes to D3D and NVIDIA and ATI makes changes in their hardware for D3D changes (ala DX10 for Vista). This might create an unstable development platform for designers that they may wish to avoid and stick with a static API like the one AGEIA has on their PhysX PPU.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=225&type=expert
This is PC gaming. We buy expensive upgrades because we like to feel the improvements. Its like tuning a car, just better hehe. We get all the new game technology first like 3D-games (Doom), 3D accellerating (GPU), 3D audio etc. We have communities. I have an Xbox and my friend a Playstation 2. Yet we only play PC (windows grrr) games when hes visiting, Starcraft, UT 2004 online, Quake 1 and 2 coop, Quake 3, Freelancer coop/online, Battlefield 2, Serious Same 2 coop, System Shock 2 coop etc.
We have no idea what can be concieved if the game engine is hardware accellerated. The Ageia PPU is higly programmable and we don't know yet what parts of a game can be accellerated and enhanched. I hope the Ageia PhysX PPU become part of DirectX and this GPU-as-PPU dies out. The GPU didn't just offload the CPU, it added new possibilities. NVIDIA and ATI obviously doesn't want the community to shift focus from GPU to PPU and discover the GPU is only fillrate, fancy texture effects and antialiasing. NVIDIA and ATI doesn't wanto sell less, business must grow. But I would hope they would release a real PPU instead of this GPU-as-PPU.
If I want tetris I go Consol, if I want new experiences I go PC. OK A bit trolling I am I guess but you get my picture.
However the Ageia PhysX PPU may not be that good either, there are some pauses issue when a big explotion goes off in CellFactor, and isn't the PCI bus already saturated with online gaming and soundcards?
And the Ageia solver is broken. I don't know what that means I just want the best possible solution for physics and games for the PC not any VHS vs BetaMax pls.
- The lack of a real write-back method on the GPU is also going to hurt it in the world of physics processing for sure. Since pixel shaders are read-only devices, they can not write back results that would change the state of other objects in the "world", a necessary feature for a solid physics engine on all four counts.
- Another interesting issue that AGEIA brought up is that since the Havok FX API, and any API that attempts to run physics code on a GPU, has to map their own code to a Direct3D API using Shader Models then as shader models change, code will be affected. This means that the Havok FX engine will be affected very dramatically every time Microsoft makes changes to D3D and NVIDIA and ATI makes changes in their hardware for D3D changes (ala DX10 for Vista). This might create an unstable development platform for designers that they may wish to avoid and stick with a static API like the one AGEIA has on their PhysX PPU.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=225&type=expert
This is PC gaming. We buy expensive upgrades because we like to feel the improvements. Its like tuning a car, just better hehe. We get all the new game technology first like 3D-games (Doom), 3D accellerating (GPU), 3D audio etc. We have communities. I have an Xbox and my friend a Playstation 2. Yet we only play PC (windows grrr) games when hes visiting, Starcraft, UT 2004 online, Quake 1 and 2 coop, Quake 3, Freelancer coop/online, Battlefield 2, Serious Same 2 coop, System Shock 2 coop etc.
We have no idea what can be concieved if the game engine is hardware accellerated. The Ageia PPU is higly programmable and we don't know yet what parts of a game can be accellerated and enhanched. I hope the Ageia PhysX PPU become part of DirectX and this GPU-as-PPU dies out. The GPU didn't just offload the CPU, it added new possibilities. NVIDIA and ATI obviously doesn't want the community to shift focus from GPU to PPU and discover the GPU is only fillrate, fancy texture effects and antialiasing. NVIDIA and ATI doesn't wanto sell less, business must grow. But I would hope they would release a real PPU instead of this GPU-as-PPU.
If I want tetris I go Consol, if I want new experiences I go PC. OK A bit trolling I am I guess but you get my picture.
However the Ageia PhysX PPU may not be that good either, there are some pauses issue when a big explotion goes off in CellFactor, and isn't the PCI bus already saturated with online gaming and soundcards?
And the Ageia solver is broken. I don't know what that means I just want the best possible solution for physics and games for the PC not any VHS vs BetaMax pls.