Physicx cards

[nvening]

Whats the latest on this tec? Las i heard was christma but now everything has disappeared

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

[NikolaX]

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=2724&s=1
still Christmas release.

[unreal]

Ha yea I was wondering this some time ago too, it's just suddenly died :I

I wonder if the Xbox360/PS3 would have got a large benifit from this card... I can imagine some kind of gta game, and the amount of flying bodies after rocket launchers etc...

[dangel]

Ha yea I was wondering this some time ago too, it's just suddenly died :I

I wonder if the Xbox360/PS3 would have got a large benifit from this card... I can imagine some kind of gta game, and the amount of flying bodies after rocket launchers etc...

The question i've got:

If the consoles don't have it, will ports of console games be more likely just to use a second core on a PC for physics/ai?

[GuruJockStrap]

If we were all going to be stuck on signle core CPU's for the next 10 years, I could see the point of this.

But as the number of dual core users increase, do we need it?

We already have graphics taken away from the CPU and the same with sound (more so with Creative and the new X-Fi range), surely a dual core CPU from AMD or Intel would be more than enough to create fantastic physics in games?

[unreal]

Well the PhysX core is especially made for solely the task of physics simulation, it doesn't operate the same way normal CPU's do, so its bound to do many things better than a 2nd core of a CPU and many other tasks really poorly.

[ed^chigliak]

Yes a dedicated physics processor designed for this specific task will be much faster than a CPU which is more general purpose.

A CPU can render graphics... a dual CPU could do a bit better but even dual is nowhere near as fast as a GPU.

If a PPU will give me more cars in a driving sim without slow down I'll take it. If it can do me more ground objects in a flight sim without slow down I'll take it.

I could be needing a PPU alot more than I need a 2nd graphics card. It has the potential to enhance the game experience more so than a few extra FPS or widescreen resolution.

[Mafney]

What seems to be happening to me anyway, is that companys seems to be advancing graphics and realism on and on while processors don't seem to be moving along with them.

Could this become a problem soon of CPU's not being able to keep up with the ever increasing super-fast graphics cards.



This may only be me, and probably is only me who see's this but, oh well.

[unreal]

I think intel and AMD have done all they can with their current CPU's, but new architecture and CPU's such as the Xbox360 PPC CPU, and of course the Sony's Cell chip would maybe help pave the future. It's like AMD and Intel have both reached a slowdown point now, as they near the roof. But nowadays CPU's hardly aid gaming performance, it's all about the graphics card mostly. So I don't really know what my opinion is on that, I wouldn't say that CPU's can't keep up in a certain sense, but there is room for far faster processors out there.

[demonwolf]

Yes a dedicated physics processor designed for this specific task will be much faster than a CPU which is more general purpose.

A CPU can render graphics... a dual CPU could do a bit better but even dual is nowhere near as fast as a GPU.

If a PPU will give me more cars in a driving sim without slow down I'll take it. If it can do me more ground objects in a flight sim without slow down I'll take it.

I could be needing a PPU alot more than I need a 2nd graphics card. It has the potential to enhance the game experience more so than a few extra FPS or widescreen resolution.

Not so sure that a PPU would neccesarily give you more cars or more ground detail in games or more of anything, as that would mean more to draw on screen, more polygons; more of a GPU's role. What it would mean is realistic interactions between objects.
Fracturing of objects as they are struck determined by the type of material the simulation is modelling. A missile flying through the sky with its exhaust dissipating realistically the flight of the missile being more accurate and the enemy plane breaking up and exploding more realistically as it is hit. With a PPU it might be feasible to have a FPS with fully deformable surroundings. Keep shooting at a tree and youll leave a deeper and deeper hole. Set off a dynamite charge near a wall and watch it realistically blow up and if its a supporting wall watch as the building comes down in a physically real way.
Watch as a tank drives through a wall or over a car crushing it and deforming it in a believable way. What it comes down to is making the simulations act that much more like real life other than just looking more like real life.

[merlin2001]

PPU's are an interesting concept. i wonder how it will be implemented in games though - physics is pretty intergral to the game. I can't see how a two-tier system would work where one tier caters to gamers without a PPU and one with a PPU. but if PPU's are to be successful, this will initially be needed (similiar to when the 1st 3d accelerators came out - there has to be a benefit to being an early adopter of the PPU, but at the same time, existing set-ups have to be catered too as well for a game to sell)... ...only if the people behind the PPU can get game developers to offer benefit to the early adopters, will this intriguing and potentially v.useful technology survive. (or, at least that's my two cents...)

[nvening]

I think ill miss ne for christmas and see how they are going for my b day in may.

How are these parellel HDD going for MP3 players, or should i just get an HD5 and shut up?

[Butcher]

I'd wait until some games come out which use these before you dash out and buy one.

[Ravens Nest]

I'd wait until some games come out which use these before you dash out and buy one.

Exactly i wouldnt want to buy one of these and have no games that support it for 6 months and then by the time games came out that supported it would be half the price

My understanding is if you have one now it wont effect your existing games, they would have to be patched to support it.
(Bit like having carmaggedon for DOS and it wasnt playable at 640x480 then the 3DFX patch appeared and suddenly it was like playing the arcade)