Ahead of Nick's review of Warmonger, we re-examine PhysX

[HEXUS]

Intel's purchase of Havok has re-stimulated talk about in-game effects. Designed from the ground up to use PhysX, Warmonger is now available as a FREE DOWNLOAD (see below). We speak with Ageia to hear some remarkably honest self-appraisal.

Watch the show.

[Andrzej]

Figured that this one might be an idea to show now... cos the game if free !

Stick that one in yer stocking - alongside the socks, ties and Barry Manilow CDs

[adrian_gti]

nice video

I cant help think that we dont really need additional cards to do physics.. if game developers optimized their games for multi core in the first place we would have games full of special physics effects.... wouldn't we?

[noTHINGface]

... and with the recent Intel acquisition of Havok then I'm optimistic that this will now happen. PhysX is a redundant technology, I can't believe they keep pushing this dead horse. Multi-core CPUs are becoming more and more available and the majority of computers now a days are sold with multi-core. Use the extra cores to handle physics. It's common sense, additional add-in boards do not make sense (well, not to me anyway).

[[GSV]Trig]

I cant see it going very far tbh, graphics card's will start to incorporate this tech as they did in the past, look at how the 3Dfx cards were add-ons back in the P2/K6 days you had a 2d gfx card n a seperate 3d card, things should be going towards a 1 chip solution not a 3 chip solution as in the video, there doesnt need to be a CPU/GPU/PPU it should all be in a single die..

[Zak33]

if I am reading the stuff right, PhysX is going through it's second level of usefulness now. It is gonna be easier for the game company to use the PhysX code to get additional stuff moving/bouncing/swirling than it is to get the core to do it.

I think that's the idea.

However....my wallet is firmly NOT out.

[Andrzej]

I think the battle lines are (have) been drawn in a more subtle way

Until Intel's acquisition of Havok, the market value of Ageia was probably $10-12 million

However, with Pat Gelsinger speaking about Intel's Vision for Visualisation (HEXUS.tv :: Turn on technology), I'd imagine that any sale of Ageia will now be for 4-6x that value (i.e. $40-72M)

Looking at the PhysX card alone is not enough - you need to take into account that their technology (originally called Novodex - PhysX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) can also run in software (and - according to them - it will power at least half of the games due out in 2008)...

...PLUS, Sony have already licensed PhysX for their PlayStation 3 games (so it is not going away any time inside the next 4 years, if the PS2's life span is anything to go by)



My bet is that if nVidia or ATI had known that Intel were going to move for Havok...

...then one of them would happily have spent $12M to own the only mass-market competing technology

If that had been AMD - then the future could have looked bleak for nVidia - given that Intel could 'stylise' havok to take advantage of their multicore/chipset strategies - and AMD could have done the same

Integrating physics into the game code at such a level that there is no real option to 'turn it off', would mean that any head-2-head tests between 100% Intel or AMD machines - and a system using nVidia technology - would have been very one sided

But, in the present financial climate, I am not sure AMD HQ have the spare cash for this kind of acquisition


As far as 'regular applications' go, the SI/OEM/ODM deals are everything for Ageia

Just take the UK graphics card market for a second

DSG (in their various guises) probably sell around 1 million PCs a year - but only 100,000 graphic cards

In other words, graphic cards sold inside systems probably out-number ones sold in boxes by 10:1

I'd imagine that this is 20:1 (or more) for sound cards...

...and, probably, more that that for PhysX


The HP, Dell, Medion and Acer systems that pre-ship with PhysX will be driving sales for the company right now...

...but that is a 'mass volume - minute - margins' business...

...so attention will now turn to a process shrink from Ageia


If they can move down to a smaller process (e.g. 65nm), then the cost of the product will drop - and they can sell more

PLUS, if they can make it a 'chip on a mainboard' - or IP that they sell 'to be integrated' into someone elses northbridge or CPU - they that's 'the game' right there



We'll speak with Dan & Co soon into the new year to see which way the (partically enhanced) wind blows for them