[OT] Physics Processor?

[EAGLE_01]

Thanks for the replies.

So, essentially, none of our simulations, (SH3/4, LOMAC/Black Shark, FSX,the next Oleg Maddox IL2/BoB) are currently written to use a PPU at this time? It's somewhere down the road?:hmm:

Wow.. it has a Lifetime Warranty...

[XanderF]

While the physics card is really quite useless, the company also makes video cards, which ARE very important. And video cards from BFG, eVGA, and XFX have lifetime warranties.

XFX calls theirs 'double lifetime' - lifetime for you, and if you sell the card, the second hand buyer gets a lifetime warranty, too. eVGA and BFG also tend to 'upgrade' you if you have a much older part that dies (IE., if the card you have is out of production and they cannot replace it with the same model, they replace it with a similar model of the current gen).

[EAGLE_01]

I'm looking forward to my next video card. And, although I love AMD processors, I have always steered clear of ATI cards, and this last one I bought because it was all I could afford that was AGP, etc...is THE LAST ATI card I will ever buy.
NVIDIA is hands-down the best.

[Typhaon]

The power of this Ageia PhysX card is impressive... but like the others said... it's limited to very few games... as the name says it's only for physics in games and it can handle a lot of objects at a time... and most impressive the ability to calculate fluids in real time... but at the moment it is not worth, because there are too few games to play with it...
But if you want to take a look you can watch some videos at their homepage:
http://www.ageia.com/physx/videos.html

[JREX53]

According to the Advertisement, it is a PCI card - which ancient history in the PC world, especially for video cards. The newest and greatest form is the PCI-Express which is an entirely different slot than the PCI slot..

[SteamWake]

Only game that I know of that promotes this product is Rainbow Six GRAW.

I play GRAW without the physics processor and am happy with its performance.

I imagine though as games become more and more demanding it (the processor) will be a handy gizmoe and help with offloading the CPU to some degree.

Also note that games have to be designed to take advantage of the processor or else it is ignored.

[EAGLE_01]

Originally Posted by JREX53

According to the Advertisement, it is a PCI card - which ancient history in the PC world, especially for video cards. The newest and greatest form is the PCI-Express which is an entirely different slot than the PCI slot..

Roger that.

I was under the impression this was just a Physics processor..if not, why haven't the other big graphic card makers started pushing this along I wonder.

[EAGLE_01]

Just saw your post, SingeDebile.

That makes sense.

If you watch the Heavy Rain vid, I'm wondering if that detail would be present without the PhysX job..

It would be too great to have environments like that in our subs, or in flight sims..

[EAGLE_01]

Originally Posted by Typhaon

The power of this Ageia PhysX card is impressive... but like the others said... it's limited to very few games... as the name says it's only for physics in games and it can handle a lot of objects at a time... and most impressive the ability to calculate fluids in real time... but at the moment it is not worth, because there are too few games to play with it...
But if you want to take a look you can watch some videos at their homepage:
http://www.ageia.com/physx/videos.html

Thanks for that link. Some of those vids are pretty cool, but the one for "Heavy Rain" was VERY interesting.

I'm betting this will be weitten into most games before too long..I only hope Simulation Devs use it...

[Typhaon]

Originally Posted by EAGLE_01

Thanks for that link. Some of those vids are pretty cool, but the one for "Heavy Rain" was VERY interesting.

I'm betting this will be weitten into most games before too long..I only hope Simulation Devs use it...

I have already testet two games which support a PhysX card without it...
The first ist Roboblitz, a small game about a robot which saves the world... cute... but I could not see anything which would require special hardware... the second is Cellfactor... there was a public free beta out some time ago and I tested it...
first the game was slow as hell... ok my pc is already quite old (it can hardly handle SHIV) but it did take a lot of performance... the second thing is, that many features could not be uses without a PhysX card, like for example advanced particles, real time fluids or masses of objects calculated in real-time (there are levels, which cannot be played without a PhysX card...
But I think this kind of hardware will not be standard in the future... I think advanced processors and graphic-cards will do the job in the future...

[Typhaon]

Ah and i almost forgot... there are special clips showing a direct comparison between a scene with and without a PhysX card... it is noticable... but to be honest... I also thing some effects are overdone... to unrealistic... but still impressive:
http://www.ageia.com/physx/sbs.html