Physics Processing Units Arriving

[CSN NewsBot]

Not really Counter-Strike related, but this bit of news seemed to be worthwhile to post here. AGEIA sent out a press release today (courtesy of Shacknews) announcing the availability of their new PhysX PPU card.



A dedicated physics processing card will free up the CPU to work on other tasks for gameplay (AI being one such task), and allow for thousands of physics enabled objects in one scene at a time.

With the PhysX accelerator installed in their PCs, gamers can now have different experiences every time they play a game. For example explosions will be in real-time and specific to the interaction of objects, not just replays of the same animation over and over again. Now game objects can smash, bounce, deform, shatter or explode and cause a different chain reaction every time, depending on physical laws such as force, speed, volume, pressure, or density.

The initial release of the stand alone PPU cards are in the $300(USD) range. A handful of game companies have already started to incorporate additional physics into their games to make use of the incredible processing power. So far, there hasn't been much word from Valve on future incorporation of PPU support, but I don't think it'd be that bad of an idea (Mmm, fully destructable environments).



I do love technology!

[Deletable_Man]

I want to see realistic wind and water physics. And I don't want no excuses, DEVELOPERS!



Oh, and fully destructable environments are pretty bitchin' too.

[tonjohn]

I already purchased my card, can't wait until it arrives in the mail!

[hahnchen]

Will only games using Ageia's proprietary physics middleware be compatable with the card?

[tonjohn]

hahnchen wrote..

Will only games using Ageia's proprietary physics middleware be compatable with the card?

Yes. But this includes quite a hefty list of games :)

[[GH]-Paladin]

this seems like a big step..maybe i'm missing something but what kind of slot do you need for this?

[tonjohn]

Just regular 'ol PCI

[FightingChance]

Awesome, a physics card for as much as an Xbox 360 core system.



RIP PC gaming.

[tonjohn]

PC gaming is actually more popular today than it has ever been in the past.

[FightingChance]

Correction, addictive MMORPG's are more popular than ever. The big publishers are moving to console because of brighter profit prospects. A small plus to this the opening of PC gaming to very small developers.

[hahnchen]

Nah, I'm not going to bother with Ageia right now. It's the "tied to a proprietary system" drawback which I don't like. It's attempting to monopolise any sort of market for physics products by forcing games to use their technology. Now whereas I'm sure Duke Nukem Forever will look amazing with this card, I'll wait until DNF actually comes out before making a decision.

[tonjohn]

All games based on the Unreal Engine 3.0 will have support for the PPU (Unreal 2k7 and Alan Wake). City of Villians has PPU support. The new Ghost Recon has PPU support. Many of the biggest names in the gaming industry are backing this tech. You would be a fool to not get one.

[thepingofdeath]

Or you don't have cash to blow on something like that. The whole concept is stupid, IMO. In an age where dual-core is becoming the norm, game developers that support this tech would do well to also allow you to put the processes that would end up on the PPU on a separate core, since 99% of all PC games are still single-threaded.

[3unknown3]

I think this is going way overboard, but I guess that's what happens as newer and newer technologies come out.

[Zips]

thepingofdeath wrote..

Or you don't have cash to blow on something like that. The whole concept is stupid, IMO. In an age where dual-core is becoming the norm, game developers that support this tech would do well to also allow you to put the processes that would end up on the PPU on a separate core, since 99% of all PC games are still single-threaded.

And yet it's still severely limited. You can't have a fully destructable enironment, real physics particles, real water simulation on one core. You'd have a couple hundred physics objects in a scene whereas a dedicated card can push multiple thousands of physics enabled objects.