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121 Comments
- DSizzle, on 06/21/2008, -7/+147Can it do my physx homework?
- MavRevMatt, on 06/21/2008, -1/+61Someone correct me if I'm wrong but didn't they announce this almost a year ago?
- mark076h, on 06/20/2008, -0/+44this article claims you can decide how much processing power you want your card to dedicate to the physics/video , so you will be able to use it with a single card.
- eviljolly, on 06/21/2008, -1/+40Properly utilized, it probably COULD do some of it...
- beware001, on 06/21/2008, -1/+38not much of a gamer i see
- xartion, on 06/21/2008, -1/+34I believe that PhysX support works on select cards using the new 177.39 drivers at http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=264880
- wolferz, on 06/21/2008, -5/+38Er this has been happening since Half Life 2 came out. Only thing new is that you can apparently change the amount of vpu power given to physics calculations. And it's not PhysX style physics processing. That requires a separate processor with extra instructions and design changes to make it better at physics calculations, stuff that a vpu doesn't have. The article constantly misuses the brand name PhysX to describe any in game physics technology... by which usage Havoc, a competing technology of PhysX, would also be PhysX.
Also this method can not provide the functionality that a dedicate physics processor could. In fact it can only provide a fraction of what a dedicated physics processor would be able to do. The problem is that developers have not implemented any of the cools stuff because the cool stuff would make a PhysX card a rewqui9red item just to play the game. Thus, currently, no implementation does anything more than allow you to track small objects that have absolutely no effect on the game world with more accurately and in greater number. Anything that would actually effect the game world... such as a falling building being able to knock you down without it being scripted (as opposed to just doing a bunch of damage like most games do it now) or having puzzles where you have to toss something in water and the current and other effects of the water have a realistic effect on the acceleration and movement of the object (as opposed to having it move at a set speed and angle, or at best accelerate based on a formula that assumes a lot of things are constant even if they aren't (like doing a cannon ball right next to the object that is floating))... would make the game only playable with a PhysX card. Even Valve's little see-saw puzzle would have required the PhysX card if it had been coded for it. This is the only reason the PhysX card has been relegated to inconsequential visual effects.
VPU/CPU based software-physics such as Havok can do many of the same things that a PhysX card could do... but not on the scale or with the detail it could. They have the advantage of being use able on any system with enough VPU (or CPU depending on the developers choices) power. There will never be enough VPU or CPU power combined to drive the ai and the graphics and do physics calculations such as dozens of ricocheting bullets based on the hardness of the material it just hit and the angle and also the deformation of the bullet itself while simultaneously calculating the location and direction of tiny flechettes from two frag grenades and the effect those would realistically have on the tissue of a human body all at the same time. Stuff like that will require a dedicated processor. - ExRe, on 06/21/2008, -1/+25Only if you can write a computer program to analyze your homework and do it for you...
But I doubt your homework is harder than that. - troysteinbauer, on 06/21/2008, -1/+20Yes
- Equinox1, on 06/21/2008, -7/+23This is actually pretty old news. But it's convenient and cool anyway.
- Purin, on 06/21/2008, -0/+16Yes, but the drivers were just released recently.
- maexus, on 06/21/2008, -1/+17Just give it 5-10 years. I'm sure that's what people said about 3d cards.
- bsonline, on 06/21/2008, -1/+15Lots of in game physics involve shortcuts and workarounds. Hence gravity and projectiles often being skewed... not to mention "damage" as it effects people and objects... This is a bad thing, detracting from some games more than graphics (oblivion, for example)... So, yeah, I'm happy to see that money I pump into PC gaming for the sake of more realism will bring me even more realism.
Added bonus - They could have put this as a new feature requiring upgrades for people to move into better physics. They didn't. They made this backwards compatible and are upgrading existing cards at no cost to the consumer. This, in case you can't tell, is way cool.
Meanwhile, I haven't read the article. I'm kind of confused, because I already have the PhysX emulation through my mobile nVidia card on my laptop. This is coming soon? - i4mt3hwin, on 06/21/2008, -0/+14I don't know why you're getting dugg down. The 177.39/177.35 drivers are the first to support PhysX on G92/GT200 hardware.
- Digitel, on 06/21/2008, -1/+14GPU's are a lot faster than cpu's
- justananomaly, on 06/21/2008, -3/+15Old news from beginning of the year, but need release date because I have 2 8800GTX's, ive been waiting since I first heard this. PhysX may not be completly nessessary but it does improve framerate when thing go flying around.
- newton64, on 06/21/2008, -1/+12"its"
- Exodin, on 06/21/2008, -1/+11Physics cards aren't necessary, that's why the idea of your GPU doing the physics processing is so exciting.
I think ATI is doing the same thing but with Havoc Physics (Havok powers all my favorite games, too bad I use Nvidia cards) - bratterscain, on 06/21/2008, -0/+10Did you really just say that? So GPU's aren't made to calculate numbers? So they work with abstract data instead of strict mathematical data? And what does different architecture have to do with doing physics on the core of a cpu? Who is digging this guy up?
- mustafya, on 06/21/2008, -0/+9Supposedly it will at most be a 10% hit. So on my video card for say Age of Conan instead of 55 or fps I would get around 50fps. Not enough of a difference for me to notice.
- vondrak, on 06/21/2008, -0/+9yeah right now, but that's like saying my Atari 2600 handled graphics without a fancy graphics card.
By allowing an entire extra processor to do physics calculations you can do so many more calculations in real time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C6LrDzjfRw
I know its not a great quality video, I can't find the one comparing rolling rocks down a hill. - inactive, on 06/21/2008, -0/+9*covets his 8800 GTS*
- wrxpert, on 06/22/2008, -0/+8Sorry for long post but this should settle it.
The following games feature PhysX hardware support:[6]
* 2 Days to Vegas
* Adrenalin 2: Rush Hour
* Age of Empires III
* Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
* Alpha Prime
* Auto Assault
* Backbreaker
* B.A.S.E. Jumping
* Bet on Soldier: Blackout Saigon
* Bet on Soldier: Blood of Sahara
* Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport
* Beowulf
* Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War
* Captain Blood
* Cellfactor: Combat Training
* Cellfactor: Revolution
* City of Villains
* Crazy Machines II
* Cryostasis
* Dark Physics
* Desert Diner
* Dragonshard
* Dusk 12
* Empire Above All
* Empire Earth III
* Entropia Universe
* Fallen Earth
* Fury
* Gears Of War
* Gluk'Oza: Action
* GooBall
* Gothic 3
* Gunship Apocalypse
* Heavy Rain
* Hero's Jorney
* Hour of Victory
* Huxley
* Infernal
* Inhabited island: Prisoner of Power
* Joint Task Force
* KumaWAR
* Magic ball 3
* Mass Effect
* Medal of Honor: Airborne
* Metro 2033
* Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire
* Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia
* Monster Truck Maniax
* Myst_Online:_Uru_Live
* Open Fire
* Paragraph 78
* Pirates of the Burning Sea
* PT Boats: Knights of the Sea
* Rail Simulator
* Red Steel
* Rise Of Nations: Rise Of Legends
* Roboblitz
* Sacred 2
* Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
* Showdown: Scorpion
* Silverfall
* Sovereign Symphony
* Sonic and the Secret Rings
* Speedball 2
* Stoked Rider: Alaska Alien
* Switchball
* Tension
* The Hunt
* The Stalin Subway
* Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
* Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
* Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
* Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
* Tortuga: Two Treasures
* Two Worlds
* Ultra Tubes
* Unreal Tournament 3
* Unreal Tournament 3: Extreme Physics Mod
* Warfare
* Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction
* W.E.L.L. Online
* Winterheart's Guild
* WorldShift - tnoy, on 06/21/2008, -0/+7Its only a problem if you're one of those retards that think you need to have 150 FPS in all your games.
- equinoxChild, on 06/22/2008, -0/+6CPU's do calculations elementally, like a*b, where a and b are single numbers. GPUs are good at doing calculations on arrays (due to their stream processing) which is more common in physics, especially when finding non-linear solutions.
Since GPU's can compute on larger data sets faster, they tend to be better for graphics and physics calculations, as well as economic analysis (as mentioned in the article). - eviljolly, on 06/21/2008, -1/+7Yes, it will put on a nice slideshow for you.
- RonnyN, on 06/21/2008, -1/+7"GPUs"
- Terr01, on 06/21/2008, -2/+8*covets his neighbor's 8800 GTS*
- bratterscain, on 06/21/2008, -1/+7....for games that support it. There's not many right now.
- noerrorsfound, on 06/21/2008, -0/+6[apostrophe police]
Correction: "its GPUs"
[/apostrophe police] - arjie, on 06/21/2008, -0/+6Hmm, I read a while ago that this was possible with cards from both major companies by using Havok FX.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20 ...
However that article seemed to imply that this was only for fancy effects, not for actual gameplay physics. - xerox, on 06/21/2008, -0/+6Not until you try the new Vape-o-Ware pci-e card.
- inactive, on 06/22/2008, -1/+7Thou shalt not!
- inactive, on 06/21/2008, -0/+5No problem there, I'm on a SLI setup with two 8800 GT. Believe me, I don't need both, using one of them as a PhysX card would be a big bonus!
- ch4os1337, on 06/21/2008, -4/+9If you check your systems specs and look under "Physics Card" You will see if your gpu has this or not. I know for a fact that my 9800gtx has it.
- zerokoolin, on 06/21/2008, -0/+4when intel bought Havok they stopped work on Havok FX
- Fihiro, on 06/21/2008, -1/+5Question, what if you have 4 core CPU, couln't you allocate 1 core for physics, or any remaining unused calculations?
I crank up physics in crysis with no adverse affect on my gaming (using 8400gs)
Mabye someone can clear it up for me - Fergy, on 06/22/2008, -1/+5Intel bought havok.
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20 ... - GrizzlyWG, on 06/22/2008, -0/+4ATI has entered into an agreement with Havoc (owned by Intel)
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_conte ... - starkes, on 06/21/2008, -1/+5this will lead to serious *****.
things like nvidia gpu support for folding@home are making good use of such advances.
and theres no reason not to take an extra feature. - trippinlikegod, on 06/21/2008, -1/+5Umm you might want to check into your last statement there. There's a LOT of titles that either support PhysX or Havoc and ATI is planning to incorporate hardware Havoc support on their 4xxx series cards.
- Justice101, on 06/21/2008, -3/+7But then aren't you cutting into you graphics calculating horsepower? So to equal having PhysX card you need to buy another one...wait why can't the cpu handle the PhysX?
- MonkeyFarts, on 06/21/2008, -0/+4You do understand the part that says that they're adding PhysX support into *existing graphics cards,* yes? Meaning all you have to buy is a graphics card, just like always?
- bar10dr, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3I can't wait for the day where I have to buy four graphics cards in order to see a game in all it's glory.
The industry is not doing itself any favors going down this road, where only the hard core players who pour all their money into their rig can get it all. - eviljolly, on 06/21/2008, -1/+4You can't run vaporware...
- Jonez176, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3On the contrary, this is actually a money-saving maneuver. A chip dedicated to physics has the potential to perform much faster than the standard, more expensive, CPU. Basically, if/when this goes mainstream, your computer will be cheaper and have better performance.
Of course, this technology will be expensive before it goes mainstream, and it will likely take quite a few years... This is coming from someone who has designed computer chips. - mCanada, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3So what are some good games to try this on? *wonders if my craptastic 8500GT is even worth bothering
- MonkeyFarts, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3If you can figure out how to hide an entire gaming rig out of view and successfully use it to cheat on a test, please get a hold of me and tell me your secret. That would make you a freaking Houdini!
- MavRevMatt, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3Ah, okay. The title made it sound like it was a new thing. Thanks.
- cherwilco, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3the thumbnail submitted looks dirty
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