Ageia PhysX ?

[+Major Lee]

Anyone using the Ageia PhysX card? I wonder flight sims, Strike Fighters in particular, might benefit from this type of hardware device... Or is it more hype than help... I do see this card is available on new Alienware systems.

 

http://www.ageia.com/

 

Comments please...

 

ML

[+FastCargo]

The game/sim would have to be built to take specific advantage of the card because it uses specific drivers.

 

Physics cards are already starting to fall out of consideration because of multi core CPUs showing up. It's just as productive to task a CPU with physics problems when you have multiple ones to choose from.

 

Save your money.

 

FastCargo

[gerald14]

Yes, save your money for some thing else. There is not alot of games that need Ageia PhysX cards. So just save for a better video card or a cpu.

[GrayGhost]

I have a PhysX card... As FastCargo said, a game needs to be written with the AGEIA SDK to take advantage of the PhysX chip. As an aside, a game that is written with the AGEIA SDK doesn't need the PhysX chip to run - it will simply use the CPU in its absence.

I think that a dedicated physics processor does have a place in flight sims, or any other kind of physics simulation. Althogh were are entering the era of multi-core CPUs, they still don't have as much processing power (for physics) as the PhysX chip.

Essentially what the PhysX chip does is handle collision detection and motion calculations. It also handles deformable meshes. Imagine a flight sim where you had true collision detection based on your plane model, and you don't have to do this:

 

CollisionPoint[001]=-1.40, 5.66,-0.91

CollisionPoint[002]= 1.40, 5.66,-0.91

CollisionPoint[003]= 1.23,-3.74,-1.17

CollisionPoint[004]=-1.23,-3.74,-1.17

CollisionPoint[005]= 0.00,-7.54, 0.50

CollisionPoint[006]= 1.21, 5.66, 0.53

CollisionPoint[007]=-1.21, 5.66, 0.53

 

Imagine that model deforming correctly when it gets hit by shrapnel; its wings flexing in a high-g turn or fluttering when you drop bombs; tails buffeting in high-alpha...

I think that if a sim were to be written with the AGEIA card in mind it could be truely awesome.

 

Dreams aside, until there are more games that use AGEIA, I would also recommend holding off on it - but if nobody buys it, who will program for it? ;) Catch 22.

[Wolf65]

I remember reading that either ATI or Nvidia, were planning on putting a physics chip on there cards to do the work, instead of people having to buy a seperate card.

Edited September 3, 2007 by Wolf65

[+Ruggbutt]

GRAW 2 uses Phys-X, but if you play m/p like I do alot of that Phys-X goodness is disabled.

[GrayGhost]

I remember reading that either ATI or Nvidia, were planning on putting a physics chip on there cards to do the work, instead of people having to buy a seperate card.

 

Not exactly. The GPU itself would be used for physics calculations (i.e. some of its power would be used for physics instead of graphics). This, in a way doesn't make much sense since, incidentally, the reason why games that can use the PhysX chip don't actually run faster (FPS) is because the additional particles and objects require more graphics horsepower to get rendered.

We'll see what happens...

[+Major Lee]

Well, it would seem that demands for computing power is spiralling upward, it just remains to be determined which piece of hardware will do the work... Thanks for the thoughtful replies..