Allright, I thought people might like to debate whether this new add in card technology is totally awesome or totally stupid.
For anybody who doesn't know, Ageia is developing an add in card (PCIe x1 i believe, at least initially) that will be dedicated entirely to physics calculations, and will have its own dedicated memory, just like a GPU. This should allow for much more realistic in-game physics, enabling hundreds of times the number of objects to be realistically rendered, and should allow for more interactive environments (think HL2 times 100!). Engines like Unreal 3 will support the technology as optional, and future games might eventually be built with it as a requirement, integrating the technology much more deeply.
Anyways, what does everybody think? I think it's pretty damn cool, and i hope it takes off. As long as prices aren't too prohibitive (I think $100 is a good price point), I think it could be the next big thing. Maybe graphics companies will even team up and offer GPUs with PPUs integrated on the same board.
For anybody who doesn't know, Ageia is developing an add in card (PCIe x1 i believe, at least initially) that will be dedicated entirely to physics calculations, and will have its own dedicated memory, just like a GPU. This should allow for much more realistic in-game physics, enabling hundreds of times the number of objects to be realistically rendered, and should allow for more interactive environments (think HL2 times 100!). Engines like Unreal 3 will support the technology as optional, and future games might eventually be built with it as a requirement, integrating the technology much more deeply.
Anyways, what does everybody think? I think it's pretty damn cool, and i hope it takes off. As long as prices aren't too prohibitive (I think $100 is a good price point), I think it could be the next big thing. Maybe graphics companies will even team up and offer GPUs with PPUs integrated on the same board.
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