Back when all the hoopla about DX12 first started, I remember I made a post stating that asynchronous compute could very well spell the end of GPU accelerated PhysX (which was restricted to CUDA) as we know it. Not an impressive prediction I will admit, and I can't even find the post anyway. But it definitely looks like my prediction is going to come through.
A few days ago, NVidia announced their DX12 Gameworks initiative, although it really didn't get much press it seems. But it does have the potential to be a big game changer in PC land.
The biggest and most impactful change by far, is that AMD hardware will finally be able to get in on the action. Which means, that developers will no longer need to have conniptions when deciding what IHV to whore themselves out to.......which means, that game technology will no longer be held back by targeted marketing.
Ultimately, this should theoretically result in not only better looking games, but more importantly, games will become much more physically based in terms of simulation. Realistic physics simulation has remained elusive over the years, mostly due to the average gamer's CPU (Ryzen making octacores more mainstream should help) not being powerful enough to run advanced physics simulations whilst actually running the game at the same time, and also because NVidia's GPU accelerated physics tech was locked down to CUDA, a proprietary technology.
Not to mention that for a long time, one needed a dedicated PhysX GPU to really reap the benefits of hardware accelerated physics, which just wasn't feasible for most gamers. Now though, DX12 and asynchronous compute has changed this. Now it will be possible to have an AMD and NVidia system running hair and cloth simulation using DX12 compute, with very little or no performance hit. Water and smoke will be harder, but as GPUs become more powerful, eventually even they will be mastered.
So knowingly or unknowingly, Microsoft has solved the physics problem with DX12!
A few days ago, NVidia announced their DX12 Gameworks initiative, although it really didn't get much press it seems. But it does have the potential to be a big game changer in PC land.
The biggest and most impactful change by far, is that AMD hardware will finally be able to get in on the action. Which means, that developers will no longer need to have conniptions when deciding what IHV to whore themselves out to.......which means, that game technology will no longer be held back by targeted marketing.
Ultimately, this should theoretically result in not only better looking games, but more importantly, games will become much more physically based in terms of simulation. Realistic physics simulation has remained elusive over the years, mostly due to the average gamer's CPU (Ryzen making octacores more mainstream should help) not being powerful enough to run advanced physics simulations whilst actually running the game at the same time, and also because NVidia's GPU accelerated physics tech was locked down to CUDA, a proprietary technology.
Not to mention that for a long time, one needed a dedicated PhysX GPU to really reap the benefits of hardware accelerated physics, which just wasn't feasible for most gamers. Now though, DX12 and asynchronous compute has changed this. Now it will be possible to have an AMD and NVidia system running hair and cloth simulation using DX12 compute, with very little or no performance hit. Water and smoke will be harder, but as GPUs become more powerful, eventually even they will be mastered.
So knowingly or unknowingly, Microsoft has solved the physics problem with DX12!
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