GPU Physics DBA

[thilanliyan]

Dead Before Arrival???
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/m...r_Relations_Chief.html

 

[Munky]

Yeah, I saw this yesterday, and I agree with their analysis. Intel bought Havok to further promote their CPU business, while putting a big dent into any prospect of GPU physics. But as much as I like the innovation behind GPU physics, I'd say that it may never pick up because the computing power of the cpu has grown substantially in the last few years, and physics would be a good way to put all those idle cpu cores to good use in gaming.

 

[aka1nas]

The suckiest thing is that I had pretty good info that Havok was almost done with a CUDA-based physics package. That might have been actually usable as a GPU-based physics solution, rather than trying to piggyback it onto SM3 or SM4.

 

[Nanobaud]

Plus, apparently double-precision on GPU is only going to be enabled on Firestream and Tesla cards, which are looking to cost $2K and up. Single-precision is not suitable for most real-world physics simulations. (this is what we've come to, using 'real' and 'simulation' in the same sentence and not even thinking it's odd until the second glance?). Does the gaming physics work OK at single precision?

 

[aka1nas]

Gaming-grade physics might still be ok with single-precision floating point as absolute accuracy is probably not as important as performance.

 

[Sylvanas]

AMD considering buying Ageia?

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
AMD considering buying Ageia?

If AMD wasn't over their head in debt and loosing money, it might be a good idea. Given AMD's current stuation, I don't think it's a good idea. I believe eventually DirectX will have some sort of physics-related functionality, no need to sink the company for something that might not even be useful for long.

 

[aka1nas]

Unfortunately, I don't see hardware-accelerated physics of any sort gaining a lot of traction until someone like MS gives us a unified API. Hopefully in DX11.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
The suckiest thing is that I had pretty good info that Havok was almost done with a CUDA-based physics package. That might have been actually usable as a GPU-based physics solution, rather than trying to piggyback it onto SM3 or SM4.

maybe intel bought them b/c of this cuda-based physics package. even if intel doesn't use it then at least nobody else (nvidia/amd) will be able to, either. Also, if they DO use it, they can license it to their competition for extra $$. intel wins either way.

 

[aka1nas]

My guess is that they saw Havok as a greater threat than Ageia as Havok was trying(apparently unsuccessfully) to get developers to use their GPU-based package.

Ageia's PhysX API already runs in software w/o a PPU and is multi-threaded to boot, so it's probably to Intel's benefit to let Ageia try to survive as relatively few gamers will opt to purchase a dedicated card anyway.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: munky

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
AMD considering buying Ageia?

If AMD wasn't over their head in debt and loosing money, it might be a good idea. Given AMD's current stuation, I don't think it's a good idea. I believe eventually DirectX will have some sort of physics-related functionality, no need to sink the company for something that might not even be useful for long.

Next year actually, with DX11...

Microsoft is currently hiring programmers to write their physicx api to be a part of DX11.

 

[BFG10K]

AMD considering buying Ageia?

Bad idea.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

How is Ageia still in business anyway? Nobody seems to buy their PPUs and relatively few game developers use their software.

 

[Sylvanas]

I feel kinda sorry for Ageia, they made a great product but the uptake and utilization of their product is terrible on behalf of the developers. Hopefully with the inclusion of PhysX goodies in UT3 it can keep them afloat a little longer until a few more devs adopt PhysX but now with Intel and Havok+DX11....not looking good.

 

[taltamir]

I don't know about this whole great product deal...
When I heard of them I thought... FINALLY, PHYSICS.

But all it is is particle effects added after on... That is, the "physics" are all eye candy particle effects that have no bearing on the gameplay whatsoever. I Would have certainly bought it, even for one game, had it given actual physics instead of that "extra eye candy that can be done in CPU or GPU" deal...
Since I can just spend an extra 100$ on a cpu or gpu and get much MORE eye candy then I could from getting a physicx engine. That limits them to people who already own top of the line stuff and need more (ie, C2Q extreme + sli 8800ultra who wants even MORE eye candy)...

 

[BFG10K]

I feel kinda sorry for Ageia, they made a great product

Great product? It requires a fan! How the hell can something like that need a fan given there are passively cooled video cards that do so much more for gaming?