Comparing PC Game Physics

John Callaham writes "On Wednesday we posted up comments from Havok about rival AGEIA's use of their physics processor in the PC version of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Today we have an expanded article with point-to-point comments from AGEIA that address Havok's statements." From the article: "How much interaction do you want in your PC games? It used to be that graphics were the number one factor in picking up a new game but now players are asking more and more about interactions in the environment. One company that has provided such interaction is Havok. They have developed a physics engine that has been used in a ton of games, including most famously in Valve's first person shooter Half-Life 2. Recently, Havok announced plans for a new physics engine, Havok FX, that would use Shader Model 3.0 graphics cards to further enhance game interactions and physics."

How about we just go back to pong.

[Avillia]

Ball hits wall, ball reflects away from wall at the exact angle it hit. No need for all this garbage.

Forget PC Gaming...

[JimXugle]

Where's my Holodeck?!

The Physics of Brick Out

[cdtoad]

So why does the DOT go sideways when it hits it straight on? Mr. Bushnel would you like to answer?

Re:On physics

[Ugly American]

That reminds me of the F.E.A.R. demo. At one point, I lobbed a couple of grenades into an office to take care of the clones that were bunched up inside of it. After the incoming fire stopped, I moved into the office to investigate. One of the clones had actually been thrown up against the wall and was lodged against an off-kilter bulletin board, hanging head-down with arms and legs flat against the wall. I had to take a break until I stopped laughing.

Re:Wake me up when...

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Why not.. go outside?

Ultimate Physics Engine

[Umbral Blot]

In my opinion the ultimate physics engine was, and is, that of Carmageddon [wikipedia.org].

Re:Wake me up when...

[nugneant]

Because acting weird in public is a crime punishable by secret prisons, 72 hour observations, and in general a whole bunch of idiots who lost the ability to feel taking things far, far too seriously.



So, some counter-questions, in a manner that you'll relate to:

Instead of arguing, why don't you... read a book?

Instead of insulting people who care about things, why don't you... clean your room?

Instead of replying to this post, why don't you... eat your veggies?

Instead of sharing your views with people, why don't you... brush your teeth?

Instead of realizing that your fucking non-sequiter of an argument is -1 Flamebait, why don't you... say your prayers?



--
My MOMMY thinks I'm +1 Insightful

Re:Remember Bungie's "Myth"?

[Malor]

For those not familiar with Myth: The Fallen Lords, they were a series of tactical "wargames"... sort of like the RTS games, but with a fixed budget to buy units when you started the game. The idea was generally to be the last person alive. The engine was remarkably sophisticated for the time, including things like animals grazing, and birds flying about.

Dwarves were sort of the artillery unit for the 'good guys'. They tossed Molotov cockails, which could be annoyingly imprecise and prone to misfiring... but they'd literally blow enemy units into pieces. (and the system tracked the pieces!)

The best movie of Myth that I ever saw started out pretty typical... a pitched battle between good guys and bad guys, going back and forth. It was getting into the toe-to-toe phase, and the light-side player told his dwarf to attack. He lit the fuse, cocked his arm, hurled the bomb.... and it bounced off a bird overhead, fell down onto his own army, and obliterated the player's entire side.

Funniest thing I ever saw. And people wonder why games don't do that well anymore... if they had a tenth of the creativity and atmosphere of Myth, but took advantage of modern hardware, they'd probably move ten million copies.

Half Life 2?

[ShakaUVM]

Wait, Half Life 2 is finally out?

All I've played so far is some demo for the Havok engine.