PhysX Dedicated Physics Processor Explored

Ned_Network writes "Yahoo! News & Reuters has a story about a start-up who have created a dedicated physics processor for gamers' PCs. The processor undertakes physics calculations for the CPU and is said to make gaming more realistic - examples such as falling rocks, exploding debris and the way that opponents collapse when you shoot them are cited as advantages of the chip. Only 6 current titles take advantage of the chip but the FAQ claims that another 100 are in production."

Cellfactor video looks pretty cool...

[vertinox]

Check out this link: http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html [ageia.com]

Go to the section that says "I'm old enough" with the Cellfactor video and take a look at the flash movie. Although Cellfactors almost could be a poster child game of mother of all physics engines. It looks like it puts Half Life 2 to shame. (Although I wonder if you character has that much physic power to fly through the air and throw jeeps at people then why bother with having a gun?)

I really dig the blood particle effets as someone is gibbed while standing on the ledge and the blood just splashes down the side of the platform.

And you can really tell the difference in particle debris in the comparison videos at the top. However, I wonder if the same effect can be acheived with cranking up your settings on a high end gaming rig without the card. I'd wait til some 3rd party hardware review site gives the final verdict.

Massively destructible & collateral damage.

[Ned_Network]

Bah! They cut some of the best bits of my submission!

The price of $300 seems a bit steep right now to a casual player like me, but this bit from the site's FAQ I find very appealing:

Buildings and landscapes are now massively destructible with extreme explosions of thousands of shards of glass and shrapnel that cause collateral damage

The PPU seems to be available as a PCI card [ageia.com] but is also available in off-the-shelf machines [ageia.com] from Dell & Alienware.

There's a comparison video [ageia.com] showing the difference between Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighterwith & without the PhysX installed and a couple of hi-res [ageia.com] videos [ageia.com] that are available by FTP, so can't be cached by Coral, I don't think.

What I really have to wonder, if this thing is as good as they reckon, is why I haven't heard of it before?

Nitpick

[loqi]

ODE isn't closed and proprietary.

Correction

[Anonymous Coward]

There are more go games than theorized protons in the visible universe.