Originally posted by: T2k
Wow, this thing gets HOT. *REALLY-REALLY H-O-T!* And without any use.
We took out of an always-open Antec mid-tower case and 4-5 mins later it still burns your finger.
Originally posted by: T2k
So until Ageia actaully delivers everyone has a right to point out that right now, Hardware Based Consumer Physics Proccessing Cards are less than desireable.
FYI: AGEIA's approach is just one solution - so the fact that currently it's still unproven and the only (barely) available one doesn't justify such claims like "Hardware Based Consumer Physics Proccessing Cards are less than desireable." We need another few months to see what this card can do but we can certainly say that hw-acc'ed PP cards would be more than welcomed by most of the gamers. A more interactive/interesting, better gameplay is much more important than a possible 10% framerate drop, I believe.
Originally posted by: dfloyd
Originally posted by: T2k
So until Ageia actaully delivers everyone has a right to point out that right now, Hardware Based Consumer Physics Proccessing Cards are less than desireable.
FYI: AGEIA's approach is just one solution - so the fact that currently it's still unproven and the only (barely) available one doesn't justify such claims like "Hardware Based Consumer Physics Proccessing Cards are less than desireable." We need another few months to see what this card can do but we can certainly say that hw-acc'ed PP cards would be more than welcomed by most of the gamers. A more interactive/interesting, better gameplay is much more important than a possible 10% framerate drop, I believe.
Obviously friend, so please reread my post and see where I stated "right now".
Originally posted by: T2k
Excellent: it crashes on 32-bit, no matter which Physx driver I use. Another PoS...?
Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
But does anyone need all that debris to have a game with good physics?
That line of thought, more then anything, is the one most likely to slaughter PC gaming altogether. When the consoles are offering gaming generations beyond what the PC can approach, that will be when PC gaming is going to be facing complete failure for real.
If the PPU can provide effects like cars blowing up or getting damaged with realistic modeling, I'd be happy.
How about material modeling and interaction? Take a game with very, very weak physics like HL2- the game where a rocket launcher can't destroy plywood. How much more immersive would a game be if devs that had real talent were able to make completely accurate environments? You know, a hand grenade will actually take out that chain link fence that has been stopping your tank? Or how about secondary splash damage? Some dives for cover in a room and you fire a rocket into the room with them the concussion force of the rocket plus the debris it generates is going to cause serious damage to a normal person- they certainly won't be unscathed which is the norm as of today. How about sheetrock stopping slugs from dual 45s? I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bit tired of that. If PCs continue to rely on the snails pace advancement of CPUs then they are going to fail completely to be competitive with what consoles will be offering.
But how those capabilities will be used in actual games is a different matter, especially when a) the point of the game is not to just show off the physics, and b) the rest of the system can't handle the additional physics load without slow downs.
A) Not all developers are retarded
B) Not all developers are retarded
That covers those two problems.
Speaking of Aegia in particular I have no idea how good the chip is, I have yet to see a breakdown of it to have even a rough idea of how much power the part has. I certainly have not seen anything that indicates that it will outperform Cell, but the idea of a dedicated physics processor is one that PCs need or the platform is going to turn into an upgraded cell phone in terms of gaming. x86 CPUs as they stand right now are far too slow in vector performance to keep up with their counterparts, and those that think GPUs should be handling the load should really do something outrageous like think about that for more then a couple of seconds
Originally posted by: T2k
So until Ageia actaully delivers everyone has a right to point out that right now, Hardware Based Consumer Physics Proccessing Cards are less than desireable.
FYI: AGEIA's approach is just one solution - so the fact that currently it's still unproven and the only (barely) available one doesn't justify such claims like "Hardware Based Consumer Physics Proccessing Cards are less than desireable." We need another few months to see what this card can do but we can certainly say that hw-acc'ed PP cards would be more than welcomed by most of the gamers. A more interactive/interesting, better gameplay is much more important than a possible 10% framerate drop, I believe.