AGEIA PhysX support coming for AH?

[Reschke]

Just wondering since these cards are starting to hit the market. I know HT and gang ease into some things but since they are out I figured I would at least ask.

http://www.bfgtech.com/physx/index.htm

[Wolfala]

A card which currently lacks an application...or applications..

[eagl]

The Ageia website lists a bunch of titles which will "support" the card, but they don't say how much any one game will actually use it.

I think it could have great applications for eye candy and interactive environment stuff, but if the developers won't learn how to use it then it'll die.

There are some places where AH could possibly use it though...  I'm thinking clouds and smoke that interact with the environment and planes.  Imagine a real looking smoke plume where if you fly through it, you see it swirl from wingtip vortices.  That sort of thing wouldn't necessarily affect gameplay so it could be a configurable option, but it sure would look cool.

But just like dual core use, it'll take time for the developers to figure out how to do it right and I don't think anyone is under the impression that HT and Pyro are looking for more stuff to do

I think it's a HUGE mistake to simply dismiss dual cpu use and off-cpu physics calculations as being worthless, but it's not obvious at all whether the payoff would be worth the effort.

From a publicity point of view though, it could be huge.  Imagine the "free" publicity if AH was listed on the Ageia website as being physx "enhanced"...  It wouldn't even have to be much, maybe some more eye candy in trees and stuff for GVs to bump into.  But once it's official, AH could get put on the official "AGEIA ENHANCED!!!11one" list and instant bonus advertising at the cost of however much time HT/Pyro put into coading for it.
 
My prediction is that AH will continue as before though, based on my impression that almost every new technology has been dismissed as not applying to [CK.WB,AH,AH2].  Eventually some make it into the game, but adopting every new technology into the game has never seemed to be a prioirity for HT.  It seems like he's pretty busy with his planned upgrades even without chasing after the revolutionary hardware flavor of the week

[ALF]

Currently this is little more than a marketing ploy.  Its a product in search of a market, and at estimated $299, its also a product in search of a consumer base.  Since we now see dual and quad core processors coming into the mainstream, I cant help but be extremely doubtful on the success of what essentially is an add on co-processor in the next few years.  It may come to be something in the future, but we are talking 4+ years, considering that no products in development could truely be using this new cards abilities (no matter what the press release says).

This is compounded when you consider that multiplayer is becomming very important to many titles.  How will you give one player full super duper hyper physics reality, and the other player next to him standard?  They both have to see the environment react the same way, so we have what will be a chicken egg issue as is always the case.

[Skuzzy]

This product is a very high end floating point co-processor.  There are no number of CPU's which can compete with it, for what it can do.

Actually, flight sims could benefit the most from it.  Off-loading the flight modeling calculations could be a large benefit, as they couold be done faster.  Being done faster means the CPU can spend more time with the other mundane stuff, like the graphics, networking, and/or sound.

A couple of the problems are the expense, and the time to develop for it.  I am not speaking about HTC, in this matter.  Just a general statement on the challenges for this product to overcome.
The cost alone makes it a niche product.  Even in the flight sim world, it would be a niche product.  So, you have a niche product being used in a nice software world.  Translation:  I really do not see how they are going to stay in business.

[Reschke]

Originally posted by ALF
Currently this is little more than a marketing ploy.  Its a product in search of a market, and at estimated $299, its also a product in search of a consumer base.  Since we now see dual and quad core processors coming into the mainstream, I cant help but be extremely doubtful on the success of what essentially is an add on co-processor in the next few years.  It may come to be something in the future, but we are talking 4+ years, considering that no products in development could truely be using this new cards abilities (no matter what the press release says).

This is compounded when you consider that multiplayer is becomming very important to many titles.  How will you give one player full super duper hyper physics reality, and the other player next to him standard?  They both have to see the environment react the same way, so we have what will be a chicken egg issue as is always the case.

I am sure that any game that supports this hardware would do similar to how Anti-Aliasing was used in the very beginning on many games that said they supported it. If you have the option (card) to use that feature then you click a check box in your game setup and guess what you have it but "jim smith" who doesn't have the card over in nebraska playing the same game doesn't have the eye candy.

Unfortunately for me I will not be buying one because there are no games I am interested in playing that even use the technology. And from what I remember reading online and in print from places like PC Gamer, Firing Squad, etc...this card has been in development for a couple of years.

[Pongo]

Id buy it. Assuming its a 2-300 deal not a 4-500 deal.

[Reschke]

It's $300 USD for the BFG card that is linked there.

[eagl]

If AH was updated to take advantage of it in some useful fashion, I'd buy one immediately.

Really.

[Skuzzy]

I cannot get to thier (Aegia) WEB site, from home or at work.  The link comes up dead.

[eagl]

The site is really slow for me.

Here's a link to their film clips:

http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html

Their site uses activex controls so it may not even exist for you skuzzy...  Not a single real hyperlink on the site.  

Here's the direct link to what you get if you click on their "developers" button:

http://physx.ageia.com/developers.html

eagl

[Reschke]

Where they show the real-time footage of the same clip in Ghost Recon is absolutely stunning what they appear to be able to do.
http://www.ageia.com/
http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html

[eagl]

I think the flowing fluids weapon vid is extremely cool.  That sort of thing would make trailing smoke and fires look amazing.  Might even make gunfire, muzzle flashes, "hit sprite" effects, trees, clouds, well, pretty much everything look nicer.

The cellfactor vid is likewise impressive.

And it wouldn't noticeably affect gameplay so no unfair advantage to anyone using the physx enhancements.

Offloading flight model to the card is just a bonus

[eagl]

Might make for an expensive entry fee for an AH beta test, but think about the cool vids if the card was fully exploited  I'm thinking a new higher fidelity flight model, new explosions, smoke, etc.  I suppose the ageia developer support model includes code samples that developers can use to help put the physx features into any game... Might help speed adoption and make the transition less painful if they are serious about helping developers.

[Reschke]

If Hitech and the guys are willing to give it a shot then I would definetely buy a card to see what they could do in a beta situation. I may go ahead and get one just in case....