Dedicated physics processing unit

[analogue40]

Seen this in the new issue of customPC in the UK. A company called ageia is developing piece of hardware dedicated to in game physics. Looks like there could be yet another component to upgrade, but the possibilities this should open up :D

The Worlds First Physics Processing Unit (http://www.ageia.com/)

AGEIA? Technologies Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company dedicated to delivering pervasive interactive reality to next-generation games. Its flagship product, the PhysX? chip, is the world's first dedicated Physics Processing Unit (PPU) - a completely new hardware category that bridges the gap between static virtual worlds and responsive physical reality. The PhysX chip allows developers to use active physics-based environments for a more life-like entertainment experience.

http://www.ageia.com/img/chip.jpg

[freonchill]

well they have tim sweeney from unreal fame behind them
i wonder if its going to be an internal (pci/pci-x) or external (as there isnt much you can upgrade internally on any console, other than a mod chip) or both

i doubt it would be something that you would have to upgrade a lot even if it was hardware, im sure if they were going to be complete whores they would attempt to make it a subscription thing (a la xbox live!)

i guess this is going to have to be a tech to watch and see for the next-gen consoles; and see if they decide to use it or if the cell (sony) already has enough processing to get their physics engine done in hardware already w/out a specifically programmed PPU

i guess its up to the game developers to support it and require consoles (forcing really, or is this the beginning of modular consoles?) to have it and an option for computer hardware upgrade (back to the days when there where multple executables for a game to support the different video rendering engines: 3dfx (glide2x/glide3x), openGL, D3D, vertex(short lived)

time will tell on this one
and it would be nice if sweeney would do a PR discussion at the next show he appears @.

[MrJoshua]

Hmmm so currently the CPU does the physics side of things, so really all this chip is is a CPU dedicated for physics?
I dont see this taking off in the near future, there are to many variables, such as, game developers will need to spend more time making a title (doing the required coding) for bugger all return, also id imagine that there would be licensing fees, and all thats going to do is increase the cost of the game.
cheers :) :)

[freonchill]

well i did a little reading over there
looks like they are using an Open Source program for the coding itself - so its pretty much a plugin (or for you programmers, a library include) and it just does the commands for wahatever character or variable that you want physics and collision detection done on in this special PPU hardware.

so in theory, the licensing wouldnt be that bad, as it is based on an open source project (and unless they are getting special licensing from the standard GNU / GPL) then they would have to release it freely (or suffer the wrath as such the CherryOS from the open source PearPC project; litigation pending) but i think rather than it would be something that such like with Doom3; where Carmack, rather than spending another month on the project to get perfectly working 3D sound; they licensed creative's EAX at the last minute.

so yea, on the PC side it will be more of a gamble rather than on the console side (especially if they are able to get some programmer support therefore almost requiring MS & Sony to add it into their next-gen hardware) where as is on the PC its more of historical precedent, where [as stated previously] there would have to be multiple binaries so that the game will support the standard of collision detection, rag-doll physics, and etc in standard code; and a subset that will offload the work to the PPU hardware and allow for (hopefully) more realistic AI being calculated by the CPU

so since the hardware (alteast for consoles) will be in the price of the console; which they are already losing a ton on in the first place; then it wont be that big of a deal, b/c they will be able to use a smaller cpu (xbox2) or fewer Cell processors (ps3)
and considering what we buy for computer hardware to get a descent framerate (2ghz + cpu & $200-600 video card) verses a xbox, which has a 667mhz CELERY STICK (or was it just a 667 mobile?) and gf3, yet still can do semi-descent graphics; what a difference a closed platform makes...

[MrJoshua]

Actually Freon from memory the xbox has a 733Mhz pentium 3 (has a reduced cache but still runs on the 133Mhz FSB) , but back to your above comments, ill agree with you on the console part, it could become succesfull because consoles (of the same brand) are all identicle to each other, there would be much less R&D involved in trying to get it to work on multiple platforms/hardware. Just hope that licensing doesnt become an issue.
cheers :) :)