AGEIA announces new PhysX PPU for mobile

[Kornman00]

I saw this on Ageia's website the other day when checking for updates, but I thought it was old news. But when I went to gamedev.net it was on the front page, so I'm assuming its brand-spankin'-new news :-3

Readme (http://www.ageia.com/physx/mobile.html).

[legionaire45]

Not exactly brand-spankin' new, but still relatively current. Personally, I'd rather throw another GPU in instead of the PhysX considering the current lack of support for it. If it worked with every game (or at least most of the ones I play) and actually did something besides add some particles and barrels (like in most current supported titles) I'd be interested, but for the most part all the PhysX would do for me is drain battery life.

I would buy the PCI version if it was $100 or less and once again, had plenty of supported games however.

[Zeph]

Why are they still in bussiness?

[Kornman00]

What do you mean current "lack of support" for it?

Continuing your post, you seem to be mis-informed.

And it couldn't work with every game since not every game uses the same physics system. Some use Havok, others are in-house developed. Others just don't need true dedicated physics.

EDIT: And their SDK isn't JUST for their card. It works without the card, and pretty damn well. Not to mention free (in most scenarios iirc)

[legionaire45]

What do you mean current "lack of support" for it?

Continuing your post, you seem to be mis-informed.

And it couldn't work with every game since not every game uses the same physics system. Some use Havok, others are in-house developed. Others just don't need true dedicated physics.

EDIT: And their SDK isn't JUST for their card. It works without the card, and pretty damn well. Not to mention free (in most scenarios iirc)

Sorry, I guess I misphrased a lot of my post =P. What I meant really was the overall lack of titles out (you can correct me on this, but in total aren't there only like 20-40 titles out?). Right now at least the only titles I care about of those that are supported are Rise of Nations 2 (whatever the subtitle is xD), Ghost Recon, GR2, BoS: Bloodsport (maybe) and UT3. I can't say anything on what the card will do with UT3 (since I haven't been following that) but as far as I know in Ghost Recon and BoS, all the PhysX card does is give you some extra eye candy which in some cases can slow down your system due to the extra shiny stuff being rendered (at least I'm sure my 7600 GT wouldn't be able to handle it xD).

Now, Cellfactor is cool because the physics are a huge part of the game, but considering the fact that not everyone has a card I doubt that they would be able to make a very successful game out of it besides a tech demo =/. Once again, if I'm completely wrong here go ahead and correct me.

The idea of having a PhysX card in a notebook is cool, but wouldn't most people be better suited by another GPU instead? Yes, the battery life is going to suck in either case, but at least with a second GPU you will be able to play all your games at a much much much higher FPS. Once again, if they would drop the price a bit more on the PCI version I might spring for it, but right now spending $150 for some shiny particle and barrel effects on 4 or 5 games doesn't really seem too appealing to me when I could spend a little bit more and get myself a better CPU or GPU.

And the thing about supporting everything was a hypothetical statement =P. I was mainly trying to tie that in with my statement about the relative lack of titles currently available, but yeah, I guess I sounded like a retard xD. Novodex is cool though, although I wish they would let you use another GPU or hell, even another core to process stuff. I'm sure that would be a mess to program though =/.

Again, I probably do have a lot of my facts mixed up (I'm not going to even dare call myself a programmer xD), so go ahead and correct me if you want.

[Kornman00]

TITLES (http://www.ageia.com/physx/titles.html).

Note: This game listing is not representative of all titles that will be available, just those that AGEIA and it's developer and publisher partners are able to disclose. To avoid confusion, PC titles that do not take advantage of AGEIA PhysX hardware acceleration are ommitted from this listing..

Recent "PhysX Rocks" Contest winners:

First, thanks to everyone who responded with a submission. We were simply amazed with the level of response as well as the caliber of the submissions. Clearly, selecting three winners from among the incredible submissions was a challenging task. A task made more complicated by the diversity of the submissions. We received many game submissions but we were pleasantly surprised with the number of non-gaming submissions. Enough explanation of the difficulty of the task, here are the 3 winners:1st : Goutte (Drop)
Physics based game where a water droplet must maneuver through a house, down a drain, and make its way back to the ocean.
-Mathis Couchaux

2nd: Firefighters simulation training
Training simulation on the PC for training firefighters and emergency personnel. The fluid effects are perfect for simulating hoses that whip around and water that realistically sprays.
-Tim Stowell

3rd: (unnamed rhythm action game)
Clothing, hair, earrings, necklace, neckties, breasts, dangling accessories are all modeled with PhysX as the character walks, dances, spins or jumps.
-Keeseok Jeong

Honorable Mentions:
Wallbusters
Physics based game with the sole purpose of using catapults to knock down walls. Points are awarded for the number of blocks that get knocked down.
-Martin Hjerne

Cronos Project
Robot movement -- Machine consciousness through internal modeling -Richard Newcombe

Improved small demos
High speed, triggers, kinematics, magnets, water, soft bodies
-Andry Gutyrja

Climbactic
Two cartoonish characters maneuver through a world filled with simple physics puzzles.
-Jack Potter

Minerals Engineering International
Milling system simulation research
-Sudarshan Martins

Wasteland Warriors
Cars and trucks race on offroad course.
-Mikael Gustavsson

Microsoft Robotics Studio
Robot movement
-Kyle Johns


You people need to stop thinking so 2D. This isn't JUST for games.

[Phopojijo]

Why are they still in bussiness?Because Novodex is making profits...?

[Mr Buckshot]

The PhysX card is a great idea but it won't take off too well for games. It's better for professional simulations and so on (then again, such computer systems would have incredibly powerful CPUs...)

[jahrain]

These should be integrated into graphics cards. I wouldn't ever really want to buy a card just for physics, but I would be much more likely to buy a graphics card with an integrated hardware physics accelerator.

[343guiltymc]

Hey, throwing around lava using force like powers is pretty awesome.

[Kornman00]

These should be integrated into graphics cards. I wouldn't ever really want to buy a card just for physics, but I would be much more likely to buy a graphics card with an integrated hardware physics accelerator.
thats only going to make them larger (possibly even too large for mobile), not to mention add more complexity to the card, driving prices up even more. nthx.