Ageia Physics Accelerator & Sims?

I checked out the website for the Ageia PhysX accelerator boards and
while it listed 100 games and 60+ developers, the closest to a sim I saw
was a space shooter.
The hardware looks to be as impressive as the breakthroughs 3d video
cards provided, but what, IF ANY, driving/racing sims will make use of
these cards? Anyone hear of any developers looking into this area?

dave henrie

On Tue, 02 May 2006 23:15:43 -0500, Dave Henrie
> wrote:

> I checked out the website for the Ageia PhysX accelerator boards and
>while it listed 100 games and 60+ developers, the closest to a sim I saw
>was a space shooter.
> The hardware looks to be as impressive as the breakthroughs 3d video
>cards provided, but what, IF ANY, driving/racing sims will make use of
>these cards? Anyone hear of any developers looking into this area?


Isn't Microsoft planning on adding a physics API to DirectX? I guess
most developers will wait for that. Beside, how many of these physics
boards are sold yet?

Cheers!

Remco

Alienware is shipping their newest PC's with the PhysX chip now.

http://www.alienware.com/intro_pages/ageia_physx.aspx

http://www.alienware.com/product_det...de=SKU-DEFAULT

http://www.alienware.com/product_det...de=SKU-DEFAULT

http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/choose_alx.aspx

What I've been told is that the Novodex engine (used for the chip)
isn't particularly suited to high accuracy simulation stuff and may not
be good for serious car sims. It's fantastic for other stuff though
and the fluid dynamics stuff is very impressive indeed.

Dave Henrie wrote:
> I checked out the website for the Ageia PhysX accelerator boards and
> while it listed 100 games and 60+ developers, the closest to a sim I saw
> was a space shooter.
> The hardware looks to be as impressive as the breakthroughs 3d video
> cards provided, but what, IF ANY, driving/racing sims will make use of
> these cards? Anyone hear of any developers looking into this area?
>
> dave henrie

It's nice technology but nobody is going to buy one. Yea they could
bundle it on other hardware but why bother? After this first wave no
software company is going to risk investing in this. And how would it
affect multiplayer? It's not a big deal if someone has different
graphics than another player, but what if they had different physics?

"Todd Wasson" > wrote in
oups.com:

> Alienware is shipping their newest PC's with the PhysX chip now.
>
> http://www.alienware.com/intro_pages/ageia_physx.aspx
>
> http://www.alienware.com/product_det...0/area-51_7500
> _features.aspx?SysCode=PC-AREA51-7500-R2&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
>
> http://www.alienware.com/product_det.../aurora_7500_f
> eatures.aspx?SysCode=PC-AURORA-7500-R2&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
>
> http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/choose_alx.aspx
>
> What I've been told is that the Novodex engine (used for the chip)
> isn't particularly suited to high accuracy simulation stuff and may
> not be good for serious car sims. It's fantastic for other stuff
> though and the fluid dynamics stuff is very impressive indeed.
>



My thought would be possibly the enviroment could be assisted. Instead
of having ROCK SOLID tirewalls or haybales, we could have deformable
objects. Anything that could take some of the load off the cpu.
However, my biggest worry about this technology now is the state of this
hardware's development. Is this a matue product that will make leaps and
bounds improvements in gameplay? Or is this the equivalent of the S3
Virge, a 3d card so weak it really wasn't even a 3d accelerator.

and now to Rex's thoughts:
------------
It's nice technology but nobody is going to buy one. Yea they could
bundle it on other hardware but why bother? After this first wave no
software company is going to risk investing in this. And how would it
affect multiplayer? It's not a big deal if someone has different
graphics than another player, but what if they had different physics?

-----------
In a way we have already had that situation for years. I had a 386sx,
My buddy had a 486. He had better 'physics' because his system could
respond better to his input than mine. (in games like doom, I could sneak
up behind him, start shooting, and he could turn and then begin shooting
and quickly fire more shots that I could even with a head start.

I'm sure when the first 3dfx card was displayed with what? the $200
price tag, NOBODY thought ANYONE would spend that much money for just a few
more colored objects on a screen.

Thanks guys for the input

dh

As somebody who bought a Rendition 1000 card, let's just say I'm not going
to be the guinea pig this time around...

Dave Henrie wrote:

> I'm sure when the first 3dfx card was displayed with what? the $200
> price tag, NOBODY thought ANYONE would spend that much money for just a few
> more colored objects on a screen.

I agree. Remember the hoohah when the first games that required a 3d
graphics accelerator with no option to play it without. Heck I go back
to when sound cards were optional - who remembers Test Drive - The Duel,
RAC Rally and Indy 500 with the PC speaker providing the "effects". Old
gits only should reply

Cheers
Tony

> I agree. Remember the hoohah when the first games that required a 3d
> graphics accelerator with no option to play it without. Heck I go back to
> when sound cards were optional - who remembers Test Drive - The Duel, RAC
> Rally and Indy 500 with the PC speaker providing the "effects". Old gits
> only should reply

Eww....you used a crumby PC back then? Those were the days when the
Commodore 64 and then the Amiga reigned supreme...! (and were much
cheaper) :-D

"Steve Simpson" > wrote in
:

>> I agree. Remember the hoohah when the first games that required a 3d
>> graphics accelerator with no option to play it without. Heck I go
>> back to when sound cards were optional - who remembers Test Drive -
>> The Duel, RAC Rally and Indy 500 with the PC speaker providing the
>> "effects". Old gits only should reply
>
> Eww....you used a crumby PC back then? Those were the days when the
> Commodore 64 and then the Amiga reigned supreme...! (and were
> much cheaper) :-D
>

Don't get me started on Amigas. I waited and waited for WING COMMANDER
and Ultima 5 to get ported over to the Amiga and when they did, they used
half the colors and ran twice as slow as native Amiga products. I went to
a local Amiga dealer and the Commodore Newsletter he had displayed
trumpeted how Commodore was going broke. I walked out of there with still
having a thousands bucks to spend and never felt so dirty as when I bought
a pc the next day.

dave henrie

Uwe =?iso-8859-15?Q?Sch=FCrkamp?= > wrote in
:

> On Thu, 04 May 2006 23:11:02 -0500, Dave Henrie wrote:
>> Don't get me started on Amigas. I waited and waited for WING
>> COMMANDER
>> and Ultima 5 to get ported over to the Amiga and when they did, they
>> used
>
> Looks like you were late to the party. Those were the days when games
> were already being written for the PC, not as native Amiga games
> (heck, Civ was a bugfest on the Amiga).
>
>> trumpeted how Commodore was going broke. I walked out of there with
>> still having a thousands bucks to spend and never felt so dirty as
>> when I bought a pc the next day.
>
> No worries, you should be thankful you didn't join the pc crowd when
> they were the laughing stock of the gaming community
>
> All the best, Uwe



I've still got my Texas Instruments TI 99. Maybe one of you dinosaurs
want's to buy it off me to relive those glorious days

Don