AGEIA PhysX PPU Q&A

[KaptainKlubber]

World-Gaming (http://www.world-gaming.com) has posted (http://www.world-gaming.com/?NewsID=2551) a Q&A with the CEO of AGEIA (the company making the PhysX Physics Processing Unit).

Nathias (World-Gaming): For those of us reading who are not familiar with AGEIA, can you tell us a little bit about what AGEIA does? What products you have released and are planning to release?

Manju Hegde (AGEIA): AGEIA is the pioneer of hardware-accelerated physics for games. Its flagship product, the PhysX processor, is the world’s first dedicated physics processing unit – a completely new PC hardware category. The PhysX technology will provide the computing horsepower to calculate, in real-time, complex physics phenomena such as collision, fracture, flow, buoyancy, shear, strain and more. By adding a dedicated engine to handle such tasks, games can incorporate a massive amount of real-time simulation making for more real-time interactivity and less predictability throughout game play.

AGEIA will release the first PhysX processor on a PC add-in card that we call an “action accelerator’ in the coming months.
The Q&A also says that they are looking at a price range of $249-$299 for the cards. Ouch!

[Thenetcase]

I'll be buying one. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a poor investment.
There are tons of games that actually utilize this technology right now (City of Villains and AOE3, just to name two that I play religiously).

Can't wait to see what it does.

[Vandenh]

>There are tons of games that actually utilize this technology right now

So will they just use the card? DX doesnt have a physics API. Drivers?

[kathode]

Age of Empires uses Havok actually.

[KarmaGhost]

This is a great idea, but I'm not paying that much, even if I wasn't upgrading my machine this Christmas season.

[PIPBoy3000]

This is a really tough sell, I suspect. The $300 price point will likely limit this to folks like 3D modelers and scientific applications. A handful of gamers might be willing to spend the money on this, but probably not enough to get developers to spend the time to integrate this into their games. The only hope for this sort of technology is if it starts coming "free", perhaps integrated into video cards or motherboards.

[Borys]

I'll be buying one. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a poor investment.
There are tons of games that actually utilize this technology right now (City of Villains and AOE3, just to name two that I play religiously).

Can't wait to see what it does.

Care to list that "ton"?
I'm all for hardware race & evolution but from what I know this is still vaporhardware with vaporware using it.

Now if DNF would actually use it exclusively for let's say physically crashing down a Vegas casino, brick after brick on those filthy Pig-Cops, then, we would be talkin'.
Of course it should run at 4 fps without Ageia in that case.

[SlamDunk]

Yeah, AOE3 uses Havok, not PhysX SDK.

Here's all the games I know of that support PhysX SDK (previously known as NovodeX): http://personal.inet.fi/atk/kjh2348fs/ageia_physx.html#gameslist

[JediSanf]

Put it on chip next to the GPU, charge an extra $50 - $75, and I will buy it. Just hope bandwidth isn't an issue.

I'll probably buy one anyways the next time I build a system but that's because I'm a moron.

[UnderHero5]

Sooo.... it's a PCI card I take it?
I've been wondering what interface it would use.

I think $250 - $300 for a peice of hardware that most games aren't going to use is a bit of a slap in the face from these guys. Do they honestly think PC gamers are willing to throw ANOTHER $300 into their rigs??
If it were $100 - $150 I'd probably buy one.... maaaaybe $200 if TONS of games used it. But $300 bucks? No fucking way.

[Zane]

I saw one in action at the IGN Live convention in Anaheim about a month or so ago. I was VERY unimpressed. They had two demos on display, a tower of blocks and a driving demo. Both were running slowly, especially noticable on the racing game, and the physics didn't seem noticably better than what we see in games now. It's definately not $250-$300 better.

[Ernst_Jager]

I'd pay $99 max.

[IagoTheHunted]

This sort of hardware is definately going to be the next big thing tech-wise. Graphics will get better but at the current generation we've come close to topping out for most things. Physics though, that'll be great.

Now if they could just make a game the showed us whats really possible... too bad it's such a closed nitch, that's probably not going to happen until the next gen of consoles when they've got physics built in :(

[Thenetcase]

Yeah, AOE3 uses Havok, not PhysX SDK.

Here's all the games I know of that support PhysX SDK (previously known as NovodeX): http://personal.inet.fi/atk/kjh2348fs/ageia_physx.html#gameslist

Hmm... I'm pretty sure AOE III USED TO BE listed on AEGIA's website. Why it's not there now, I dno't know. But COV is still.