PPU - The next in gaming technology.

[[w0f]Oblivion]

The new "Physics Processor" is a big step in a new direction, Personally im looking forward to it. heres a quote from
http://www.gamers-depot.com/interviews/agiea/001.htm

"Walls and surroundings should be fully destructible within games - ever been driving a tank in a game like Call of Duty: United Offensive and been stopped by a shrub? Or why is it you can't blow a hole in a wall and kill your opponent behind that wall? The reason for many of these anomalies? The lack of horsepower under the CPU hood to fulfill those desires. Ageia's PPU is an important step in the right direction as it can take the current limit of 30-40 bodies of today's high-end CPUs to a maximum of 40,000. One can truly see, when looking at those kind of numbers, just why a PPU is the right thing for gaming and should be a technology we all keep an eye on. "

I truely do think this is a step in the right direction, Hopefully ati and nvidia will all develop thier own versions.
Could you imagine having a fully destructable enviroment??
That would be AMAZING
not to mention there would be almost no physics lag in hl2, and we could use much better physics, not the watered down versions most use nowadays.
What do you guys think?

 

[noQ]

no more lag in hl2dm for me

 

[[w0f]Oblivion]

wouldnt it be sweet to have a huge pile of dead bodies, and have a grenade under em so they all fly up, and have the physx so theres no lag when the nade goes off.. haha
fun.

 

[Tr0n]

After PPU...the next big thing is Ray-Tracing cards.Here is an example:

http://www.artvps.com/products.ihtml?page=pureoverview

What is ray-tracing you ask?

Ray tracing is a technique for rendering three-dimensional graphics with complex light interactions. Everything we see is visible because light reflects from objects in a scene. Ray tracing attempts to simulate the path that beams of light take as they interact with these objects.

Though modern video cards can also simulate many of the lighting and shadow effects that a ray tracing engine can produce, they use different methods to fool the eye and may or may not be as realistic as a ray traced scene.

 

[Icarusintel]

After PPU...the next big thing is Ray-Tracing cards.Here is an example:

http://www.artvps.com/products.ihtml?page=pureoverview

What is ray-tracing you ask?

So, would these be in addition to 3d cards? by the look of it I could have my X800XT, a PPU and 2 Ray Tracing cards in my rig delivering awesomeness, unless i'm missing the point here

 

[Tr0n]

So, would these be in addition to 3d cards? by the look of it I could have my X800XT, a PPU and 2 Ray Tracing cards in my rig delivering awesomeness, unless i'm missing the point here

Yes basically...The X800XT would be doing the small graphics works...while the dual Ray-Tracing cards like the ones on that site would be doing the physical lighting and realistic shadows type stuff.

I'm still looking into it, because RT is new to me.So what I just told you could be wrong and the RTC might be doing all the work.I'm still looking into it....

You did get the awesomeness part correct tho.

Edit:FAQ'S from that site I posted:

http://www.artvps.com/products.ihtml?page=faq&faqstep2=TRUE&catid2=4

What is ray tracing?
Ray tracing is a type of rendering based on the physical processes that occur in the real world. Images are generated by calculating the path of light through a scene and into the camera. Each pixel is produced by calculating the behavior of a number of rays from different points over the area covered by that pixel. Therefore images rendered by the ray tracing method are highly photorealistic and of excellent quality.

What is scan-line rendering?
Scanline rendering generates an image as a series of horizontal lines, using a number of algorithms that are generally not physically-based. Images are calculated using the depth of each part of the geometry relative to the camera and light sources, and can only approximate the physical properties of lighting and shadowing. As such scanline-rendered images can give only an impression of a real-world scene.

Isn't ray tracing just for shiny surfaces and reflections?
Because ray tracing has been a luxury for so long, due to it being computationally expensive, it is common for ray tracing to be used mainly in scenes featuring shiny surfaces and reflection and refraction effects. In fact, there are great benefits in using ray tracing in any scene, even if there are no obvious reflections or other features of the clichéd ray traced image. A ray tracer such as RenderDrive works as a virtual camera for either stills or animation. Shadows and light are generated in a way that gives vital reality cues, making objects and scenes look convincing and involving rather than synthetic. Good ray tracing can deliver images that seduce the perceptions in any style, realistic or otherwise.

Very neat stuff.

 

[jondy]

Ray-tracing is ridiculously processor hungry, and for the most part completely unnessessary when you consider the current refraction/reflection/render-to-texture effects we have now. It would be like rendering a shitload of polys to get rid of parallax-mapping.

It'll be a long while before rt replaces shader effects.

 

[Tr0n]

Well what if you put a CPU type of device on the RTC?So it wouldn't have to use the main CPU to do it.

Also from those pics I saw on the site...seems like RT is way better then shader effects, but I ain't no graphics guru...so don't listen to me.

 

[[w0f]Oblivion]

anyways, Back to PPU

Do you guys think its going to catch on?

 

[Ti133700N]

The Pure card isn't designed for Radiosity in games, it's for 3D modelign packages like Max or Maya. To render a single image it can take minutes, not the kind of performance you want in a game unless you like slideshows. I don't think we'll see true radiosity in games before a while cuz it requires so much processing power and we can still achieve pretty good looking images in games with todays technology with paralax mapping, normal mapping, HDR, soft shadows etc.

PPU, yea I think it's something that will catch on. I think it's like 3D accelerated cards, when they made a game that was using that power it changed the gaming world completly. I think the same will happen with physics. But I also think that technology will be usefull not only in games but in other fields like science etc. Not sure if we'll have to buy a separate physic card or if 3d card manufacturers will include a PPU chip on their vid cards... we'll probably have both options. Physic cards for PCI-Xpress, that seems logical and plausible.

 

[Vorac1ous]

anyways, Back to PPU

Do you guys think its going to catch on?

This early in development? No. It'll take a few years to get the PPU buses working properly, & then since the prices will be sky-high in the beginning, I'd think it will be about 4 or 5 years before PPU catches on. Looking forward to it nonetheless though

 

[Washuu]

PPU will catch on, if it has API and driver support, along with the power of what gpu's can do compared to just having a processor.