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PhysX

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PhysX can refer either to a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by AGEIA (formerly known as the NovodeX SDK) or their PPU expansion card designed to accelerate that SDK.

Middleware physics engines allow game developers to avoid writing their own code to handle the complex physics interactions possible in modern games. Sony has licensed the PhysX SDK for their PlayStation 3 video game console.

PPU

A physics processing unit, or PPU, is a processor specially designed to alleviate calculations from a computer's CPU, specifically calculations involving physics. A similar concept evolved over the last few decades, with the graphics processing unit, or GPU, which accelerates the rendering of 2D and 3D graphics.

Stats and specifications

  • 125 million transistors
  • 182 mm² die size
  • Memory: 128 MB GDDR3 RAM on 128-bit interface
  • Interface: PCI
  • Sphere collision tests: 530 million per second (maximum capability)
  • Convex collision tests: 530,000 per second (maximum capability)
  • Peak Instruction Bandwidth: 20 billion per second
  • Power draw: 30 Watts on the current 0.13 micron processor technology
  • Price: from $150-$250 (roughly £135-£165)

Competition

The major competitor to the PhysX SDK is the Havok SDK, which is used in more than 150 games, including major titles like Half-Life 2 and Dead Rising.

To compete with the PhysX PPU, Havok FX will be able to take advantage of multi-GPU technology from ATI/AMD (CrossFire) and NVIDIA (SLI) using existing cards to accelerate certain physics calculations.

Havok's solution divides the physics simulation into effect and gameplay physics, with effect physics being offloaded (if possible) to the GPU as Shader Model 3.0 instructions and gameplay physics being processed on the CPU as normal. The important distinction between the two are that effect physics do not affect gameplay (dust or small debris from an explosion, for example): the vast majority of physics operations are still performed in software. This approach differs significantly from the PhysX SDK, which moves all calculations to the PhysX card if it is present.

NVIDIA's GeForce 8 Series supports a new GPU-based Newtonian physics acceleration technology named Quantum Effects Technology - which will compete directly with the PhysX PPU hardware. NVIDIA provides a SDK Toolkit for what they call CUDA™ (Compute Unified Device Architecture) technology that offers both a low and high-level API to the GPU. Few technical details are available about the physics side of it, and it is not yet clear whether this is part of Havok FX SDK, and/or AGEIA PhysX SDK, or a completely separate engine.

ATI/AMD offers a similar SDK for their ATI-based GPUs and that SDK and technology is called CTM™ (Close to Metal™) which provides a thin hardware interface. AMD has also announced the AMD Stream Processor product line (combining a CPU and a GPU technology on one chip).

Board Partners

Supported titles

Only games that use the PhysX SDK can benefit from the presence of a PhysX card. DarkBASIC Professional, a BASIC-like game building language uses the PhysX SDK. The Unreal 3 Engine also uses Ageia PhysX, resulting in a performance boost in all of the Unreal 3 Engine based games as well as offering physics that are not possible on a normal CPU core in real time. The popular open source OGRE 3D rendering engine can use Ageia PhysX through the NxOgre wrapper. NetDevil inc.'s WarMonger FPS game also support the Physx card. The new CellFactor is a game made for promoting the Ageia PhysX hardware.

See also

References

  1. "Sony Computer Entertainment Enters Into Strategic Licensing Agreement With AGEIA" (Press release). Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. 2005-07-21. Retrieved 2006-08-23. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. Games using Havok
  3. Havok FX product information
  4. NVIDIA 8800 features page - Quantum Effects Technology
  5. "The Game Creators Integrate AGEIA PhysX Technology into DarkBASIC Professional" (Press release). The Game Creators. 2006-03-22. Retrieved 2006-09-23. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |publisher= at position 9 (help); line feed character in |title= at position 4 (help)
  6. http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/technology/ue30.shtml
  7. NxOgre, Ogre Wiki. Retrieved 2007-09-14
  8. , The Inquirer.

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