Hardware vs software support for games using Ageia

[dulath]

I've noticed that some games use the Ageia Physx software for physics calculations on the CPU as an alternative to Havok (eg Gothic 3). These games don't require the Ageia PhysX card, but I am wondering if these games see a performance (frames per second) increase in systems where a PPU is present? Maybe because the Ageia Physx compiled portion of the game or the runtime or whatever automatically runs on the PPU instead of as a thread in the CPU?

 

[svet-am]

I've noticed that some games use the Ageia Physx software for physics calculations on the CPU as an alternative to Havok (eg Gothic 3). These games don't require the Ageia PhysX card, but I am wondering if these games see a performance (frames per second) increase in systems where a PPU is present? Maybe because the Ageia Physx compiled portion of the game or the runtime or whatever automatically runs on the PPU instead of as a thread in the CPU?

yes, these applications will see a performance increase when the PPU is present. The Ageia SDK runtime detects when the PPU is present and utilizes it automatically if it's available. However, if it's not, then the code simply reverts gracefully to execution on the primary CPU. This is, after all, the beauty of the Ageia SDK.

 

[BoudahXL]

Also depends on how the devs choose to use the SDK, for example in City of Heroes, a mmorpg, they use the ppu to offload the particles calculations since you can more than 50,000 on screen at the same time.Don't expect a 50% gain, you should see something like 10-20% increase in that particular example.

In some other games the devs choose to add more obects from debris or just more objects overall on screen which can lead to decreased frame rates if you have a low end GPU(videocards).

And in some cases the SDK ill allow for hardware rendering like cloth simulation and liquid, in both case you should see a tremendous advantage if you have a ppu.

This is why it is so confusing to review games with ppu support, unless you know exactly what, and how the devs use the hardware.Most people are not even aware of those features and I'm pretty sure Ageia's have more tricks up their sleeves as the drivers and library mature.

Time will tell, but one thing for sure, right here right now, Ageia has helped a lot the gaming industry pushing forward, never before have we heard so much about middleware, physics, multithreading...