| ssj12 said: There is a reason why a GPU, Graphical Processing Unit, controls physics. While yes there was a PPU, Physx, it didn't take off. Explosions and other physics are all graphics based events. You need animations to make a fire burn properly. You need physics to allow a character to interact with the environment and for you to know your doing it. The term graphics covers physics of all types and visuals because physics are all visual based interactions. This is why the Source Engine, one of the best known game engines in the world, is a physics engine while the CryEngine 2 is a graphics engine. They both manage game visuals. One is just more physics based while the other is all about push polygons. |
...you really confused me, ssj12.
Some reasons I find your post confusing:
* Aegia PhysX was a software (i.e. CPU) physics middleware engine, which is now NVidia PhysX, and runs with (not "on", because the work is shared between the CPU and GPU) modern NVidia GPUs only.
* Its usually a waste of GPU horsepower to do physics with it -- namely because math in only part of the issue with physics, and accessing large amounts of collision data is really the majority of the time. The CPU (or SPUs) is/are often better than the GPU in this regard. In most games, the physics expenses are minimal, because no one wants to waste the horsepower on simulating all that stuff, or the manpower/money on creating efficient physics geometry and data for it.
* NVidia (owns PhysX), and Intel (owns Havok), are both looking into providing hardware physics solutions, in new chips.
* "Explosions" have nothing to do with physics, unless they impart forces to physics objects, or fluff objects (which the game characters cannot interact with, like debris objects), which is rare, outside of games like Red Faction. They almost always incur a particle/GPU fill hit, however, for their visual representation, unless they are offscreen.
* CryEngine is complete and handles physics, or physics middleware, as well as graphics, etc.
* The Source Engine is complete, and handles physics and graphics, and a host of other stuff.
Back on topic: Certainly animation, physics, etc. all play into the look and feel of a game. Perhaps HVS is commenting on how they intend to up the bar, in this regard, with future games... although I doubt games like their upcoming gladitoral fighter? would need much in the way of physics.
