Havok Archive

Nvidia Considers Porting PhysX to OpenCL

By
Mark
Published: April 28, 2010Posted in: Game PhysicsTags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Nvidia Considers Porting PhysX to OpenCL

OpenCL-PhysX

bit-tech has some interesting and great news this morning about the future of PhysX. In a recent Q&A session, bit-tech talked to Nvidia’s director of product management for PhysX, Nadeem Mohammad, about the future of PhysX and weather the company plans to port it over to OpenCL.

This is pretty big news that Nvidia may be planning on porting PhysX over to OpenCL. This would allow ATI users to run PhysX on their cards and we would no longer have to worry about using modified drivers and dedicated Nvidia card’s for PhysX in ATI systems to run PhysX enabled games. Read the rest of the article at bit-tech.net here.

From bit-tech.net:

Nvidia has so far guarded its GPU PhysX technology behind a large CUDA-shaped wall, meaning that anyone who wants to use it has to use CUDA too. However, the company has revealed that this may not be the case in the future, as Nvidia is considering porting PhysX over to OpenCL; the API that’s also being used by AMD to accelerate Havok physics.

In a recent Q&A session to coincide with the launch of Nvidia’s APEX tools for games developers using PhysX, we took the opportunity to ask Nvidia’s director of product management for PhysX, Nadeem Mohammad, about whether there were any plans to port PhysX over to OpenCL.

Read the rest of the article here.

Games With Remarkable Physics Effects

By
Mark
Published: April 22, 2010Posted in: Game PhysicsTags: , , , , , , ,
Games With Remarkable Physics Effects

PC Games Hardware has posted an interested article about “Games with remarkable physics effects”. the article talks about how developers choose to use physics in games to change the way they are played, along with a nice slideshow showing off games that have “Remarkable Physics Effects”. read the rest of the article here.

From PC Games hardware:

Good physics simulations can make a game feel more realistic and improve the gaming experience – especially if the player benefits from special effects. Pc Games Hardware takes a look at the past the present and the future of physics in games.

Physics in games
The term physics in games covers quite a big amount of things. First of all the developers of a game have to choose if the physics effect will affect gameplay or are integrated just for show. They also have to decide if they want to create their own physics engine or if they are going to use middleware. Some well known solutions are Novodex, Havok or ODE. To simulate whole forests with correct physics calculations many developers make use of Speedtree and Euphoria deals with the realistic body movements.

Read the rest of the article here.

Havok Physics GDC 2010 Destruction and Cloth Demo’s

By
Mark
Published: March 12, 2010Posted in: Game PhysicsTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Havok Physics GDC 2010 Destruction and Cloth Demo’s

Some awesome new Havok Physics destruction and cloth demos have been shown off at GDC 2010. The first video is showing Havok Destruction in action where pretty much everything can be destroyed. Stone and wood can be fractured, and metal such as a barrel can be deformed as if it were real and entire buildings and structures can be destroyed. The video shows how with Havok Physics Destruction you can create truly “Dynamic Game Environments”. The destructible bridge demo we recently posted about in the “Awesome Video Game Physics Destruction Videos You Need to Watch” is also showed at a different angle in this demo video to show off “Large Scale Destruction”. The video finishes up with “High Fidelity Building Destruction” showing how you can make buildings that can be completely destroyed or have certain sections blown away.

This is definitely awesome stuff, anyone that has been playing Battlefield: Field Bad Company 2, knows how destructible environments really change the way we play games and add an all new wow factor, imagine in the future when physics based destruction is used more and more in games.

If you are fascinated by physics based destruction be sure to check out “Awesome Video Game Physics Destruction Videos You Need to Watch”

There is also a new Havok Cloth demo showing off realistic cloth.


Havok GDC 2010 Destruction Demo

Havok GDC 2010 Cloth Demo


AMD – “Game Developers Only use PhysX for the cash” AMD’s GPU-accelerated Physics Alternative Coming Soon

By
Mark
Published: March 8, 2010Posted in: Game PhysicsTags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
AMD – “Game Developers Only use PhysX for the cash” AMD’s GPU-accelerated Physics Alternative Coming Soon

THINQ had a very interesting talk with AMD’s senior manager of developer relations, Richard Huddy. Richard says that developers are implementing PhysX into their games simply for the cash, Richard explains,“They’re not doing it because they want it; they’re doing it because they’re paid to do it”. Richard also states that he is very confident about “AMD’s open approach to GPU-accelerated physics as an alternative, and thinks that it will eventually force PhysX to join GLide and A3D in the proprietary API museum”.

This is very interesting news and good for games and physics development. Here at GamePhys we don’t really care which video game physics engine eventually becomes standard in video games and video game development. Physics is no doubt the next big thing in gaming and will really change the way we play games, whether it is PhysX, Havok, or AMD’s upcoming solution we are just exciting that this battle is really heating up and hope to see more cool video game physics developments in the near future.

From THINQ:

Speaking to THINQ, AMD’s senior manager of developer relations, Richard Huddy, said: “What I’ve seen with physics, or PhysX rather, is that Nvidia create a marketing deal with a title, and then as part of that marketing deal, they have the right to go in and implement PhysX in the game.”

“They’re not doing it because they want it; they’re doing it because they’re paid to do it. So we have a rather artificial situation at the moment where you see PhysX in games, but it isn’t because the game developer wants it in there.”

In fact, Huddy reckons that no developers outside Epic genuinely wanted to implement GPU-accelerated PhysX in their game. “I’m not aware of any GPU-accelerated PhysX code which is there because the games developer wanted it with the exception of the Unreal stuff,” he says. “I don’t know of any games company that’s actually said ‘you know what, I really want GPU-accelerated PhysX, I’d like to tie myself to Nvidia and that sounds like a great plan.’”

Read the rest of the article here at THINQ.


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