Physics on Display in Havok, Ageia Catfight
Posted by: Newsfactory on: 05/08/2006 04:43 PM [ Print | 1 comment(s) ] · 3176 views
Earlier this week, in anticipation of the first real review of Ageia's PhysX card beginning to show up, the folks at rival physics software company Havok sent out a juicy e-mail to the press, including us, talking down Ageia's solution. Havok, you may recall, is working with graphics companies like NVIDIA and ATI on a product called Havok FX that will accelerate in-game physics using a GPU.
The primary focus of the e-mail is the one major game title so far to ship with support for PhysX hardware, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.
Havok contends in the e-mail message that Ghost Recon uses Havok?s API for all gameplay-impacting physics, on the PC and in the various console releases. They argue Ageia's API is only used for eye candy-type particle effects and only on the game's PPU-accelerated code path. What's more, they claim, those particle effects are unimpressive, with volumes easily achievable in software, yet the game slows down observably when PPU acceleration is active.
The TechReport
The primary focus of the e-mail is the one major game title so far to ship with support for PhysX hardware, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.
Havok contends in the e-mail message that Ghost Recon uses Havok?s API for all gameplay-impacting physics, on the PC and in the various console releases. They argue Ageia's API is only used for eye candy-type particle effects and only on the game's PPU-accelerated code path. What's more, they claim, those particle effects are unimpressive, with volumes easily achievable in software, yet the game slows down observably when PPU acceleration is active.
The TechReport
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Juomaru Posts: 112 Joined: 2002-03-29 |
#64569 Posted on: 05/09/2006 05:02 AM
It should be called a dog fight, not catfight. |
