RSSNvidia gives PhysX to PlayStation 3 devs
By Tim Conneally | Published March 18, 2009, 12:09 PM
Nvidia yesterday announced that it will be offering its PhysX SDK for free to registered PS3 developers. The technology generates real-time physics in games by calculating the trajectory of objects, their angles of collision, and their impact force. By using it, developers can make sure that in-game object interactions are unique every time, instead of re-using a standard animation each time.
The technology has been used in more than 150 games on PC/Mac, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii, including the Gears of War series, Mirror's Edge, and Unreal Tournament 3.
The majority of the titles employing PhysX have been PC games, but an upcoming title for PlayStation 3 called Heavy Rain will exploit PhysX.
In this demo, everything is is supposedly rendered in real time. While no dramatic car crashes or building demolitions take place, the subtle features such as the curtains, rain on the window, and windblown plants are no less sophisticated. (contains adult language)
The main competition to PhysX is Havok Physics from Irish software company Havok. That technology has been used in just as many games as PhysX, including PlayStation Network exclusive PAIN, a game which is arguably all physics.
It's unfortunate that the GPU was already outdated before the PS3 was even released.
The PS3 is truly an impressive console and may still have plenty of untapped potential, but the GPU is already being pushed to its limits.
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|Too bad the next generation console is on its way and this was already relative in other games available out there. As the GPU is already outdated the real success story of the console is part game and centered around games multiplayer ability. This console should have been marketed outside of the box and inside of the living room as in your case (mine i would have chosen a different method cheaper or not have upgraded at all) Unfortunately for Sony the market for gaming isn't going to gain any ground.. I can give an example with Killzone 2. I can't join a game with my buddies as easily as the 360, I can't play utilizing private chat techniques like the 360, I can't avoid poor or loud / annoying players.
All of which could have been added after the fact.
Still the PS3 is leaps and bounds behind the 360 for the simple fact as they moulded it for the wrong type of person.
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|you're living in a vaporware fantasy world painted for you by the hype machines that are generated to kill products by promising things they never tend to deliver. sony is infamously famous for that and without seeing a hard physical demo of whatever their next gen system is it may as well not even exist. hell, the ps3 didnt even have a controller until a few months before it shipped. everyone thought it was a boomerang. even sony. they're not even scheduled to push a next gen anything for another 2-3 years. in the mean time, i'll be firmly planted in the present reality watching this whole cycle repeat itself while the ps3 fans keep promising things will get better just as soon as their 3 year old consoles get to all that "untapped power"
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|As you can see by the hundreds of comments, the PS3 is still big news. Mine makes a fine Blu Ray player and a lazy man's web browser, oh and I have one game.
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|LOL!
"Mine makes a fine Blu Ray player and a lazy man's web browser, oh and I have one game."
Exactly the same here.
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|The BD capability and standard DVD upscaling of the PS3 is still unmatched at any price. Sony really screwed up marketing the PS3 as both a game system and HD movie player. The PS3 still doesn't know what it is. They should have sold it as a game system and "added" BD support with a firmware update a few months later.
Meanwhile, the system that used standard DL DVD's as its primary optical storage is killing the PS3 in game sales. Burnout Paradise used pretty much the entire disc and has already had two or three huge add-ons. The extra 2 GB they needed came in the form of updates that were "free". Very smart use of limited storage.
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|"...and standard DVD upscaling of the PS3 is still unmatched at any price."
Sorry Hollywood__, but that's nonsense. Granted, it is the best Blu-ray Disc player on the market, but its standard DVD upscaling ability is embarrassing compared to quite a few other manufacturers' upscaling DVD players (namely Oppo, if you want to talk price/quality ratios). As much as you deal with home theater equipment, I was surprised to read that from you.
Blu-ray is the main reason why I got a PS3, but my Oppo DV-980H stomps the PS3 into the ground in DVD upscaling quality... and that's Oppo's "low-end" player. The DV-983H is their current flagship player, and the first (and only) player ever to score a perfect 100 on the Secrets of Home Theater DVD benchmark. The PS3 was consistently one of the worst progressive scan DVD players they ever tested, consistently failing all cadence tests, no matter which firmware was used.
I can play the same DVD on both the PS3 and the Oppo, and the difference is quite obvious. The Oppo delivers quality that comes close to matching the BD output of the PS3.
I seriously doubt that the rather large difference in playback quality between DVD and BD on the PS3 was a mistake, though. Naturally, Sony would have wanted everyone to actually "see" a larger difference in quality between standard DVD upscaled and Blu-ray than there actually is. Apparently, they made sure that everyone would with the PS3. Obviously, there are others who know that it can be made to look better... because it has already been done, and done well.
I'm slowly coming around to accepting Blu-ray though. Serenity is fantastic on that format. ;-)
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