From the mouth of my Boss...

AaronP

AaronP

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Messages
11,527
Okay, we got 1 PPU in to test it and you know what my boss says to me? "So thats the PPU huh? So how do I overclock it?" Spoken like a true Overclocker :D However his next question:

Him: "Is there anything that even works with this?"
Me: "A Tech Demo"
Him:"Great, cause those are the best games in the world".
 
Yeah, that's one thing with a PPU that sucks for the early adopters: no game support.

If this is truly slated to be a successful product, I think Ageia should have waited until a few more games were developed that can utilize it and maybe throw 1 or 2 of them in the box with the PPU.

I just have a bad feeling this product won't survive in it's targeted price range with ATI and NV starting to utilize GPU physics (HavokFX, etc).
 
I don't think that it has technically been launched for the consumer yet. The system builders have it because of the long lead times in integrating new parts into their systems, and as far as I know the only sources to obtain them were the 250 offered from Vector, and OEM cards.
 
Yeah it wasn't meant to be sold to a consumer yet.
 
Does the GRAW demo take advantage of it? :) It's out today, can anyone confirm if it's much better, or just a gimmick? ;)
 
Yes but as builders, we can't technically really test the hardware. And tech support, holy shit what am I going to do if one of the fuckers break!
 
Your boss sounds exactly like the guy who runs the computer store here in Manassas... I could just see him saying those things.
 
Amanda said:
Does the GRAW demo take advantage of it? :) It's out today, can anyone confirm if it's much better, or just a gimmick? ;)
Click to expand...

yes the demo takes advantage of PPU.
wasnt aware that it shipped untill around May 3rd.
and nobody will know untill the game is actually out, reviewed, and tested with a PPU card.
 
You can pay for one, sure, but anything you order isnt going to ship till next month. Like I said, OEM is available, but retail is not
 
yea you should get your boss to get the graw demo and play with and without the ppu and let us know how it goes
 
Leon2ky said:
Him: "Is there anything that even works with this?"
Me: "A Tech Demo"
Him:"Great, cause those are the best games in the world".
Click to expand...

Hey, Doom 3 was a pretty awesome tech demo...


:D
 
Leon2ky said:
Okay, we got 1 PPU in to test it and you know what my boss says to me? "So thats the PPU huh? So how do I overclock it?" Spoken like a true Overclocker :D However his next question:

Him: "Is there anything that even works with this?"
Me: "A Tech Demo"
Him:"Great, cause those are the best games in the world".
Click to expand...

He's got a good point, but without the hardware being out there first, there will be no software to take advantage of it. Though they could have gotten game devs to at least release something concurrently with the card maybe as a bundled deal. Kind of like they used to do when the first group of 3D cards came out.
 
Heh..all of these same arguments were brought up back in the Voodoo days when 3d cards were luxury items. I do believe they have created an industry (pandoras box has been opened). However, it will be interesting to see if their hardware becomes the standard or not. I do believe they have made a fatal mistake by requiring their API instead of helping other API's use their tech.

If all of the major physics engines could use the card, product support would not be an issue in a few years. Right now though, you have 3 major engines all using different hardware. This is not a good situation (look at what happened when 3dfx tried to force people to use GLIDE)...
 
Ulrick28 said:
Heh..all of these same arguments were brought up back in the Voodoo days when 3d cards were luxury items. I do believe they have created an industry (pandoras box has been opened). However, it will be interesting to see if their hardware becomes the standard or not. I do believe they have made a fatal mistake by requiring their API instead of helping other API's use their tech.

If all of the major physics engines could use the card, product support would not be an issue in a few years. Right now though, you have 3 major engines all using different hardware. This is not a good situation (look at what happened when 3dfx tried to force people to use GLIDE)...
Click to expand...

I think it was mentioned in another thread that Havok wanted to charge Ageia to include support for the hardware acceleration. Havok has been charging for its SDK, they don't want to move to a standard API since I think that would kill them and their business model. They want to keep the software based approach so they can charge for it. Ageia picked up Novodex and modified it to use the hardware (and I'm sure they have been extending the API). They aren't charging for it either, and that might help it gain popularity.

I know their have been rumors of DirectX adding physics as well, I wonder what Havok would respond with? (It would be hard to compete with, that's for sure)

EDIT: WOOPS, spell check didn't catch that mistake (charge, not change)
 
HekoAridese said:
The Boss knows what overclocking is? :eek:
Click to expand...

Our business revolves around it, and he knows as much about Overclocking as I do.
 
Leon2ky said:
Our business revolves around it, and he knows as much about Overclocking as I do.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a pretty sweet job....where do I sign up?
 
Dan_D said:
He's got a good point, but without the hardware being out there first, there will be no software to take advantage of it. Though they could have gotten game devs to at least release something concurrently with the card maybe as a bundled deal. Kind of like they used to do when the first group of 3D cards came out.
Click to expand...

Actually, they could have increased their base further if they had further marketed their software API first and just updated it with the patch at the time of release. There are a few current games that actually did this but they're not enough to make a significant number.
 
DejaWiz said:
If this is truly slated to be a successful product, I think Ageia should have waited until a few more games were developed...
Click to expand...
Apparently the card was ready to go in production in November, and they've just been sitting on it since then for exactly this reason.
 
LuminaryJanitor said:
Apparently the card was ready to go in production in November, and they've just been sitting on it since then for exactly this reason.
Click to expand...

I would buy one if its price went down or it came bundled with a few games, otherwise I can't see myself buying it for a game I don't care about.
 
Xipher said:
I think it was mentioned in another thread that Havok wanted to change Ageia to include support for the hardware acceleration. Havok has been charging for its SDK, they don't want to move to a standard API since I think that would kill them and their business model. They want to keep the software based approach so they can charge for it. Ageia picked up Novodex and modified it to use the hardware (and I'm sure they have been extending the API). They aren't charging for it either, and that might help it gain popularity.

I know their have been rumors of DirectX adding physics as well, I wonder what Havok would respond with? (It would be hard to compete with, that's for sure)
Click to expand...

While everybody has been talking about FPS or *twitch* games (such as GRAW), PPU-enhanced titles also are not going to be strictly limited to shooters. One game coming up real fast (in fact, it's due this month) that will support PhysX is (don't laugh) not only an RTS title, but has Microsoft as publisher. Could some of those that are itching for PhysX (and Ageia) to fail be anti-Microsoft?

Physics support is also going to Rather Large in terms of the XBOX360 (and the PS3, of course). Thing is, if PhysX is the API of choice for consoles, a similar, if not identical, implementation for PCs could end the dearth of multiplatform titles that don't suck (seriously, what was the last multiplatform title that didn't suck? Madden 2005? MK4? Forsaken?)

The very reason why *none* of the three titles sucked was because the implementation on each platform both looked and played pretty much *identically* (incidentally, MK4 was also the last decent beat-em-up for the PC, and Forsaken was the first game to be written for the PC *first* then ported across to consoles). There is a lot to be said for API consistency.
 
btw, I notice a little mistake it the post you quoted, it was supposed to be "charge" not "change" in that first sentance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top