PPU's in non-FPS games....

[superkdogg]

So, am I missing something, or will it be pretty much impossible to make a MMO, RTS, etc. that will need or want a PPU?

I totally see the enhancement that a FPS and sims like driving, racing, boating, flight, etc. would get out of this, and tbh it's exciting from that angle alone, but I really only play MMO's and RTS's. Everything else I play for maybe a couple weeks at a time and I myself will not drop $300 for a card that will make approximately 20% of the time that I spend gaming a little bit more fun/better looking.

I feel like this phenomenon is missing me, or maybe I am just an atypical sort of gamer. Fill me in.

 

[desrin]

So, am I missing something, or will it be pretty much impossible to make a MMO, RTS, etc. that will need or want a PPU?

I totally see the enhancement that a FPS and sims like driving, racing, boating, flight, etc. would get out of this, and tbh it's exciting from that angle alone, but I really only play MMO's and RTS's. Everything else I play for maybe a couple weeks at a time and I myself will not drop $300 for a card that will make approximately 20% of the time that I spend gaming a little bit more fun/better looking.

I feel like this phenomenon is missing me, or maybe I am just an atypical sort of gamer. Fill me in.

I can see an RTS using a PPU for sure... bodies flying around, buildings crumbling.. thats all physics.

 

[superkdogg]

I can see an RTS using a PPU for sure... bodies flying around, buildings crumbling.. thats all physics.

I see what you're saying, but while that is physics, it is not physics that affect the gameplay at all. To me it seems like those are the scenarios where the HavokFX solution would be just fine, but the PhysX dedicated PPU would not even be used. (again- I could be missing something)

In a FPS an opponent could be hit by a bullet fragment or shrapnel that the PPU would put into play. In the scenario you're describing it would look cool, but where the flying bodies land would not matter and buildings crumbling also would not matter (without a major change in how RTS is written as right now RTS is a fabulous front-end for a board game and infinite dice rolls-variations in how buildings fall are not currently part of the equation).

Also, how is it that City of Villians can use PPU's but City of Heroes doesn't? It's the same universe, right? How does that work?

 

[gerbiaNem]

Imagine having canon balls actually hitting into a large building when you send it? How about a boat actually sinking when attacked? How about cutting down trees to block off enemy troops? Landslides, avalanches, real-time weather effects. What about floods? There could be a lot of really cool gameplay additions.

 

[ChingChang]

So, am I missing something, or will it be pretty much impossible to make a MMO, RTS, etc. that will need or want a PPU?

Apparently Warhammer Online by Mythic Entertainment will support PPUs. I'm not sure what they're going to use it for, but I do know that these things would have been amazing in DAoC keep sieges. Would be pretty neat to see your catapult actually do damage to keeps each time it hits, knocking a stone off of the keep or whatever. Then that stone crushes some lurikeen
Or when someone pours oil down onto people who are attacking the gate, the oil realisticly splashes down onto whatever is under it, damaging anyone based on how much/where it hits them.

 

[Xipher]

The novodex rocket demo has one demo of a bunch of trebuchet and catapults throwing balls at a tower of blocks. Pretty cool little demo.

Quick making a video, will post shortly.

http://www.filecloud.com/files/file.php?user_file_id=150562

Captured with Fraps, this dropped the frame rate too about 15-20 fps durring capture, the demo normally runs about 105fps without issue, so it looks slow, but the actual demo is a bit faster, and looks better. I encoded it WMV, and it kinda sucks, but 5MB is better then 500+MB for the original caputre with fraps, so that will have to do.

 

[peacetilence]

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1045928

See here, I have the same feelings, though, I would like to see games that step away from the traditional FPS and RTS (the pc world really has enough of them, adding physics isn't really that big of a step when they are practically the same games over and over) instead, I would like to see more arcade type games and more arcadey flight simulators, racing games, space sims, even platformers, similar to the way pc games were in the early to mid 90's. Games like Stunt Island, Interstate 76, Tie Fighter, Wing Commander, Mech Warrior etc. Imagine updated versions of games with insane physics and graphics. 3D cards were the primary drive of innovation for these types of games, so my hope is that PPU cards will also create innovative games similar to 3d cards in the mid 90's. As it is now, most pc games are a graphics showcase primarily and completely lacking in any entertaining gameplay.

 

[Xipher]

Personally I'm a big fan of first person shooters, thats just my style. I think a new Mech game wouldn't be bad though.

 

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

I bet we can easily think of ideas for an RPG or something that will take advtantage of heavy physics for gameplay. When I use the cliche phrase "Imagine the possibilities," I mean it. Thinking of things you can use with physics for RPGs boggles the mind ~~

 

[uzor]

Imagine having canon balls actually hitting into a large building when you send it? How about a boat actually sinking when attacked? How about cutting down trees to block off enemy troops? Landslides, avalanches, real-time weather effects. What about floods? There could be a lot of really cool gameplay additions.

I think serbiaNem's on to the right idea. When you mention physics in an RTS, I immediately think of how one could use the environment as a weapon/ to advantage. The stack of logs rolling down the hill into the AT-ST, tripwires, etc from the Endor battle in Return of the Jedi, for example. Basically making the environment count and usable to your advantage. Put your city in a valley behind a big mountain range....Dang, I can't get to it by grouind anymore. But wait. I can drop some explosives onto a low/thin point to breach it so my ground troops can get in - terrain deformation (yes I know this has been debated in other threads, but it could be put to good effective use). Now suddenly you have 2 or 3 points to defend against me instead of just one. The possibilities really are endless. The designers just need to think about how the technology can allow these genres to expand/grow/evolve into some thing new, bigger and better.

::edit::
remember the napalm in Scorched Earth? imagine that in 3d with the terrain and wind dictating which way it flows.