However, the light coming from the sources behind the object would not be able to pass through the "invisible" object, thus causing an object-shaped black area in front of the background.
That is because of the IO bottleneck moreso than because the purpose built processor is more powerful for the particular task. That's why 2D acceleration is still important, even though modern CPUs can render 2D scenes in signifigantly faster than real time. IO intesive tasks, of which graphics display is one, are well suited to specialized hardware.
Even though you didn't really address the matter you quoted, I'll point out that even though texturing is a I/O intensive task, the bottleneck in graphics hardware is the shaders. Modern GPUs have a lot of parallelized calculating horsepower, albeit specialized but still on a completely different level from CPUs. Just open up a parallax mapping pixel shader in notepad and see how complex it is; pixel shaders are run once for every pixel, I seriously doubt a CPU can handle that kind of calculations!
Physics is not an IO intensive process, and the calculations required are well suited to general purpose CPUs.
That is an fascinating hypothesis, but real world observations don't support it. Try piling up a huge amount of objects in HL2 and throw a grenade in the middle; unless you have some kind of amazing ubermachine the fps will slow down to ~0.1. Just to be sure that it isn't your GPU that's bottlenecked, look at the ground so it doesn't need to draw the objects. Now either the engineers at Havok are crappy at optimizing, or Intel/AMD needs to make their CPUs ~500 times faster before physics will run acceptably on a CPU.
Interestingly enough, it's much easier to obtain venture capital for a piece of hardware than an API...
Supposedly PPUs are going to have much longer refresh cycles than GPUs, so you'd end up buying the same physics chip if you upgrade your graphics card yearly. There aren't any games that require a PPU yet, so a separate card makes a lot more sense. Now audio on the other hand would be a great addition to graphics cards.
But graphics can be made to scale without changing gameplay. Quake 1 played fine in software, just didn't look as good. Physics is a more integral part of gameplay. Used just as eye candy, I'm not sure it'll be effective enough to sell people on a $300 part. Espically because it needs to be a lot better than what software offers. I remember getting my first 3d card, it was night and day the difference. Well worth the money to me. How well will the PhysX do?
Make some multiplayer maps require a PPU by having gameplay affecting physics. This way those without a PPU can play singleplayer and most multiplayer maps fine, and those with a PPU get better FPS in all maps and gameplay altering physics in some maps. As the installed base grows, start decreasing the amount of non-PPU maps in games eventually making the PPU mandatory.
1. Develop a format even more restrictive than Realmedia and Windows Media, e.g. somekind of hardware-DRM scheme which forces people to hold their breath while listening to said format. 2. Thanks to this law everyone has to use your format! Charge obscene amounts of money in royalties. 3. Profit!
Oops, forgot to ??? the second step, don't you dare steal my idea! And no, didn't RTFA.:)
A setup like that would have quite a latency, so it wouldn't be very interactive. But I guess it would still technically be able to reach high fps, which the GPP was interested in.
HL2 is singlethreaded so the performance would be the same as on one Itanium. Also x86 code has to be emulated on Itaniums = slow. Oh and no GPU which means pixel/vertex shaders would have to run on software. Educated guess: 0.1 fps.
Oblivion uses the Havok engine which doesn't have support for hardware acceleration yet. Havok FX will support GPU-assisted physics acceleration, but that costs extra $$$ in licensing fees, so the chances of Bethesda adding that support in a patch are nil. The only engine that supports Ageia's PPU is their own PhysX API; I haven't used Havok's engine so I don't know how different they are, but Ageia's is pretty easy to use (and more importantly, costs nothing), so putting that in a future Oblivion expansion is in the realm of possibility, especially if they plan on having PPU support in Fallout 3 (it will use the same engine, so porting changes should be easier). So yes, you do sound a bit cynical.
Why would it be any more/less dangerous than a nation developing nuclear weapons? MAD would still apply, and the chances of hurting their own population are a lot higher with biological weapons. Even though biological weapons are cheaper to produce, the diplomatic penalty of using them is not.
Other areas of technology won't be standing still, I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future we have a completely artificial immune system, capable of handling all harmful substances/bacteria/viruses that enter the body.
Slashdot Mirror
However, the light coming from the sources behind the object would not be able to pass through the "invisible" object, thus causing an object-shaped black area in front of the background.
That is because of the IO bottleneck moreso than because the purpose built processor is more powerful for the particular task. That's why 2D acceleration is still important, even though modern CPUs can render 2D scenes in signifigantly faster than real time. IO intesive tasks, of which graphics display is one, are well suited to specialized hardware.
Even though you didn't really address the matter you quoted, I'll point out that even though texturing is a I/O intensive task, the bottleneck in graphics hardware is the shaders. Modern GPUs have a lot of parallelized calculating horsepower, albeit specialized but still on a completely different level from CPUs. Just open up a parallax mapping pixel shader in notepad and see how complex it is; pixel shaders are run once for every pixel, I seriously doubt a CPU can handle that kind of calculations!
Physics is not an IO intensive process, and the calculations required are well suited to general purpose CPUs.
That is an fascinating hypothesis, but real world observations don't support it. Try piling up a huge amount of objects in HL2 and throw a grenade in the middle; unless you have some kind of amazing ubermachine the fps will slow down to ~0.1. Just to be sure that it isn't your GPU that's bottlenecked, look at the ground so it doesn't need to draw the objects. Now either the engineers at Havok are crappy at optimizing, or Intel/AMD needs to make their CPUs ~500 times faster before physics will run acceptably on a CPU.
Interestingly enough, it's much easier to obtain venture capital for a piece of hardware than an API...
That does sound interesting, any source?
Supposedly PPUs are going to have much longer refresh cycles than GPUs, so you'd end up buying the same physics chip if you upgrade your graphics card yearly. There aren't any games that require a PPU yet, so a separate card makes a lot more sense. Now audio on the other hand would be a great addition to graphics cards.
But graphics can be made to scale without changing gameplay. Quake 1 played fine in software, just didn't look as good. Physics is a more integral part of gameplay. Used just as eye candy, I'm not sure it'll be effective enough to sell people on a $300 part. Espically because it needs to be a lot better than what software offers. I remember getting my first 3d card, it was night and day the difference. Well worth the money to me. How well will the PhysX do?
Make some multiplayer maps require a PPU by having gameplay affecting physics. This way those without a PPU can play singleplayer and most multiplayer maps fine, and those with a PPU get better FPS in all maps and gameplay altering physics in some maps. As the installed base grows, start decreasing the amount of non-PPU maps in games eventually making the PPU mandatory.
Yes, because we all remember how Intel's MMX put all the graphics card manufacturers out of business.
Hopefully UT2k7 will remedy this, as it supports Ageia's PPU.
Yes.
1. Develop a format even more restrictive than Realmedia and Windows Media, e.g. somekind of hardware-DRM scheme which forces people to hold their breath while listening to said format.
:)
2. Thanks to this law everyone has to use your format! Charge obscene amounts of money in royalties.
3. Profit!
Oops, forgot to ??? the second step, don't you dare steal my idea! And no, didn't RTFA.
And how does this solve the problem?
Municist?
That episode rocks! Especially the frikkin' laser beams on their heads!
Except the spokes are perpendicular to the old ones, the tires are on the inside and the rubber melts at high speeds.
Don't forget 'Two Kirks, A Khan & A Pizza Place'.
A setup like that would have quite a latency, so it wouldn't be very interactive. But I guess it would still technically be able to reach high fps, which the GPP was interested in.
Windows Server 2003 Itanium Edition which supports software emulation of 32-bit x86
HL2 is singlethreaded so the performance would be the same as on one Itanium. Also x86 code has to be emulated on Itaniums = slow. Oh and no GPU which means pixel/vertex shaders would have to run on software. Educated guess: 0.1 fps.
Unless they were too young to remember.
I don't remember MS promising to deliver Vista in 2001, and I doubt you have proof to the contrary...
Obviously there's an underground oil well which will burn for the next 500 years. Expect much sidequesty goodness in TES 7.
1. Pour gasoline on hands.
2. Ignite said hands.
3. ????
4. Profit!
Oblivion uses the Havok engine which doesn't have support for hardware acceleration yet. Havok FX will support GPU-assisted physics acceleration, but that costs extra $$$ in licensing fees, so the chances of Bethesda adding that support in a patch are nil. The only engine that supports Ageia's PPU is their own PhysX API; I haven't used Havok's engine so I don't know how different they are, but Ageia's is pretty easy to use (and more importantly, costs nothing), so putting that in a future Oblivion expansion is in the realm of possibility, especially if they plan on having PPU support in Fallout 3 (it will use the same engine, so porting changes should be easier). So yes, you do sound a bit cynical.
I don't think that is the problem, paying for games is nowadays pretty much voluntary.
Why would it be any more/less dangerous than a nation developing nuclear weapons? MAD would still apply, and the chances of hurting their own population are a lot higher with biological weapons. Even though biological weapons are cheaper to produce, the diplomatic penalty of using them is not.
Other areas of technology won't be standing still, I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future we have a completely artificial immune system, capable of handling all harmful substances/bacteria/viruses that enter the body.
He should have sued them for copyright infringement and put the RIAA on the case.