Gpu physics?

[_Aramchek_]

Does this game support gpu physics and if not are there any plans to implement this feature?

[beastcat]

No.

[Mr_Orion]

This is not a game issue, but instead a Unity one. Also, this should probably be in the suggestions section.

[_Aramchek_]

It was more of a question than a suggestion. I have 8 cores so it\'s not like I\'m worried either way, I just wondered if it did, and if it did or was going to I would throw my old 460 gtx in to run the physics, if not. meh.

8)

however, looking at unity\'s webpage, it seems they do support nvidia physx.

http://unity3d.com/unity/engine/physics Blah only cpu physx though...weird.

[Glorious Dear Leader]

I wonder why the the Unity devs don\'t push it onto gpu. Licensing?

[_Aramchek_]

I was reading a little bit on their site, there was some update about unity engine 3 getting 'unspecified' updates, in the context used it seemed like maybe gpu physx is coming.

Whether or not that affects this game, only the devs will know for certain!

This is also why I think this is better in gd that suggestions, the devs can\'t do anything about it if the engine doesn\'t support it.

I think this would definitely be a game that would benefit from the feature if it ever gets included...that said, the game runs great for me. lol

[Corax]

It was more of a question than a suggestion. I have 8 cores so it\'s not like I\'m worried either way, I just wondered if it did, and if it did or was going to I would throw my old 460 gtx in to run the physics, if not. meh.

8)

however, looking at unity\'s webpage, it seems they do support nvidia physx.

http://unity3d.com/unity/engine/physics Blah only cpu physx though...weird.

Here\'s an interesting read regarding PhysX. The article is from two years ago, but I wouldn\'t be surprised if it were still up to date.

Basically what it says is GPU acceleration only works on Nvidia GPUs, and that it is faster there than on the CPU largely because CPU computation is artificially slowed-down (or intentionally unoptimized, whichever way you want to put it).

While as a buyer it may be frustrating to see PhysX hobbled on the CPU, it should not be surprising. Nvidia has no obligation to optimize for their competitor’s products. PhysX does not run on top of AMD GPUs, and nobody reasonably expects that it will. Not only because of the extra development and support costs, but also AMD would never want to give Nvidia early developer versions of their products. Nvidia wants PhysX to be an exclusive, and it will likely stay that way. In the case of PhysX on the CPU, there are no significant extra costs (and frankly supporting SSE is easier than x87 anyway). For Nvidia, decreasing the baseline CPU performance by using x87 instructions and a single thread makes GPUs look better. This tactic calls into question the CPU vs. GPU comparisons made using PhysX; but the name of the game at Nvidia is making the GPU look good, and PhysX certainly fits the bill in the current incarnation.

The bottom line is that Nvidia is free to hobble PhysX on the CPU by using single threaded x87 code if they wish. That choice, however, does not benefit developers or consumers though, and casts substantial doubts on the purported performance advantages of running PhysX on a GPU, rather than a CPU. There is already a large and contentious debate concerning the advantages of GPUs over CPUs and PhysX is another piece of that puzzle, but one that seems to create questions, rather than answers.

EDIT:

wording

[_Aramchek_]

I know all about physx, I r a gaming enthusiast, I am comfortable with it benifiting people with nv cards as I have one as many people do.

I notice some ati/amd people here though too.

Physx is not the only option to gpu physics however, there is also direct compute.

However the unity engine uses physx, and if the engine supported doing it on the gpu it wouldn\'t hurt anyone to have it.

As for making a difference, it\'s about a 10 fps difference if you have a dedicated card, and in a game like this that is so heavily based around physics it could provide a fair bit more of a boost than that to anyone who could take advantage of it.

The argument that 'if it doesn\'t help everyone' is kind of moot, different cpu\'s and gpu\'s will give different performance anyway, each architecture has it\'s strengths and weaknesses.

I\'m not trying to be argumentative by the way, this is just how I see it, if it were in the engine, why not use it?

[Endeavour]

I wish it used the Gpu for physics. I couldn\'t afford both a CPU and a new graphics card, so I opted for the card. Now I\'m suffering

[The Pav]

That's what baffles me actually. This game is amazing. But I just don't understand why any developer would decide to make an extremely physics intensive game using software with no GPU physics support. It hobbles fast computers and makes them crawl. Extremely poor choice.

[sal_vager]

Pav, this thread is over two years old, please start a new one instead if you want to discuss this