First Physics chip!

[jeepnut24]

Here is the future....

 

 

Physics chip article and interview

[SteveW]

What someone needs to do is to program a game AI chip, to essentially 'think' for the game's characters. I'd like to see bots in games like Unreal Tournament 200X behave like a living person's controlling it. Or play a squad combat game where my AI teammates don't run in front of me while I'm firing a machine gun.

Edited April 14, 2005 by SteveW

[Atarifever]

Or an escort mission AI where the computer doesn't keep getting stuck behind a bush while you're trying to protect it from a mountain of zombies.

[keilbaca]

That won't happen for a good couple years to come. The processing power to do it is insane. Not even the latest AMD Athlon FX 55 can do it. Dual is a Maybe, so yeah don't expect it anytime soon. You will most likely see it first on the PS3, due to the cells they are throwing in there, the basic theory is a cell for each part that requires processing.

[Clint Thompson]

Sounds interesting at least. Makes me think of Atari in a weird way too... as innovative as Atari was and to do something "proprietary" in their system is what made the stuff fun and different from everything / everyone else.

[Atarinvader]

This isn't a real revolution, it's just segregating some processes away from the main CPU. It'll make games a bit faster (and consoles expensive), allowing for slightly more accurately modeled physics.

 

The problem with accurate physics is that it makes for boring games. Even the most ardent 'simulation' fudges Newtonian mechanics to allow for more interesting gameplay. Your average person wouldn't be able to drive a Formula One car without training.

[+Random Terrain]

The problem with accurate physics is that it makes for boring games. Even the most ardent 'simulation' fudges Newtonian mechanics to allow for more interesting gameplay. Your average person wouldn't be able to drive a Formula One car without training.

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That fudging is nice for cars and airplanes and things like that, but there are times when I want realistic physics. Pinball is the first thing that pops into my mind.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Bad physics is exactly why I never liked Super Mario Bros. The way he jumps is just all wrong.

 

I don't even like ports of Joust very much because the gravity seems stronger, making it harder to maintain a stable position.

[Jess Ragan]

There's no way this is going to be the next great revolution in video games. Anyone who tells themselves that is deluding themselves. This could make games more realistic, but not so much that it completely changes the experience (and if it does, it won't be for the better, as AtariInvader pointed out).

 

JR

[keilbaca]

There's no way this is going to be the next great revolution in video games.  Anyone who tells themselves that is deluding themselves.  This could make games more realistic, but not so much that it completely changes the experience (and if it does, it won't be for the better, as AtariInvader pointed out).

 

JR

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Exactly. They took this idea from Progressive Scan TV's, the way how each color has its own processor. Then Microshit decided to seperate the problem. Expect 2 PowerPC processors go to processing, and one just for graphics or physics. Also, expect the PS3 to have a central processor, with a cell for each little part (a cell for controllers, a cell for graphics, one for physics, etc.) Each cell has been able to get to 4Ghz with ease. PS3 is going to smoke the Xbox Next hands down.

[jeepnut24]

And everyone said seperating a graphics chip wasn't going to be a revolution either...

 

I think you all fail to see the processing power needed to run some of todays physics engines. Granted many here have little interest in modern games, but given the power of a seperate processor for physics and game mechanics is a huge step forward. It will lead to better physics, not necasarily more realistic, but more consitent and accurate, not to mention more detail in game, and ultimately more complex games.

[jeepnut24]

Exactly. They took this idea from Progressive Scan TV's, the way how each color has its own processor. Then Microshit decided to seperate the problem. Expect 2 PowerPC processors go to processing, and one just for graphics or physics. Also, expect the PS3 to have a central processor, with a cell for each little part (a cell for controllers, a cell for graphics, one for physics, etc.) Each cell has been able to get to 4Ghz with ease. PS3 is going to smoke the Xbox Next hands down.

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You REALLY need to read up on the cell techonology and the article itself. First off, the physics chip in the link has nothing to do with XBOX 360. Secondly, there aren't going to be a huge number of cells in the PS3, more like 3 or 4 tops. Thirdly, both platforms are likely to be similar in power and capability.

 

Oh, and one other thing, there aren't and hard facts about either in terms of processing power. You might want to wait till E3 before you spout off numbers...

[CPUWIZ]

You REALLY need to read up on the cell techonology and the article itself.

 

I think you do, the cell has 9 cores.

 

The 'Cell' chip which will consist of 234 million transistors, and have a die size of 221mm sqaured. A single Cell is theoretically capable of achieving a maximum of 256 billion floating-point operations per second (GFLOPS). This astounding single precision (32bit) floating point performance has been achieved by using a new radical architecture.

 

The Cell chip uses a highly parallel architecture with a total of 9 cores. These cores consist of a custom general purpose PowerPC processor core which is connected to 8 "synergistic processing elements" or SPE’s for short though a central bus called the element interface bus [EIS].

 

The PPC core is the brains and the SPE’s are the main workers in this design. Unlike some other parallel processors the Cell can be clocked very high, in fact with voltages ranging from 0.9 to 1.3 volts it can reach clock speeds of 3.2 to 5.2GHz. At 4GHz each SPE can achieve a theoretical maximum of 32GFLOPS.

 

It's a monster.

[Starscream]

Remember the "emotion engine" ?

 

The PS3 claims sound so familiar........

 

And it will be very interesting to see how games are going to be developed to utilize all the potential. And from the sounds of it, Sony doesn't care to have dev tools in place to make the task less daunting.

[jeepnut24]

You REALLY need to read up on the cell techonology and the article itself.

 

I think you do, the cell has 9 cores.

 

The 'Cell' chip which will consist of 234 million transistors, and have a die size of 221mm sqaured. A single Cell is theoretically capable of achieving a maximum of 256 billion floating-point operations per second (GFLOPS). This astounding single precision (32bit) floating point performance has been achieved by using a new radical architecture.

 

The Cell chip uses a highly parallel architecture with a total of 9 cores. These cores consist of a custom general purpose PowerPC processor core which is connected to 8 "synergistic processing elements" or SPE’s for short though a central bus called the element interface bus [EIS].

 

The PPC core is the brains and the SPE’s are the main workers in this design. Unlike some other parallel processors the Cell can be clocked very high, in fact with voltages ranging from 0.9 to 1.3 volts it can reach clock speeds of 3.2 to 5.2GHz. At 4GHz each SPE can achieve a theoretical maximum of 32GFLOPS.

 

It's a monster.

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Is that the OFFICIAL word from Sony??? No hard facts have been released yet on the PS3's version of the cell. Let alone the Cell technology in the XBOX 360 or the Revolution. Either way, its still sony and when has sony not lied or exagerated on the power of their systems. Not to mention the ease of development. XNA should help out a bit in the xbox / PC market in that respect. It can have all the power in the world on but if you cant use it, what good is it.

 

Emotion engine anyone????