Ageia to ship Cell-optimized PhysX SDK for PS3

[mckmas8808]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 21, 2006 - AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that the latest version of AGEIA PhysX™ SDK version 2.4 will become available to registered PLAYSTATION® 3 game content developers on March 31, 2006.


The AGEIA PhysX SDK is highly recognized for its extensive physics functionality and multithreading capabilities, which are uniquely suited for the multicore architecture of the Cell processor adopted on PLAYSTATION® 3. The latest AGEIA PhysX SDK version 2.4 is optimized for the Cell processor, adding mind-blowing physics action to the high-definition graphics of PLAYSTATION® 3 titles.

In the 2.4 release, several components of the AGEIA PhysX pipeline have been offloaded from the PPU of the PLAYSTATION® 3 to the SPUs; developers can fully control the component deployment. This has resulted in a 50% reduction in maximum PPU load, leaving more room for game code and smooth frame rates.

http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/9619
Nice to see things like this in the PS3 SDK.

Discuss!

 

[ERP]

http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/9619
Nice to see things like this in the PS3 SDK.

Discuss!

Mu understanding is that Sony actually did the optimisation work.

 

[mckmas8808]

Really? Was this optimasation apart of the Rubber ducky demo or the gas station demo?

 

[Titanio]

Maybe both or neither.

SCEA did have people on it, and I guess that's why someone from SCE is quoted in the release. I didn't know they were entirely responsible for the port, though. I'm presuming the likes of Havok took care of their own port themselves? Why would AGEIA have looked for assitance, or did SCE look at what they did and saw further room for improvement?

 

[Guden Oden]

Hm, we've known this was in the works for quite a while now have we not? Aegia's been on the boat with PS3 for a good while now. Looks like a recycled press release to me, and not really much to discuss...

 

[one]

Interesting that Havok FX on NVIDIA SLI takes place now with certain resemblance with the PS3 architecture.
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20060322/3dinis19.jpg
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=723818&postcount=81

 

[Edge]

Looks like a recycled press release to me, and not really much to discuss...

This sounds like excellent news to me, and if any developer before was put off by the performance may come back to this new version.

In the 2.4 release, several components of the AGEIA PhysX pipeline have been offloaded from the PPU of the PLAYSTATION® 3 to the SPUs; developers can fully control the component deployment. This has resulted in a 50% reduction in maximum PPU load, leaving more room for game code and smooth frame rates.

Nice to see Sony making good use of those SPUs! Smooth frame rates baby!!!

 

[mckmas8808]

Interesting that Havok FX on NVIDIA SLI takes place now with certain resemblance with the PS3 architecture.
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20060322/3dinis19.jpg
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=723818&postcount=81

Maybe I'm dumb, but what is your point?

 

[Barbarian]

Really? Was this optimasation apart of the Rubber ducky demo or the gas station demo?

Actually the duck demo has nothing to do with Ageia. It's really just a demo, written specifically as a demo, the code cannot be used as a separate engine, unless you want to have exactly one big duck, 200 small ducks and 2 ships.

Also, as I underestand it, Ageia pretty much dropped their code at Sony R&D and they took it from there. Not a very big commitment if you ask me.
The Havok guys seem quite more involved with PS3.

 

[mckmas8808]

Actually the duck demo has nothing to do with Ageia. It's really just a demo, written specifically as a demo, the code cannot be used as a separate engine, unless you want to have exactly one big duck, 200 small ducks and 2 ships.

Also, as I underestand it, Ageia pretty much dropped their code at Sony R&D and they took it from there. Not a very big commitment if you ask me.
The Havok guys seem quite more involved with PS3.

The Havok guy actually talked about the PS3 specifically? I didn't know that. What did he say?

 

[Guden Oden]

This sounds like excellent news to me, and if any developer before was put off by the performance may come back to this new version.

Like I said, we knew Aegia's been in the SDK for quite a while now (6 months minimum I'd say, if not since roughly E3 last year or longer), I don't see the neccessity of re-iterating this and basically trumpeting that in the past their performance used to suck.

 

[Griffith]

http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/9619
Nice to see things like this in the PS3 SDK.

Discuss!

there's few to discuss, ageya's software will be optimized for ps3, 360, pc PPU, and revo too

of course they simply need the widest support the can
are you really surpised?

 

[London Geezer]

there's few to discuss, ageya's software will be optimized for ps3, 360, pc PPU, and revo too

of course they simply need the widest support the can
are you really surpised?

I think his point is that the software will be included in all PS3 SDK's as evaluation versions. I'm not sure if they're already included in 360 dev kits, as for all others certainly not.

 

[Griffith]

I think his point is that the software will be included in all PS3 SDK's as evaluation versions. I'm not sure if they're already included in 360 dev kits, as for all others certainly not.

mmh
Developers can get versions for both PCs and the Microsoft Xbox 360 from Ageia's web site.

 

[London Geezer]

mmh
Developers can get versions for both PCs and the Microsoft Xbox 360 from Ageia's web site.

I know. What the guy was saying is that there is one straight in the PS3 (optimised for it apparently) dev kit to try out. Which is not real news to be honest but it's still nice.