I was reading today and it looks like microsoft has decided to make a splash by announcing Direct Physics(physics on the gpu), take that and hakoks fx(nvidia’s answers) ati’s physics on gpu, and the existing ppu api. That is 4 api’s for physics, 3 of which are based on gpu so ppu’s might not be around for ever. The only thing that does matter is direct physics, nobody is going to make 1 on havok fx and 1 on ati’s stuff(unless programming in opengl) when you could just do it one time with direct physics.
http://xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20060620235215.html
Of course, "nothing to do with jME Physics" could prove to be incorrect, since jME Physics is written in such a way it can use different backends. And of course, "Direct Physics" is still a rumour (Microsoft is hiring someone for something, which generally means you won't see anything for a while).
The whole "physics acceleration" so far is very hyped if you ask me. All we've seen (AGEIA) or heard (nVidia / Ati) so for is a bunch of particle effects. In the case of AGEIA some very pretty ones (fluid like) in tech demos, and while that's nice, it's still not a big change in game play. The cell factor demo is kinda fun, but it's more a testament to what can be done with CPU physics rather than with a PPU. (eg. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1056037 , there's many more stories on this)
somewhere on heise.de it was said, that physics will not be part of directx 10. i think until the release of ms physics most companies will focus on havok fx, since it runs on any shader 3.0 hardware (nvidia AND ati) and as such has the highest installed user base, while propably very few people will buy ageia-based physics cards.
as i keep saying, go back to the addition of the old general math processor instead…
So what's a CPU then mrCoder? What are x86, x87, MMX, 3DNow! SSE1 2 and 3 for? A CPU is a general math processor… the GPU/PPU is a specialized math processor.
I miss the days the upgrade from my 8086 to an 8088 meant REAL speed…you could see the bytes flowing and it could almost keep up with the speed you could type…good times. 
Maybe we'll just all end up with the add-on "physics co-processor" chip we can add to our machines. 
darkfrog
llama said:
So what's a CPU then mrCoder? What are x86, x87, MMX, 3DNow! SSE1 2 and 3 for? A CPU is a general math processor.. the GPU/PPU is a specialized math processor.
err...i meant on a completely different level...gpu/ppu's are specialized in their fields with very basic math, just like the cpu...what i meant was like matrix solving, lcp, integration methods etc etc etc etc
Nothing to bring back then
I'm speculating here, but I think PPU's probably do more than very basic math… isn't it (some) of those things that would be exactly what's needed for physics?
ok ok ok it was a clumsy sentence "something in the same sence as the old math processor" perhaps…
yes, the ppu is probably mostly what i'm after but still a bit to directed at physics. people do a hell lot of things with the gpu nowdays that is completely non-graphics related (www.gpgpu.org) and struggling with turning storage into texture representation etc so there is a need for something speed-vector-blabla-math that is faster at just that than the cpu…
but, i was just trying to be the grumpy old man dreaming of old days s
on another note, we had a guy over from ageia with a computer packed with their hardware ppu for a demo…it was niiiiice
darkfrog said:
I miss the days the upgrade from my 8086 to an 8088 meant REAL speed....you could see the bytes flowing and it could almost keep up with the speed you could type....good times. :)
hey, cool upgrade that was, cutting the data bus down from 16 to 8 bits :)
the biggest upgrade i've ever had related to computers was buying a disc-drive instead of the tape for my commodore 64
the ppu is probably mostly what i'm after but still a bit to directed at physics
True, and GPUs are still too much directed at graphics :)
So, I get your point.. AMD is kind of heading in that direction with their opening up of their HyperTransport platform.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30539
But if it makes sense to make games for that...
i really like those fpga cards…being able to change the hardware through programming…turn it into whatever you need most at the current time, a physics processor, a network device, an ultrafast hardware chessprogram(like hydra)…yummy
the biggest upgrade i've ever had related to computers was buying a disc-drive instead of the tape for my commodore 64
brings back memories :D
Rewind the tape, reset the counter, fast forward to the proper counter for your game, wait 30-45 minutes, come back and find out you had it in the wrong starting spot. Good times.
hehe yeah, back then you were happy if the game started at all
be happy that your computers already had colors beside green… while all the cool kids had c64s my father bought an olivetti m-24 ibm compatible. i would have happily traded a bit of the whopping 256k ram and 7.something mhz for colors…
And dont forget the tape head alignment/precisioning thing. Until finding that out (for months) I couldn't played any games so I started programming 
My earliest programming memories center around typing in hundreds of lines of code into my C64 for a horrible game from a Byte magazine… only to have the power interupted for the millionth time by a kid brother/dog/cat as I was typing in the last few lines.
hard hat mack from "computes gazette" for me , spent like 8 hours one day typing in code from the magazine only to have my power supply blow before saving to tape