Havok 3 will offer GPU accelerated physics!

Woot! Havok's new "Havok FX" will use your GPU (graphics card) to provide hardware accelerated physics!

http://www.havok.com/%20index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187&Itemid=77

So, when can we expect SL to support this?

Right after we get Smellovision! Woohoo!

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*splutter* But seriously? No, I can't answer it seriously...

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Ok, calm down. So Havok 3 you say?

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Whoope!

Er, now can we forget it please?
Given LL's demonstrated complete inability to field a supposedly major update (sans Havok 2, Speedtree and HTML) without crippling play I really think any encouragement to add something else is foolhardy in the extreme.

What's needed right now is a LOT of bug fixing until pre-update performance and stability is restored, followed by a complete shakeup of development procedures, QA and customer service culture.

Won't happen though - just saying what SHOULD happen/

There are far too many people playing on marginal computers and 5 year old video cards to even consider using anything like this. Too bad though.

If SL was run on your home computer, that'd be hot.

Sadly, the physics are all done-server side.

The servers don't have video cards.

LF

That brings about an interesting point. Would hardware physics be possible on SL Servers? Should LL invest in such a thing?

Andrew mentioned the remote possibility, but he said LLab is taking a "wait and see" approach to them.

For one, there's only one physics card manufacturer -- Aegis, and they're a new kid on the block.

Maybe 5 years from now when they're mainstream.

LF

That's even better technically, because that means LL would have to upgrade their servers with physic-acceleration cards, which means that you wouldn't have to, but get the same benefits out of it.

Of course, LL has said they'd wait on that and wouldn't upgrade unless the cost dropped significantly. Or they decide to start charging more to make up for the upgrade.

Here is why HAVOK FX is actually a very good match for SL:

HAVOK FX makes a distinction between "gameplay physics" and "effects physics." Gameplay physics are physics that directly affect your gameplay; like if your AV was on a bridge and the bridge collapsed. Effects physics are physics that look pretty, but dont have a real bearing on your game. Think debris and smoke from the falling bridge.

HAVOK FX, in it's current incarnation, accelerates "effects physics," not gameplay physics. These kind of physics-based graphics effects are a perfect candidate to be done client-side. The main physics load could stay on the LL servers while the "pretty" smoke, debris, particles, etc, could be offloaded to clients.

SL already uses this technique for client-side animations, transformations and particles. It should be easy to add some client-side "pretty physics" to the mix.

It's no longer true that Aegis is the only producer of hardware accelerated physics cards. In fact, Aegis will soon go right out of business. Aegis' biggest fear has been realized. Now, anyone with a current Nvidia (and soon, ATI, I'll bet) GPU will be able to realize hardware accelerated physics.

It's a real win for gamers. LL should jump all over it. After they fix 1.7, of course.

Uberparticles?

Wonder what will happen when they do incorporate Havoc 2.???

Even if we did... SL will be too busy using the clock cycles on our GPUs for the ... graphics.

Hiro, seriously. You can't believe that SL taxes a modern graphics card. And the physics that we are talking about accelerating *are* graphics effects. They are physics-based environmental graphics effects. As Torley put it: "uberparticles."

SL will cease to challenge modern day video cards when you can rez 5000 hollow cut torii on your screen without it freezing.

My Geforce 5700 gets to about 1500 before locking up entirely.

hmmm testing with a 7800GTX... let ya know how many before I freeze

4000ish before the sim said "NO!!!"

My Nvidia GeForce 6600 was there.... the sim crapped out before my video card did.

I didn't say make them physical... Simply rezzed. They even even be rezzed in the same spot, because SL doesn't do any rendering optimizations.

LF

Adam Zaius has arguably the highest-end setup I've heard playing SL, Lindens included. He gets about 70fps on two displays on a reasonably av-empty sim - and wishes he can turn the draw distance higher.

Zaius' setup is very very top-end.

Now, consider that we only have about 1 prim / 4m squared, no meshing, no modern physics engine yet, and avatars are far from photo-realistic. Philip has indicated that slowly LL will crank up graphics ... and in an immersive world, graphics are king.

There are endless threads about people burning out graphics cards or having to upgrade. Most people in SL get about 20fps if they are lucky. Modern games on the same graphics cards clock upwards of 100 fps.

Our video cards are saturated with operatiosn being performed, and I would imagine it will be a long long while that graphics requirements for SL become trivial - to run all the features.

So, no ...