NovodeX Physics SDK to Support Next Generation Xbox

[The_One]

NovodeX Physics SDK to Support Next Generation Xbox
By: César A. Berardini - "Cesar"
Mar. 9th, 2005 11:40 am

AGEIA Technologies, Inc., a company dedicated to delivering pervasive interactive reality to next generation games, announced today that its NovodeX Physics SDK will enable unmatched performance for game developers targeting the next generation Xbox platform. As a result, users of the Xbox video game system from Microsoft will be able to enjoy some of the most exciting, lifelike game experiences available on any platform.

As the games industry's first multithreaded physics SDK, NovodeX is uniquely equipped to exploit the multicore architecture of the Xbox, allowing game developers to deliver incredibly lifelike worlds and characters for Xbox users.

"AGEIA's NovodeX Physics SDK is a powerful middleware engine for game developers who want to make the most of the multicore architecture of the next generation Xbox platform," said Tracey Frankcom, program manager, Xbox Tools and Middleware. "The real-time physics capabilities of NovodeX, combined with the high-definition graphics and audio of the Xbox, enable the creation of totally immersive environments and unbelievably lifelike character interactions."


"The next generation Xbox platform is the first available game console system to unleash the multithreading capabilities of the NovodeX SDK," said Manju Hegde, CEO and co-founder of AGEIA. "Today marks the beginning of a new era of hardware-accelerated physics for developers and users alike, in which pervasive interactive
Source (http://www.ccfx.net/nextboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=1163)

Yes, I admit I jacked this news from their forum :P.

So, they'll be using AGIEA's middleware, but still no word on whether or not Xbox 2 will actually have a PhyX PPU within it... Hmm...

[Mordecaii]

It seems like it would be a bit late for them to implement the PhysX PPU. I'll admit it's possible that they had it in the plans all along, but every bit of information I've seen leaked out on the internet suggests that the Xbox 2 will be using 3 PowerPC cores and not the PhysX PPU... however I guess we won't know until E3 exactly what is in each system... I hate this wait! :(

[cpiasminc]

I seriously doubt any possibility of there being a real PPU in there. I seriously doubt AGEIA has moved beyond demo silicon alone. At extreme best, it may be an add-on device, but even that, I think has zero chance -- Novodex is not the only physics middleware out there.

Also, from what our physics guy tells me about the Novodex codebase, it sounds like supporting another ISA wouldn't be that much of a challenge. Mainly because a whole lot of the codebase is classed and templated and metaprogrammed to hell. The majority of the code is all high level and low voodoo, and aside from some compiler/linker incompatibilities, it would be a relatively small workload to port it to another ISA... relatively small as compared to, say, Karma (which I'd personally seen), which used probably a lot more ASM, used a lot more dangerous C-style trickery and black magic (which would prove problematic when shifting over to a 64-bit addressing mode from a 32-bit -- y'know, things like casting a pointer to an int and such stuff).

[megadrive]

I agree. the emergence of this PPU is most likely much too late to implement in any of the next gen consoles, especially Xenon, and even the consoles coming out later: Revolution and Playstation3.

the only way that Xenon could have that PhysX PPU as actual hardware, is if Microsoft had been planning this since 2003, which would be about 1 year into Xenon's development. but this is just so very likely.


wild speculation: perhaps there will be another console that comes out during the Xenon-PS3-Revolution cycle. something like a Neo-Geo for modern times. in the 2007-2008 timeframe. this would not be a next-next gen console like Xbox3-PS4, but one of the same generation as PS3, only more powerful. like Neo-Geo was compared to TurboGrafx-Genesis-SNES.

that console would be a place where you might see a real PPU used.

[cpiasminc]

Yeah, and even in spite of how soon they may want to ship this PPU, you do have to remember that AGEIA is not solely in the business of game development middleware. Prior to buying out Novodex and stuff, they had a lot of DSP/telecom/gov't contracts and that sort of thing. It makes sense that they'd buy something like Novodex as opposed to say, Havok or Meqon. Mainly because Novodex follows a far more generalized design pattern -- closer to what an academic would write as physics engines go. Whereas Havok and Meqon are more "real-world" type designs which go out of there way to optimize the hell out of key sections often times at the cost of accuracy. Makes for dirty-looking code, but it's very clearly oriented towards the specific market of game developers.

While the website has been completely wiped of any trace of their prior means of business, I don't think that aspect is really going to change. Having fast physics processing that extends further than the confines of realtime gaming alone is probably the real goal here. Formal accurate simulations can benefit as well.