Question for developers - Havok hiccups

Uhh, keep in mind two things here:

1) This is Next-Gen tech, and

2) The engine isn't even CLOSE to optimized, much less final.

It'll be all smooth and squeeky-clean smooth for those with the appropriate hardware come crunch time, I'm sure.

and i dont think its havok anymore, its using teh http://www.ageia.com/pr_03082005d.html

Never was Havok. It uses NovodeX.

they will fix the hiccups when they offload the physics calculations onto a dedicated card, like the physx chip... that way all the processor has to do is keep on taking input from you, run the engine, and pump as much data as it likes to the physics chip instead of going through the data by itself...just like a long time ago, it just dumped data to the video card instead of rendering every frame by itself...

Does this mean I will have to buy a card with such a chip in it in order to play this thing?

no one knows yet... like, back in the first days of 3d accelerators, few people had these cards and the games supported them optionally... today, we need a 3d card to play ut2k4(umm no, we can use the software renderer, but i still havent seen a computer running ut2k4 using the software renderer before).... one day, we will still be paying the same amount of money to buy a computer, but the money will be distributed to more companies because if they sell something for a price that nobody wants to pay, they make no money so they are forced to sell their cards and stuff cheaper (hopefully) so graphics card makers compete with physics card makers etc etc etc... there will be those tempting high-end cards but oh well , as long as developers realize that most of their customers live without them then it wouldnt be too painful for us...

I also doubt that they were using Intel DualCore-HT or AMD DualCore prototypes which could prolly have helped in loading ahead of time. Its also possible that they might not even have used the PhysX PPU. (Correct me if im wrong).

I remember this one time when UE3 managed to run at about 2-5 fps on a 5900. Then they managed to get about 25-30 fps using the new 6800. Then finally they got it running easily on a 6600GT, they even said it would work good on that. You see its actually being optimized as they develop it and the engine isnt done YET. I'm pretty sure theyve seen that problem already and fixed it by now.

Btw, there was this other bug where in one of the videos the pipe went THRU the wall (clipping problem). Anyone else noticed? They musta noticed and fixed that too by now.

Yeah, I thought the clipping error on the pipe was rather poor, passes right though the wall. Really stood out

i think that the walls are just not solid... those flexible hanging things are surely alot more complicated than just a simple solid wall, maybe the people in epic simply didnt realize that theyd get it to swing that far back or something...

i think its the same thing with the scorpion scene, maybe they drove it so smoothly through the level without bumping into anything was more than just for cosmetic reasons, it might have driven right through , or worse still the physics engine was incomplete and the game might have crashed... well, envy is still a year away...

eh the physics in 2004 is waay to simple to be worthy of any hiccups... its when you have a screenfull of physically accurate things that the computer would start to struggle...

anyway, i have this belief that a graphical effect shouldnt interfere with gameplay, instead it should assist gameplay if it can... like, when they mentioned the blur effect, it should be as a kind of visual cue like when you zoom in from a sniper rifle or something, or an effect when you died ala far cry ...

the same can go with physics, like the physx chip can simulate bending metal and stuff, so people with the card installed will never see the 'destroyed' vehicle meshes anymore, just like we see ragdolls nowadays and not death animations anymore... and , imagine if you can see a damaged vehicle, its still usable but it bears marks of what types of weapons have hit it , maybe a texture or some bent bits that is calculated by the physx chip , and people who have it installed will maybe have a tactical advantage by having that extra information available to them, while people who dont have it installed will just see ut2k4-style vehicles and meshes...

BmB23 said:

Does this mean I will have to buy a card with such a chip in it in order to play this thing?

Click to expand...

Don't think so, but obviously, the physics will be much weaker without it. For OPTIMAL performance, you'll need it.

These are actually all rather simple physics calculations, apart from number 3 all you are doing is applying a force which is basically just adding a bit onto the object's velocity.
Ragdolls are much more complex with all the bone constraints etc.

BmB23 said:

Does this mean I will have to buy a card with such a chip in it in order to play this thing?

Click to expand...

No. Would be a bad marketing decision.

Plus it's likely that by the time this comes out your Physics will be another thread handled on another core in your cpu, will reduce the damage done to interaction by an effect processing.