NVIDIA's PhysX SDK sashays onto Nintendo's Wii
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 19th 2009 12:41PM
posted Mar 19th 2009 12:41PM
[Via HotHardware]
posted Mar 19th 2009 12:41PM
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Interesting, hardware accelleration in wii huh?
Sorry had to fix something on my profile so im testing here.
They have PhysX for cellphones- it runs on the ARM processor. Obviously, it scales to the system.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-physx-apple-iphone,7313.html
"unlike Sony's SIXAXIS, Nintendo's Wiimote is highly based on physics already"
Um, SIXAXIS returns the exact same input data the Wiimote does with it's motion sensing (not the IR pointer, which isn't physics based) so they are exactly as physics based as the other, no more, no less.
I always thought that the PhysX SDK was about using a physics chip for graphic acceleration. But the article mentions the remote's physics. Am I missing something?
No, there's no relation whatsoever.
I think the point was that with the physics-y controller, games tend to be physics-y, which means PhysX technology could be used more "fully".
PhysX runs off of PPUs off of Nvidia chipsets. For the PS3 it's been running off the Cell since 2006, supposedly the G80 Nvidia GPU's have small PPU like the Cell, but supposedly they can be run off the GPU and CPU as well. Havok supposedly already can run off GPU pixel shaders.
Ars' Jon Stokes wrote: "I'm certain that the PhysX PPU consists of multiple identical cores (maybe with one or two unique cores, like Cell's PPE, but probably not), and that each of those cores has its own local storage. In other words, PhysX almost certainly looks a lot like Cell, but with more cores, and probably more per-core local storage. Game developers can use this type of architecture to implement any number of physics models, but that's just one application for the chip."
"The PS3 might be able to handle certain physics operations using the G70's support for pixel shader 3.0—the Havok physics engine is apparently capable of doing so—but that's not CUDA, and it's not PhysX. "
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/03/nvidia-sony-ink-deal-to-bring-physx-to-the-ps3.ars
The GPU doesn't have a PPU, that was the name given to the Physx processor (Physics Processing Unit), when Nvidia bought Physx all they did was take the software and make it work off of the cores that make up the GPU, which are composed of many smaller cores that do operations in parallel at high speeds, The cell is sort of hybrid CPU, GPU in that it works this way with one main core and several smaller cores that the main core talks to that do parallel operations at high speeds, however the downfall of the cell is that in order to use it to it's full potential one must learn an entirely new programing language that game developers have been resistant to learn because the other two systems don't require them to learn such a language. Anyways, my GPU for instance an 880GTS has 96 stream processors and ATI's latest cards have 800. These stream Processors are what the Physx SDK for the PC uses but all three current gen systems also have instruction sets built directly into their CPU's that are also capable of carrying out operations for using the Phsyx SDK and have had this capability since their launch, so developers have a choice most likely of using the CPU or GPU or both for carrying Phsyx based code.
Holy run-on sentence...
does it not make a difference that wii has an ATI chip?
Must not, but you get a ++ for pointing out what everyone reading it was thinking.
PhysX will be run on the CPU if a compatible GPU is not found.
@Penguin: That's not good. Especially in the Wii's case. LOL
It's all bureaucracy, like nVidia not letting intel put SLI in their chipsets,
There have been hacks to use physx on desktop ATi chips
Like it matter when graphic still look like decade ago, wii will be better off try to release wii II that support 1080p and still play wii games.
hmm didn't realize 480p was supported by the playstation and N64., since the PS2 and gamecube hadn't come out yet 10 years ago
@mark
ps2 was released in 2000(march in jp, nov in us), so 10 years isn't that far off...
Yeah I am pretty sure there are no physics chip inside the Wii to deal with the physics of the controller. The physics of the controller is extremely simple and can be done on the fly with the processor in the Wii which is probably what is being done or possibly already done inside the controller. I thought PhysX was mainly used to calculate the physics of in game objects to make things appear more real obeying the laws of physics which requires much more calculation power which is why it either draws it from the graphics card power or from a dedicated processor, which I am thinking is much more than anything in the Wii can provide. The graphics of the Wii are such a huge disappointment. 480p is gaming at 640 X 480 or 720 X 480, my phone already has the resolution of the former.
there's more to graphics than resolution, just try playing crysis on very high on a low resolution you'll see how much the ability to handle the other stuff matters.
@Mark
I've done what you've suggested. I played Crysis at Very High on my 8800 GT with 1920x1200 Monitor. It looked horrible.
Forgot to mention @ 640x480 resolution
Kinda cool that it's official. Although developers have already been using it on the Wii without any real issue, even the launch title Red Steel incorporated it.
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/physx_good_company.html
cough
Sweet
So if it can be on a Wii with no problems because it has an ATI graphics chip, will we see it on the Xbox 360 next? Or is that not going to happen because of what when down with the original Xbox.
Actually, I'd just like to report that this isn't all that new. The recently-released Sonic and the Black Knight (which sucks, mind you) has a big 'ol "PhysX by NVIDIA" logo in the startup sequence.
"...even more limitless." Anyone?
This does sound interesting! Although what about the 360, or did it already come out? NVIDIA claims all consoles have support it, and thus the PhysX support in X360's Mirror's Edge....personally though I think consoles, PCs, should have a separate chip for PhysX support rather than the GFX card doing it...same goes for anti aliasing, to maximize performance!
Things are going in the opposite direction. Rather than having hardware for specific tasks, we are seeing hardware being used for generic tasks. PhysX on a GPU is a great example. Encoding video w/ the same GPU is another example. No need for a dedicated physics chip and video encoder chip when one can do both.
With OpenCL, we will soon being seeing much more of this.
"...even more limitless"? Or should it be even LESS limitless?
It should be "less limitmore"
Nvidia rehashes three year-old news
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/447/1051447/nvidia-rehashes-news
Here the 1st paragraph of the linked article.... pretty much says it all:
NVIDIA SPINNERS MUST BE getting really desperate for people to pay attention to Physx, their insecurity is directly correlated to the level of news rehashing. This time, they are claiming Physx on the PS3, which they have already had for three years.
And to all those wondering about the Xbox 360..... look at the 4th paragraph:
That brings up the question of why they feel the need to beat this drum? It is literally the same old news, three years later. Nothing is new here. Well, there is one thing new, Nvidia completely forgets to mention that he last time it announced this new technology, it had the 360 and Wii on board.
Nvidia aren't claiming anything it's shoddy journalists.
All the PS3 PhysX annoucment was (and in this case too) is that the PS3 n Wii SDK's now have PhysX SDK included with it free. All three console's have supported PhysX since launch.
Also the Wiimote will make no difference to Physics. a physics engine would control stuff like destructible environments, ragdoll physics, water/liquid effects. Wiimotion Plus would improve the Wiimote though cos its the acclermoter that controls the wiimote.
"even more limitless"
How can anything have less limits than something that already has no limits?
Learn how to put tow words together you poor joke of an editor!
The fact that moving the wii-mote involves physics and that fact that the processor can calculate physics have absolutely no correlation whatsoever. This is one of the most hair-brained lines of logic I have read on this site in a LONG time.
.... the faster you shake your wii controller the better the physics calculations you get!...
moron.