14 DAY TRIAL // Computer gaming is more than classy graphics and excellent storyline. The digital television impacted over the gamers' brain, who now demand detail depth and realistic physics. Of course, these features get reflected in complicated mathematic calculations, necessary for particle rendering accuracy. If you experienced FPS freeze while using a smoke grenade in a game, then you've met the physics engine.
Physics processing is highly appreciated both in the ATI and Nvidia spheres, but things have taken an unusual turn after Intel bought Havok, the most commonly used physics engine by worldwide producers. Before its acquisition, Havok was an independent provider of physics engines and other interactive middleware for game developers.
After the Havok-Intel fusion, things have changed radically for the physics engine producer, who already announced that the Havok FX engine, if released at all, will not feature any support. Since Havok FX is responsible for computing GPU physics, AMD's Developer Relations Chief, Richard Huddy stated that "GPU physics is dead for now".
Huddy also confirmed that there is no sense in AMD promoting physics calculations on its multi-core processors, since the technology is highly unlikely to gain popularity without the appropriate development tools. Physics processing will become popular once Microsoft releases DirectX 11, who is projected to support physics on the GPU natively.
The Nvidia competition thinks similarly: Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer at Nvidia confirmed that Intel acquiring Havok is prone to create "negative synergies" in respects for the GPU physics. Nvidia proves more optimistic and considers that there would be other companies to take up the niche place of Havoc.
"Physics processing has a long way to go and there are so many companies out there. [There are] quite a few middleware companies out there that are creating technology in this area, and many games, many game developers incorporate their own physics engine. So my sense is that there's a lot of invention still left to do in this area. I'm not sure why they bought that company, to tell you the truth. It might give them some advantages with respect to Havok, but it obviously creates negative synergies everywhere else", said Mr. Huang.