SoW and PhysX?
 

Just wondering out loud if Nvidia's PhysX will be usable by SoW_BoB. I suspect that even a Nehalem i920 will need help running this sim, let alone the lesser dual and quad cpus out there. Anyone care to take a speculative shot?
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It will all depend on the Design Goals which we would know as "Features" of a game.

1. Improved Graphics Engine (goes without saying right)

2. Real Time Weather (Could be CPU intensive and offloaded to a seperate core)

3. PhysX (could be collision detection or a much more complex Flight Model)


Just be aware there are very few games that take use of 2 or more Cores. Yeah we've seen some games like FSX take advantage but it's not a large improvement. Why? Building Applications with Multithreading is not easy there are deminishing returns.

The reason why higher clocked Dual Cores are Gamers Choice is simple. The benefit isn't quite there yet for games.


If SOW where to implement a Real Time Campaign that tracked a war like Falcon 4 we would see an improvement. Last time I heard this isn't part of what they want to deliver.

If they can do things to offload AI that might be a way to make the game scale across multiple cores. This might allow for a much higher number of AI airplanes or ground objects to move around and do things.

hey Cap'n isnt SoW supposed to support multiple cores? If an application like PhysX could be supported by SoW, that might be a great tool to pass off complex weather and clouds to (the GPU). As for game features, I'm sure at least some will have to be deselected to get smooth gameplay if even current fast multi-core processors could bog down. The idea of so many ground objects, for instance, hogging system resources in a combat air sim make PhysX (even an ATi equivalent) a desirable option in my mind. Just trying to get a sense of what can help the simmer get better performance.
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Considering SOW is a new development and I've seen statments saying it will support mulitple CPUs it's hard to say what we can expect. As I mentioned earlier developing software for muliple cores is difficult. Developing a Game that runs in Real Time that supports multiple cores is really hard. It will depend on what they plan on including in SOW.

I'm sure they will develop the engine knowing it will have to scale over time. They've suggested there would be multiple release over time so I'm sure they're watching where things are headed with Multiple CPUs and GPUs.

Physx I don't know. Could be useful for certain aspects for the sim but it also could be at the cost somewhere else.

Good news is hardware is still falling and things are getting faster. I'm sure we will be pretty happy given they will be targeting more modern hardware.

thanks again, Cap'n! :) I know Oleg won't give system requirements prematurely, but it woulld be nice if he could comment on "interersting" or "useful" technology. For instance, as you say, maybe SoW might make use of multiple CPUs or GPUs. That would ne nice to know. That tech is already out there,as is multiple core CPUs, though probably none out yet that could run SoW in all it's glory. :D
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I don't know about that... Remember Software Lags hardware and we've had a pretty large bump in terms of GPU power in the last year. They know that GPU power will most likely double as it's a pretty fair assumption.

If you're worried about being able to play SOW in all it's glory... I think you're missing the point.

If that is the case then it's only a matter of time before we get the hardware required to run it.

It's also fair to say Flight Sims are usualy bottlenecked with the CPU not the GPU. Given the fact multiple cores are common place it may be a whole new ball game. So I wouldn't been too concerned about the hardware requirements.

My system is a few years old and it runs EVERYTHING just fine. The only game I've seen stress my system is Crysis and I have a feeling that's because it most likely not the cleanest software.

My next upgrade will depend on SOW. If it's CPU bound and it makes sense to go with more cores then the upgrade is pretty cheap. If it's GPU bound which I doubt then I will replace my existing 8800 SLI setup.

So not to worry.

Hardware! Hardware! Hardware! :D

I doubt Oleg will implement PhysX or Havok as they're not interchangable between ATI and nVidia cards. In June/July this year nVidia announced that it will wanted to allow PhysX to run on ATI cards, ATI turned around and said Na...we'll go the other way... and said it will only support Havok, which is owned by Intel BTW. Very messy situation.

I see Oleg implementing his own engine, posibly using an open source API like ODE (www.ode.org)

If your wanting to upgrade, I'd keep saving and wait untill SoW is here.

I don't know that I agree with software lagging hardware. In the case of IL2 it seemed to be the reverse. Besides, as you say, flight sims are usually bottle-necked with the cpu. I suppose that trend will continue with the release of SoW. I think this will be especially true if SoW cannot make full use of quad core processors (I'm not clear on whether it will or won't). Looking at the ground elements of SoW, I see a lot of detailed machines and radars crying out for their share of cpu cycles. I wonder if even the Nehalem's touted bandwidth would be enough. But as you said, maybe in a few years...not to worry.
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