UT3 PhysX added with a mod?

[Rob Williams]

Via The Inquirer:

Well, Ageia has been showing off PPU-powered Unreal this week in Leipzig and, yes, the demo footage shown does look pretty neat - a hurricane sweeping through a level, tearing up the scenery and generally behaving like a hurricane does, according to the laws of physics. One particularly neat touch is the fact that rockets being fired past will get sucked into the vortex.

Here's the worrying thing for PPU fans - Ageia is describing the footage as being of a "mod" for Unreal Tournament 3. "In-game footage of a Physx-powered mod" is the exact phrase. Now far be it from us to read too much into language, but doesn't that rather imply that the hardcore PhysX action is not going to be integrated into the core gameplay experience, but that a choose-to-install mod will be the focus of the action instead?

If it's going to be a mod, I have to wonder if Epic is endorsing PhysX as much as we once thought. They way it's looking, the enhancements will come via an AGEIA-developed mod post-release, although the results seen at the GC do seem kind of impressive.

I want to see this game, and even more so I want to see AGEIA finally give their card something to work with.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41883

 

[Greg King]

In all honesty, this could be a blessing in disguise. Ageia is obviously NOT going to get much support from any major developer, and hasn't gotten any support either, simply because it doesn't make any sense to restrict the average gamer's experience by requiring a dedicated PPU. Without that support, its been a losing battle trying to convince people to purchase the PhysX PPU simply because there isn't any reason at all to use it.

With a game mod, done by independent modders, the PhysX SDK can be used to do what the developers were scared of doing which is fully taking advantage of the PhysX hardware.

Ageia is clearly not doing as well as they would like but with small steps like this, at least we will have a playable game that actually uses the damn card, not some tech demo like Cell Factor or Ageia Island on GRAW2. Another small victory for Ageia is the integration of their PPU into notebooks. With prices coming down to earth (PhysX cards can now be found for just over $100), they cards themselves are still worthless at this point but now at least more people might be inclined to adopt once gamers are given a reason to do so.

 

[madstork91]

Bottom line... expecting the avg computer user to have something in their computer that most people would not is bad business.

Especially since anyone who would have one would have to know and feel comfortable installing one most likely.

-stork out.

 

[Tramapolean]

Until the extra physics processing actually means something in game though, this sort of thing is only going to be a bit of fluffiness on the side I reckon. However, as soon as a developer/designer works out how to do this, they will make a big name for themselves suddenly And likely stacks of cash from Ageia!