Questionné par Gamecloud, le vice président de Havok fait la promo de la version 3.2 de leur middlerware contenant un moteur physique et des outils pour animer les personnages. Interrogé à propos de leur concurrent AEGIA et de leur Physics Processing Unit, il repond :
We definitely distinguish between game-play physics – and physics effects. With multi-core/multi-threaded CPU’s coming out from AMD and Intel, we do not think there will be a shortage of power for game-play physics – the kind that requires split-second responses from the game. But for physics effects like debris, smoke, and the like, we do think there is less demand and more room for latency – where effects like these act physically correct, and are responsive to a degree, but game-play is not intimately tied to its results ever millisecond of the game. For these kinds of effects, though, we do not believe the consumer should have to purchase proprietary single-use hardware. We are very confident that GPUs from companies like Nvidia and ATI will provide the most elegant and sustainable hardware acceleration for effects physics. So we think consumers can and should continue to rely on hardware for acceleration – but they need look no further than a modern PC and above-average graphics card.
En clair, et pour ceux qui ne comprennent pas l’anglais : d’après Havok, les PC actuels sont suffisamment puissants pour gérer les physiques ayant un impact sur le gameplay. Pour les autres effets, qui sont purement esthétiques, mieux vaut miser sur un gros CPU et une bonne carte 3D. En conclusion : n’achetez pas le PPU de notre concurrent !
