The Physics Revolution That Never Happened

REALgamer - 115 days 2 hours ago

I love it when physics is used to make the game environments more like a real world and less like cardboard movie sets.

New stuff like Euphoria and DMM should help with this (providing the hardware they're on is up to the task, Force Unleashed felt very conservative in its use of DMM in particular). So glad we're over the initial age ragdoll physics where every enemy you shot went flying backwards flopping around like your bullets dissolved their bones or something (still remember if you died in Spiderman 2 it would bounce around like your arms and legs were dislocated).

I'm interested to find a copy of 'Trespasser' to see the physics in it. It may have been massively flawed but a first is a first after all. Can't always win the first time around.

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mal_tez92 - 115 days 2 hours ago

Half Life 2 did very well, but games like Crysis are suberb.

The best physics I have ever seen is when you shoot a gas canister in Killzone 2. Gas shoots out of the bullethole sending the canister flying around the room in a very realistic way.

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socomnick - 115 days 1 hour ago

I'm very saddened that physics have taken a backseat to graphics. Games like killzone 2 look pretty but have crappy physics, cod4 plays and looks really good but has 0 physics not even ragdolls it has death animations. The most impressive console game this gen is hands down Red Faction guerilla the destruction system in that game is completely physics based, metal bends from weight , concrete caves in everything reacts how you would expect it to.

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FamilyGuy - 115 days 1 hour ago

I don't think there is anything wrong with the physics is recent games. They don't seem to be trailing to me.

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Ravage27 - 115 days 1 hour ago

heh that's exactly what i thought. My jaw literally dropped when i 1st saw it.

Over time, I actually mastered the art of manipulating the canisters. It never fails to bring a smile to my face everytime i see a canister fly towards an enemy and explode in his face :)

imo,RE5 is the classic example of a game with horrible physics that really destroys immersion.

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crillyconlig - 114 days 23 hours ago

killzone has some fantastic physics, like if you set a genade off the particles blow about in the wind, drop ships engines suck in particles/grande smoke and eject it, wind affects the direct of your grenades, death animations reacting with the environments and the gas canister explosions are pure joy

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pixelsword - 114 days 23 hours ago

Killzone has some of the best physics out today; he would know that if he actually played the game.

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ape007 - 114 days 22 hours ago

engine is really something amazing,it's just a blast seeing body falling,slammed,bailing out of car in gta4,act different each time,look amazing,euphoria has really stepped up the physics in gaming creating some amazing\unique game moments

take a look again if you forgot or sold the game,enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

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socomnick - 114 days 16 hours ago

You guys just described graphical effects not physics. Killzone 2 feature for the most part static enviroments that did not react at all to gunfire or explosions you might have 1 or 2 beams in a level that broke apart but that was it. The Death animations were not physics powered they just reacted to gunfire. The grenades are a good indicator of how good the physics were, you throw a grenade and it travels the same distance and did not react tot he surface it hit. I'm sorry guys but kz 2 had horrible physics as do most games this gen, its sad but it did. Hell even battlefield bad company has bad physics that entire destruction is smoke and mirrors nothing is physics based that destruction is all scripted , segments of the buildings are scripted to blow up.

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rockleex - 114 days 11 hours ago

Bullshiat.

Your Killzone 2 grenade comment proves your ignorance. Anyone who has played Killzone 2 knows how realistic your grenade reacts to the environment when it is thrown. Don't even get me started on the other physics aspects of Killzone 2. Hell, there are tons of GIFs and videos that display its physics. Its right there for everyone to see.

Killzone 2's physics are miles ahead of Halo 3 or COD. Stop assuming its the same as other FPS simply because you have not played it.

You're just making an even bigger fool of yourself with every BS comment you spit out.

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x__JL__X - 115 days 5 hours ago

I agree with that to an extent. There are a few games here and there that show off some great physics. However, you're right that seemingly everything has taken a backseat to graphics these days. And I'm not sure how much of a leap graphics can take anymore, at least anytime soon. Sure it can get better, but any huge increase just won't happen anytime soon. Instead, they do need to take this time to start improving on other elements like physics, and start concentrating and making games be centered around gameplay as well.

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DarkArcani - 114 days 23 hours ago

Is an example of a good physics based game in this gen.

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REALgamer - 115 days 4 hours ago

Nvidia owns PhysX so it currently is only available on their cards. It won't be able to reach mass-market until it is available for ATi cards as well, so developers aren't going to take it seriously until the vast majority of players have it available.

I'm hoping Havok will bridge the gap, as the article said they're coding their new engines in OpenCL which all current graphics cards can use (even the next Apple OSX: Snow Leopard supports it!).

PhysX needs to go OpenCL too or it will always be just a 'bonus feature' like in Mirror's Edge and UT3 for only Nvidia owners.

My PC has ATi cards that have OpenCL so I'm waiting on Havok to hurry up with their stuff so we can all benefit.

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REALgamer - 115 days 2 hours ago

I think it came out right around the launch of the 360, so I missed it.

I may be mistaken, but I thought I heard last year there was a sequel in production. WOuld be great with total destruction in it.

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gaminoz - 115 days 1 hour ago

@ Realgamer

That sequel was hinted at but has since been canned I believe. A shame...

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Syronicus - 115 days 1 hour ago

BLACK has got to be one of my all time favorite games of last gen and even as it sits, it is currently better than some of these current gen games. It is not only a decent looking game but it is fun as heck to just blow crap up and see how your environment reacts to your devastation. Shooting a guy on a bridge only to see him tumble over side and grab on the ledge then slowly let go and fall to their death is incredible. The game is just amazing.

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andron666 - 115 days ago

Can't remember where I read it, but I don't think it's canned. Or so I hope...

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REALgamer - 115 days 2 hours ago

Which is why there needs to be a unified GPU-physics engine ASAP. As soon as there's a decent GPU physics engine that works on both Nvidia AND ATi's cards hopefully there'll be a physics boom.

Also, one that works on both 360 and PS3's GPU. The PS3's Cell processor is damn fast, but GPU physics are still faster.

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AXIS of Reality - 115 days 1 hour ago

I've played both of those actually.

Crysis is a great showpiece for CPU physics with destructible buildings, trees and softbody foliage.

However, have you noticed all buildings fall apart in panels? It's always just the sheets of metal / wood / plaster, which don't break realistically at all. That's because CPUs aren't great at parallel processing, and can only handle so much at one time. DMM from LucasArts was supposed to be the next big thing as it could properly break different materials in a physically exact manner, but was held back in Force Unleashed due to CPU speeds. Crysis was more of an extension of HL2's physics than something new, it just used more of it (HL2 had the tech for the destruction too in rigid body solids being connected such as shooting planks, it's just the planks were arranged into shacks in Crysis).

Cryostasis uses GPU physics, which is the main direction physics engines are going in (which I stress is going to give us more physically real and interactive environments), so this is exactly where I pointed out in the article game physics should be heading.

I didn't mention it in the article simply because beneath the physics tech the game itself while good hasn't made any sort of major impact on gameplay. It is a great tech demo of what can be achieved with GPU physics even this early on however, so it should be commended for that (though the game needs some serious performance patches).

Thanks for your comments.

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AuRoN89 - 115 days 2 hours ago

Damn you!
3 Way SLi with GTX 275 x°D nice one.

Only GTX 280 for me :(

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AXIS of Reality - 115 days 1 hour ago

Was very swayed by PhysX, but in the end I got 2 ATi 4890s in Crossfire as they were a lot cheaper than GTX 275s (their performance equivalent).

Nvidia have done an absolutely brilliant job leading the way for GPU physics with PhysX, but until the physics engines are able to utilise the GPU on both brands there won't be many major steps as it will prevent sales from owners of the other brand and cause confusion in regular consumers (like the Blu-Ray vs HD DVD format war that stopped the mainstream investing incase one went under).

I still hold hope for PhysX in Open CL, as NVidia has mentioned porting it from CUDA to OpenCL so it works for ATi as well, and in June last year a modder actually hacked PhysX to get it running on an ATi 3870 showing it's completely possible.

It's down to the developers: give them something that works on everything, and they'll go for it. Cut off half their potential customers by having the tech limited to one of the 2 chipset designers, and it will continue to be limited to superficial bonuses.

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gaminoz - 115 days 1 hour ago

I love the bushfires you can start in Far Cry 2....

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REALgamer - 115 days ago

The PhysX physics engine can be CPU-accelerated, as it is in most games. Just like Havok is CPU-accelerated.

However, PhysX is also the first to offer GPU-accelerated physics, but only for Nvidia cards. The GPU-accelerated physics features of some games like Mirror's Edge and UT3's PhysX addon can't be done on CPUs, so on console and PC with ATi cards you get the regular game, but on NVidia GPUs some have extra GPU PhysX effects are available for some games.

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