[ODE] Future of physics processors and IM API

[John Miles]

I tend to see Novodex as the Glide of physics APIs.  Glide was what it took
to launch 3D acceleration into the mainstream, because we didn't yet have a
good high-level programming model for graphics that was adaptable to early
consumer-level hardware.  Once the hardware matured, it made sense to
abandon proprietary APIs like Glide in favor of OpenGL and other notable
standards.  Right now, though, there's no industry-wide "OpenGL for physics.
"

So the Novodex API definitely has a role to play as the technology matures.
Whether it will still be the right thing to use in five years, I don't know,
but Ageia has to start somewhere.  We know a lot less about how to do
physics now than we knew about how to do 3D graphics ten years ago.  Back
then, you could look at an Infinite Reality machine and think, "Someday, all
this will fit on a PCI card."  Companies like SGI had done all the
fundamental R&D, and it was just a matter of waiting out the tech.

Ageia is in the uncomfortable position of having to make it all up as they
go along, and without working with the Novodex guys, they wouldn't have a
chance, IMHO.

-- jm


> I just hope AGEIA (or someone else) comes up with a physics chip which
> can be accessed at these levels, rather than only through something like
> novodex(which is great, but not suited to everyones needs and I am sure
> given the chance people could improve upon it).
>
> I also wonder if the AGEIA chip isnt just novodex in the firmware on the
> card and executed by a CPU with some additional hardware. (Anyone
> remember rendition graphics cards?). I just dont think such an approach
> is very scalable...
>
> What are peoples thoughts
>