[ODE] Physics Engines comparisons and benchmarks

[erwin@erwincoumans.com]

The Ageia PhysX SDK is indeed interesting, but at the moment it is closed 
source. My opinion on the big benefits of open source are from the 
perspective from an co-author trying to get developers using a free open 
source library :) 

With respect to hardware, I believe in the power of Playstation 3 CELL, 
multi-core and GPU. For example, the NVidia 8800 GPU can run 15000 rigid 
bodies in about 130 FPS, and also run SPH fluid simulation at about 70 FPS: 

http://www.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takahiroharada/ 

Erwin
PS: those opinions are just mine, not my employer 


Vangelis_Kokkevis at PlayStation.Sony.com writes: 

> I would not write off AGEIA's PhysX SDK quite that quickly!  If nothing 
> else, the win32 version is free!  In addition to that, there are optimized 
> implementations of PhysX for two of the three major game consoles (PS3 and 
> XBOX 360) which is very convenient for developers who care about 
> cross-platform compatibility.  Sure, you don't get source code, but what 
> you do get is an optimized engine which is the product of several 
> man-years of engineering, tuning and QA.  Having met some of the engineers 
> in that team (and I know that at least one of them is lurking somewhere in 
> this list) I can assure you that they are bright people and they know what 
> they are doing.  BTW, I'm sure Havok is a great engine too for a lot of 
> the same reasons.  
> 
> Cheers,
> Vangelis 
> 
> 
> Erwin Coumans wrote:
>> [...] 
>> I've never seen a long term future for Ageia, and having worked on Havok 
> and 
>> Bullet, I would say Havok is the best if you can/want to afford it, and 
> open 
>> source (Bullet & ODE) second.
>> [...]
> 
> Vangelis Kokkevis
> Sony Computer Entertainment America R&D 
>