Kuju Rail Simulator on list of developers using Ageia PPU card

[High Iron]

Hi folks

Some may already know of this, but this came as a bit of surprise to me. Kuju Rail Simulator is listed as a developer that is going to utilize the capabilities of the Ageia PPU (Physics Processor Unit). This shows some real future promise for this simulation. Read the info on the site to get all the workings of what a PPU can do. Since an SDK is available, 3rd party developers could have a field day with this. Rail Simulator will still operate with out the card, but it's presence will obviously greatly enhance Rail Simulator as it will free up processing time for the CPU and GPU.

Check it out at www.ageia.com/physx/titles.html

Cheers, High Iron

[wozzar]

What does Ageia do and what are the benefits of it.

[High Iron]

>What does Ageia do and what are the benefits of it.

Did you click on the link and read about the Phys-X card?

Cheers

[GT Dan]

Can't check out the link - they use a Flash navigation structure and flash sucks. Someone give me a few ideas what the big deal about this "physics card" and what it's supposed to add to the game?

On a seperate point, I've only found 2 price listings on Pricewatch.com and I can't justify almost $200 for this card. Any thoughts on this?

[High Iron]

I'll try to keep it as simple as I can.

The Physics card is to your computer, what the graphics card was 7 years ago. Remember the days, when the CPU did everything? It didn't take long for users to discover that graphics was the bottleneck in the system, regardless of how fast processors got, hence the intoductions of the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit). This allowed another processor to handle graphics rendering to free up cycles from the CPU to spend more of its time doing other calculations and algorithims. This has also been the situation with regard to the sound card. Freeing up the CPU from tasks that other processors can be type specific too improves performance and often the overall quality of each of those perameters, such as graphics and sound. Now when it comes to physics, the load is shared between the CPU and GPU. This means that each processor must reserve a certain amount of it's computing cycles to handle these complex algorithims.
What is the "Physics" reffering to. Well, plenty of todays games use it. A good example would be Half Life 2. It's the interaction of objects within the game or sim within there environment. For example. If I put you in a room with a chair, you could take that chair and throw it around. And each time you throw it the result will be completly different depending on how you thow it, how much force you use etc, etc, I'm sure you get the idea. Most programs use a predetermined effect that repeats itself each time the occurrence happens, meaning objects don't really have any true interaction within the environment. With the advent of more powerfull processors and graphics cards programs have been starting to create the object interactive environment. The problem is, the calculations are very complex and use up valuble cycles of the two processors. The PPU is designed to fill this roll. The PPU will calculate all the complex stuff in regards to physics, leaving the CPU to orchistrate all the processors and look after what it does best and leave the graphics card to do what it does best. Physics within a train simulator would be things such as tractive force or slip, the effects of weight of cars, even such thing as forces involved in curves requiring superelevation of tracks, the humping of cars, and even such things as car movements when coupling together. The areas of its use within simulations are almost limitless as the world of railroading is after all a lot about physics.

Hope this helps, Cheers

[landnrailroader]

Well guys when I looked up the technical data on this item, I learned that:

1. The KUJU simulator is supposed to run with or without it, I guess
with limitations like some of those imposed by MSTS behaving more
reliably with certain graphic cards than others.

2. BestBuy lists this little toy at $299.99, which is 1/3 of what my
whole PC costs with a lot of goodies. Unless my local vendor has
a better price on this card (I have a business so I am eligible
for wholesale), MSTS is looking better all the time.

Jerry Sullivan
aka landnrailroader