   Direct Physics
  I don't know if this a repost, but I found a news post that mentioned a job offer at Microsoft for "Direct Physics."What do you guys think of this and how is it likely to affect real-time physics in games? I assume that, as part of DirectX, it would be a free offering, so that would be an advantage over products like Havok for the amateur developer. I wonder how it would compete with other free offerings. There are several things to conider:+ It will apparently be hardware accelerated in some way- Direct Physics would probably be a Windows-only API- It will be "immature" compared to other productsThis is probably a ways away; still, I thought it was an interesting development.This might belong in the Lounge, but it does have to do with DX, so I put it here.jfl.   
  I take it that this Direct Physics will be somehow compatible with Ageia and Havok's Physics API?If not, I see Open Physics around the corner...   ;  If you mean compatible as in interoperable, I doubt it. I don't, however, see it as being incompatible, strictly speaking.   ;  I was only 8 months ahead of that news story: My journal, 24th October 2005 [grin]It strikes me as a natural progression for the DirectX suite - apart from some semi-useful D3DX functions there isn't really anything in any of the current or previous DirectX versions for physics. Given how it seems to be becoming increasingly important in games it'd make sense to have some sort of offering in that arena...We've got traditional CPU-based physics (aided by multi-core CPU's), GPU-based physics (presumably using GPGPU type approaches) and dedicated PPU's. A scaleable API that abstracted all four of those options would be quite impressive [oh]Although, despite hearing about this a while back I've yet to see any concrete details on quite what it will (or wont) do, what sort of timeline they're on... The job listings are about all I've seen [smile]I'm wondering if it'll pop up alongside (or possibly part of) the XNA suite. Regardless, I'd assume it'll also appear on XBox as well as Windows.Jack   ;  jollyjeffers: Indeed you were! I knew this would be a repost.Anyway, I do agree that it is the logical next step for DirectX, especially with hardware-accelerated physics now becoming popular.As for it appearing in XNA, I wouldn't be surprised. I can't find it at the moment, but I remember a video with a head-on car collision which seemed to want to show off physics (edit: ah, here).   ;Quote:Original post by jflangloisjollyjeffers: Indeed you were! I knew this would be a repost.hehe, well I never really posted it originally (it was only in my journal) as there wasn't really anything much to post about [sad]Presumably it had been thought about some time before the job listings existed (October '05) thus it must be around a year (if not more) into development already. Maybe we'll be lucky and get some details at GameFest in August [smile]Quote:Original post by jflangloisAs for it appearing in XNA, I wouldn't be surprised. I can't find it at the moment, but I remember a video with a head-on car collision which seemed to want to show off physics.Yup, I remember that video - it was very impressive. Although, and I'm not 100% sure of this, I think it was even real-time. I vaguely remember a story about how the VP's/PM's got distracted on-stage playing it and competing with each other for the highest score [lol]Jack   