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Nvidia: We Didn't Bribe Anyone to Use PhysX

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

Nvidia's worldwide director of developer technology fires back at AMD without insulting his rival.

Nvidia fired back at AMD's earlier accusations that it was bribing developers to use its proprietary PhysX technology. Ashutosh Rege, the worldwide director of developer technology at Nvidia, said that the company does provide help to developers who want to implement physics into their games using Nvidia's middleware. However, he was adamant that the company does not-- and cannot-- influence their decision to use PhysX or any other library or engine.

“There could be no deal under which we would cash somebody in for using PhysX,” he told X-bit Labs.

In a nutshell, his response was broken down into several distinct responses: Nvidia cannot force game developers to use PhysX, the company helps implement GPU PhysX, and it does not intentionally lower performance of non-Nvidia platforms-- this was an accusation made earlier this year by AMD.

Rege also pointed out that PhysX is not GLide. "The comparison of Glide against PhysX is not smart," he said, referring to AMD's comparison just days ago. "PhysX is not an API, it is a full set of software, it is a middleware."

Surprisingly, he admits that PhysX isn't a big consideration for game developers, it's not the main deciding factor. "In the middleware business you have game developers saying ‘I’ve got these features, I’ve got these licensing terms and I need to deploy on these platforms. What is the best solution here?’. Of course, the cost of license is also important to developer. Based on all of that, they make their decision what package to choose."

But Rege also pointed out that Nvidia is "happily" working with open-source developers of physics processing tools, even those that use OpenCL or DirectCompute. "If a developer asks us to help implement certain feature, we will add it," he said. "If he asks to port something to DirectCompute, we will certainly do our best to get that to him. […] We will support game developers to the extent of our knowledge of, [for example], Bullet. Obviously, we do not have engineers, who are exposed in Bullet to [provide technical support], but we are working with the Bullet Engine team on specific things. […] At the end, we are selling GPUs, not PhysX."

Ding, round three.

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RogerDeath 03/12/2010 12:50 PM
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builderbobftw 03/12/2010 1:48 AM
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I want him to explian how Crysis Warhead got optimized for Nvidia hardware and Not ATI.

Pei-chen 03/12/2010 1:49 AM
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RogerDeath :
But by selling their GPUs with the PhysX functionality, aren't they in essence selling PhysX?


But by selling their GPUs with the gmaing functionality, aren't they in essence selling games?

builderbobftw 03/12/2010 1:51 AM
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-11+

No, just a small useless piece of software that only works on Nvidia hardware.

jacobdrj 03/12/2010 1:53 AM
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one-shot 03/12/2010 1:56 AM
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pei-chen :
But by selling their GPUs with the gmaing functionality, aren't they in essence selling games?



And because the GPUs with gaming abilities that sell games and while the games have hacks, aren't they selling hacks as well?

nfail 03/12/2010 1:56 AM
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Everything you hear out of nVidia HQ is a lie. this is what happens when you rape the trust of your customers - nobody believes anything they say now except a few who still make money from their lies.

Mousemonkey 03/12/2010 2:06 AM
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I for one will always take the disparaging remarks of an ex employee with a rather large pinch of salt.

Yuka 03/12/2010 2:09 AM
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jacobdrj :
Why is PhysX any different than, say, MMX?



Intel sold/gave the rights to AMD so they could use MMX. Has nVidia done that with PhysX? No, they blocked their PhysX if an ATI card was detected (even worse, any other vendor maybe).

Cheers!

nfail 03/12/2010 2:23 AM
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Nvidia: We Didn't Bribe Anyone to Use PhysX.

Everybody else: Bullsheet!

winner4455 03/12/2010 2:32 AM
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Lies

nforce4max 03/12/2010 2:32 AM
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Yawn physx is only for tinkering around and for those who have a few bucks that they want to burn. ATI for every day use however Nvidia cards make up most of my collection.

phantomtrooper 03/12/2010 2:36 AM
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jacobdrj 03/12/2010 2:42 AM
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darkguset 03/12/2010 2:59 AM
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jacobdrj :
So in theory, MMX is no different technologically, in that it has become an extension or 'instruction set'. The issue comes down to intellectual property rights. However, what is to stop AMD from developing their own physics engine, and is it even necessary? Can not a normal GPU/CPU emulate physics by dedicating a core to it?



ATI already doing it, HAVOK

darkguset 03/12/2010 3:03 AM
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"At the end, we are selling GPUs, not PhysX."

And in the absence of any worthy GPU in the last 6 months (Fermi anyone?) maybe they should indeed turn to selling PhysX (sarcasm)

smalltime0 03/12/2010 3:10 AM
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darkguset :
ATI already doing it, HAVOK


except AFAIK Havok is cross-platform and is owned but Havok the company, which is owned by Intel, not ATi

SneakySnake 03/12/2010 3:12 AM
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Wasn't it the new Batman game that had the highest level of textures locked out on ATI cards, and ATI remedied the situation by removing the ATI tags in the drivers so the game would have higher graphics capabilities ??? I seem to vaguely remember something like that

Mousemonkey 03/12/2010 3:16 AM
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Yuka wrote :

Intel sold/gave the rights to AMD so they could use MMX. Has nVidia done that with PhysX? No, they blocked their PhysX if an ATI card was detected (even worse, any other vendor maybe).

Cheers!




AMD did not want to use PhysX long before Nvidia blocked their cards from using it.

http://www.tgdaily.com/business-an [...] evelopment

Anonymous 03/12/2010 3:32 AM
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opmopadop 03/12/2010 3:33 AM
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I think Nvidia should resubmit their 'Round 2' argument. They are starting to sound more and more like Government PR.

builderbobftw 03/12/2010 3:40 AM
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...Of North Korea.

broketechjunkie 03/12/2010 4:06 AM
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I don't understand why Nvidia blocked physx on systems with ATI cards. You still need an Nvidia card to run physx. If someone wants to use a 5870 for gaming and a 9800GT for physx, Nvidia should like that, after all, people still buy the 9800GT...

anonymous x 03/12/2010 4:15 AM
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vaughn2k 03/12/2010 4:25 AM
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So much for the theme on most games;

"nVidia: The way its meant to be played"

Cy-Kill 03/12/2010 4:50 AM
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If they're not bribing developers to use PhysX, how come they won't license the tech to AMD?

alextheblue 03/12/2010 5:09 AM
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jacobdrj :
Why is PhysX any different than, say, MMX?

Well, due to cross licensing agreements, AMD and Intel processors both got native MMX support. Intel developed it and deployed it first, but AMD followed up quickly. With PhysX, it is entirely under Nvidia control. So unless they decide to officially port their PhysX "middleware"/API to DirectCompute, it won't be running on both platforms. We'll have to wait for someone like Havok to step in and offer a DirectCompute or OpenCL solution that runs on both, officially, without unsupported hacks.

Also I still fail to see why they blocked the use of a secondary Nvidia card as a PhysX accelerator, when used with a primary AMD card for rendering.

alextheblue 03/12/2010 5:16 AM
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dskljdsfkl23 :
Lies. PhysX can work using the CPU too... but , ofc, runs much faster on a NVIDIA GPU.

Have you tried enabling software PhysX in a demanding game? If it even lets you, it will be unplayable. That's like saying "Sure my 486 can play DVDs! It just plays them slower than a modern computer."

Although maybe if we use a $1000 Intel hex-core CPU, we can get the same PhysX performance as $50 Nvidia secondary card.

Anonymous 03/12/2010 5:39 AM
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Why worry about PhysX at this point? As far as I know only this really short list of 15 games supports PhysX with GPU acceleration.
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_physxgames_home.html

All other PhysX games are limited to running the CPU.

Mousemonkey 03/12/2010 5:50 AM
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broketechjunkie wrote :

I don't understand why Nvidia blocked physx on systems with ATI cards. You still need an Nvidia card to run physx. If someone wants to use a 5870 for gaming and a 9800GT for physx, Nvidia should like that, after all, people still buy the 9800GT...




Cy-Kill wrote :

If they're not bribing developers to use PhysX, how come they won't license the tech to AMD?




Maybe if AMD/ATi hadn't talked PhysX down first, Nvidia wouldn't have shut them out.

brisingamen 03/12/2010 6:11 AM
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physx is a cash grab and monopoly attempt,


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