AMDZone :: The real #1 source for AMD news, reviews, and info. Est 1998.

AMDZone :: The real #1 source for AMD news, reviews, and info. Est 1998.: "Switching to dedicated physics cards like the ones Ageia is working on he felt that they will not have an impact on gameplay that is significant. He is not a proponent of the technology. More GPU power he wants, but again more physics power for realistic physics with stuff like better smoke is not something he is interested in. While he believes some cool things could be done with it, but gameplay is clearly king with Mr. Carmack. He believes that it will slow down games similiar to what early GPUs did actually running slower than software due to decreasing actual wall clock times. 3dfx was the first to conquer that problem with GPUs where quality and performance were both enhanced."

John Carmack is THE person in the industry to talk to for foward thinking. I find it disappointing that he feels so ambivalent towards the physics co-processors, as a geek I was really neated out by the concept. His opinion is more practical and (no doubt) based more in the industry reality.