TypeSD said:
Hungry Donner said:
Personally I think Microsoft (and Sony for that matter) should consider a physics accelerator. If only one console has this it will really make them stand out, and high quality physics opens up a lot of great gameplay options.
If only there were a machine that did that already. Like you know, a card, that lived inside a bigger system.
I'm quite aware that such cards have been available for some time, but they haven't yet become widespread. If MS or Sony (or preferably both) were to include one in their next console I suspect the cards would become prevalent quite quickly.
When video accelerators were entering the market games had to support those without 3D accelerators as well, or lose a large chunk of the market. However graphics are easily scaled - those without accelerators would need to run on a smaller resolution and perhaps with simpler textures loaded, but they could still run and enjoy the game. With physics most of the really good stuff isn't scalable, because physics systems work best when it actually impacts gameplay. Some things are aesthetic, like attaching a physics system to animations and some environmental effects (funny enough, much of what we're seeing now). But if you want to make a game that utilizes what a physics card will give you gamers without one won't be able to play.
If only one major console included a physics card this could cause some problems with cross-platform developement, but I think we'd see PC acceptance rise quite quickly.
