If the GPU provides a more efficient computation power, why aren’t the physics calculated in the shader?
They very well can be, but the problem is that GPU based solutions for anything other than basic physics tend to be a lot more complex than their CPU counterparts. Furthermore, you often need physics data on the CPU to handle things like audio/gameplay/other responses. The only reasonable way to get this data back from the GPU ina realtime application is to wait a couple frames (+/-).
I think there are just enough obstacles it isn’t worth it for most games.
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