I know that Unity uses Aegia’s PhysX physics engine, but can those PhysX Physics Processing Unit (PPU) boards be used with Unity? Has anyone tried this? I’ve only seen them for the PC, are there PPU boards for the Mac also?
Thanks!
There aren’t any boards for the Mac, and there’s only one model of Mac that could take them I think anyways (Mac Pro), so I’d bet Unity will not support it until that happens, if ever.
Cheers,
-Jon
Darn! I’m working on a project that will be pretty physics intensive: imagine a vehicle with a robotic arm and claw that can open doors, pick up objects, and pickup/move ragdolls. I’ve done some fairly intensive physics stuff with Unity so far (vehicle, robotic arm and claw, rope physics), and I’m just a bit concerned that this additional stuff, plus all the shaders I’d like to use, will really bog down my sim. Has anyone else done any -really- intense physics with Unity yet?
If I can’t use a PhysX PPU, then what would a “maxed out” system for Unity look like? My own experience has been that Unity stand alones seem to run faster on Macs than they do on comparable PCs. So would a “maxed out” Intel Core Duo II iMac be good enough? Or would we have to go with Mac Pros?
I was wondering about this, too - are the physics in a Windows or Web Unity runtime accelerated by these physics cards? I looked briefly at the Agea docs, and didn’t see any reference to additional required libraries, but there must be some way the engine detects the ppc and offloads that processing.
At the moment PhysX runs in software mode.
Would it be possible for OTEE to add this in the near future? Or does Unity’s Mac origins prevent this from being a possibility?
Everything is possible 
Another fortune cookie please! ;O)
:lol: So is this something we can request or should I go to the bank and mortgage the house? 
Time to do the letter to Santa!!!
The initial boards are PCI, which means they’d only work on Power Macs (assuming there were drivers, which I suppose there aren’t). Naturally they’ve said they’re doing a PCI-e version, which would work on Mac Pros (and the last Power Mac models), assuming the driver thing again.
–Eric