What the heck is a physics engine and why should I care?

[lukefojut]

Sorry for the glib title, but I was hoping to stir up some discussion!

The first time I played Diablo II was eight years ago and then my 8MB Ati Rage Graphics card was more than up to the task. Was Diablo II ever a demanding game in terms of system requirements?

My worry is that the current generation of Diablo II fans might find that their current rigs aren't up to playing the new game, with it's shiny clouds of mist, torches etc.

Does anyone expect a game that will press their machines, or does the gameplay video make you think things will remain the way they are, with Diablo II not taking a lot of 'oomph' to run? The video looked pretty linear and simplistic, despite some of the pretty effects.. I assume that this is perhaps deliberately so?

Thoughts?

[konfeta]

My current rig is a 2.8 Pentium 4, 7600GT, and 2 Gigs of 333 Ram. It plays Titan Quest adequately, and Diablo 3 doesn't seem that much more demanding.

I am pretty sure that by the time Diablo 3 comes out, you will be able to play it on high settings on a dirt cheap computer. My computer is sub-par by last year's standards too. I am pretty sure D3 will stay in the tradition of being accessible by poor computers.

[Widukind]

Blizzard is known for keeping their games playable on lower end rigs and I think Diablo III will be no exception.

[lukefojut]

There is a comment from Elly's live blog to indicate that this will be the case, I just wonder what will be taken as being a 'normal' spec these days. I feel that a lot of the current crop of gamers will have quite old machines in relative terms.

[blackrocksword]

Hi Lukefojut.

Physics engine is mainly used for the animations. I believed it was used in Unreal Tournament 3 too.

By the time D3 is released, most PCs should have more than enough horsepower to run it. From the screenshots, it does not seem like D3 is a really demanding game. A mainstream machine of today should be able to handle it without much issues I would think.

[Kiroptus]

physic are certainly a very nice touch for imersion and feeling of power. Certainly will make D3 a very fun game to play and watch.

And it seems that even nowdays, most machines would be able to run D3 with no problem. Its graphics and physics arent that far from TQ which is a pretty old game.

[ohnoyellowdinosaur]

Originally Posted by lukefojut

There is a comment from Elly's live blog to indicate that this will be the case, I just wonder what will be taken as being a 'normal' spec these days. I feel that a lot of the current crop of gamers will have quite old machines in relative terms.

The game won't be out until a year or two, and even now I can't see a computer costing more than 400 to adequately run Diablo 3. Never mind when the game actually comes out.

[Bioburg]

Heeeeeeee Luke

I hope they will release a Linux version as well, otherwise I hope the my Virtual winXP will be able to handle it just like it's doing now

And in 2 years time I should have completed my study which means I can really try it out

I will probably using a Mac as well then so running the game shouldn't be a problem at all

[poroboszcz]

Basicaly physics mean that the way the environment reacts to your actions is being rendered in the real time. For example when you hit an object the phisics engine calculates how it will behave rather than just triggering some simple animation. It adds a lot of realism and eye candy to the game. The havoc phisics has already been used in Half Life 2.
Imho physics in Diablo will be an awsome thing. My biggest concern atm is PvP. The game looks somehow less dynamic and fast paced than D2.

[Elly]

Destructable environment is the need for an enhanced physics engine and it does look awesome. The tradeoff is the total number of players in the party which has not been set yet but Blizzard has said they will set the player cap based on performance and that they aim to make it so as many people as possible can play the game, like all Blizzard titles.