Another proof that GPU has some great potential for rigid body dynamics and fluids and other kind of simulation:
http://www.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takahiroharada/
Early numbers for the NVidia 8800:
Local cached version of the Quicktime 7 movies:Rigid Body : 130 fps (5,000 chess pieces)
SPH : 70 fps (15,000 particles)
5000 chess pieces, GPU Rigidbodies (31 Mb)
http://www.continuousphysics.com/ftp/pu ... idBody.mov
15000 particles on a trianglemesh, GPU Rigidbodies (21 Mb)
http://www.continuousphysics.com/ftp/pu ... os/dem.mov
SPH fluids (16 Mb)
http://www.continuousphysics.com/ftp/pu ... sphDam.mov
When I visited them at Tokyo University this summer, we discussed their work that was also on display at SIGGRAPH 2006:
Rigid body simulation using a Particle Method:
http://mps.q.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~tanaka/
Real-time Solid Voxelization using Graphics Hardware
http://mps.q.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~harada/
Erwin