Posted on Wednesday, March 22 2006 @ 18:12 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
AGEIA PhysX Accelerator add-in boards from leading board manufacturers ASUS and BFG will be available in wide distribution in May of this year.
The AGEIA PhysX processor, with its massively parallel interactive PhysX engines, has been specifically designed to accelerate dynamic physical motion and interaction in games at a scale and quality far beyond what has previously been possible. Exciting new games optimized for the hardware-accelerated physics provided by the PhysX processor will feature complex characters, objects and environments that fully interact based on real-world, real-time properties.
With the PhysX accelerator installed in their PCs, gamers can now have different experiences every time they play a game. For example explosions will be in real-time and specific to the interaction of objects, not just replays of the same animation over and over again. Now game objects can smash, bounce, deform, shatter or explode and cause a different chain reaction every time, depending on physical laws such as force, speed, volume, pressure, or density.
More than one hundred games designed for and supporting the AGEIA PhysX processor are in development from over 60 leading software developers and publishers. Game developer and publishing partners include UbiSoft, Cryptic Studios, NCSoft, Epic Games and Sega, among many others.
The AGEIA PhysX processor completes the new Gaming Power Triangle consisting of the central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU) and PPU to balance the excessive computing demands of game logic, graphics and physics. Within this triangle the CPU “thinks and orchestrates” to drive game artificial intelligence and logic, the general purpose GPU “renders and displays” to deliver beautiful 3D imagery, and the third leg of the triangle, the new AGEIA PhysX Processor, “moves and interacts” to take gaming to the next level with pervasive dynamic motion and interaction.
Examples of other PhysX-driven features that will dramatically improve the gamer experience include:
Explosions with dust, debris and shrapnel that cause collateral damage Characters with joints, convexes and other complex geometry that enable realistic motion Spectacular new weapons with unpredictable effects Lush foliage that bends and sways when brushed against by the player or other characters or objects Dense smoke and fog that ooze naturally around moving objects Fluids that ebb and flow, drip, or spray naturally with physical characteristics dependent on their viscosity Cloth that drapes, flows, tears and billows depending on where it is placed and the environment
