Future of Games Physics

by Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 03/14/2005 | 02:02 PM ]

Games are becoming more and more sophisticated. Faster hardware is needed to cope with billions of calculations needed to finish a single frame in modern games. But not always the answer is faster hardware. Add-in 3D accelerators revolutionized the world of PC gaming in mid 90s, and now it seems that another revolution is on its way.

AnandTech has posted an article covering AGEIA’s PhysX – world’s first Physical Processing Unit (PPU). This chip is specially designed to process complex calculations needed to insure realistic physics models in future games.

“To sum up what the hardware will offer consumers at the outset, here’s what we are looking at: 32000 rigid body objects, soft body objects, fluids, particle systems (40-50 thousand particles), and collision detections. The end result will range from cooler special effects in games (explosions, cloth-like clothing, and massive particle systems) to totally interactive environments (where anything and everything can be pushed, pulled, thrown or otherwise destroyed in a realistic way)” concludes AnandTech.

• AnandTech: A Closer Look At PhysX: Our Take On The PPU