AGEIA PhysX presented at E3

AGEIA PhysX has created quite a lot of headlines lately and especially during E3 it has managed to show off quite a lot. Both game developers and hardware manufacturers has added to support the new physics processor (PPU) that promises a revolutionizing improvement of the gaming experience. During E3 they’ve shown the first demo sequences to give a hint of what the technology is capable of. At ExtremeTech they’ve written a short report on what they saw in AGEIA’s demos and what the nearest future looks for PhysX.

 

They showed the public two demos at E3 and the first was 4200 rocks rolling down a moutain slope which according to ExtremeTech was quite impressive. According to AGEIA a system processor with dual cores would be able to handle around 800-1000 rocks falling down and if it hadn’t been for driver issues PhysX would be able to handle up to the incredible 32000 seperate rocks. The other demo was according to ExtremeTech not quite as impressive as the first and also limited to driver issues. An updated driver should be available within a couple of months.

Prototype of AGEIAs PhysX expansion card

Alas it seems we’ve been on the right track when we thought the clever thing to do would be to wait a little before investing in a AGEIA PhysX-card. Not only because of the high price but also the lack of games supporting the technology. When the circuit is launched during the fourth quarter of 2005 there won’t be any support for many of the available effects.

“At launch, the PPU cards will only handle rigid-body and particle-based fluid dynamics physics calculations. A driver update early in 2006 will enable both soft-body and hair/clothing acceleration as well.”

It doesn’t seem like PhysX will get the chance to show off its true potential until the beginning of next year when more games supporting the technology has arrived.

:: Read on about PhysX and the demo shown at E3