08 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| FEB 09 | http://www.maximumpc.com
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THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALLE
A and Take-Two recently signed a
deal to license Nvidia’s PhysX tech
for use in upcoming games developed
by both publishers. This move enables both
publishers’ in-house development teams to
utilize the full power of the PhysX API for
materials simulation, more accurate ragdoll
effects, and upgraded particle effects (like
breaking glass).
What does this mean for you? Well,
if you own a GPU from the GeForce 9000
series (or newer cards, natch), PhysX will be
enabled automatically simply by updating to
the most recent drivers. If you have multiple
GPUs in your rig, you can even dedicate one
to graphics rendering and use the second
exclusively for physics acceleration. But
with the relatively small number of games
currently taking advantage of PhysX, we
wouldn’t encourage anyone to do that right
now. However, this new announcement
could be the precursor to a flood of PhysX-
enabled titles coming in 2009 and beyond.
This announcement is a significant step
forward for proponents of hardware-based
physics acceleration. Getting developers
to implement PhysX when the installed
base was limited to a few thousand of
Ageia’s dedicated cards was impossible, but
with 150 million GPUs capable of running
Nvidia’s implementation in the wild today,it’s worth developers’ time.
Still, there’s a pretty big gotcha. Right
now, ATI holds about 40 percent of the
standalone graphics card market, and ATI
cards don’t support PhysX acceleration. For-
tunately, ATI owners will still be able to play
games that utilize PhysX. In addition to hav-
ing PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 support, PhysXcan also run on the CPU. However, PC gamers
whose GPUs don’t support the API will have a
greatly toned-down experience lacking nift y
cloth eff ects and enhanced particle eff ects.
Therein lies the hitch. While we’re
excited at the prospect of games supporting
PhysX, without ATI (and likely
Intel, with its forthcoming
Larrabee part) supporting the
API, we’re extremely unlikely
to see games from major pub-
lishers that rely on hardware-
accelerated physics support
for gameplay. Instead, PhysX will prob-
ably amount to little more than cosmetic
enhancements in supported games—the
same torn cloth, shattering glass, and fancy
ragdolls that Ageia first showcased more
than three years ago. We don’t expect to see
games that require physics acceleration—no
publisher will green-light a multimillion-dollar title that will run on only 60 percent
of PC gamers’ machines.
So what are the prospects of ATI imple-
menting PhysX and thus enabling physics
acceleration using Nvidia’s API? According
to Nvidia, “They [third parties] would have
to develop a C compiler for their GPUs....
We encourage them to do that, but it is ulti-
mately up to them to develop that and make
it work on their GPUs.” ATI’s response? “We
remain committed to our partnership with
Havok, as announced back in June.”
It remains to be seen whether EA and
Take-Two will begin widespread develop-
ment of games using the PhysX API. We’re
hopeful that one day developers will be
able to harness the power of physics ac-
celeration in games; however, for the time
being we’re skeptical that their recent deal
with Nvidia heralds a new age of physics-
accelerated gameplay.Mirror’s Edge is one of EA’s fi rst titles to fully embrace PhysX. When the PC version ships in January,
Nvidia users will see tearing cloth, better glass, and a host of other physics effects.THE NEWS
EA and Take-Two sign on to use the physics-acceleration API, but potential
pitfalls remain for the fl edgling tech —WILL SMITH
Nvidia’s PhysX Momentum?
THE NEWS
Nvidia’s PhysX Momentum?
THE NEWS
PHYSX WILL LIKELY AMOUNT
TO LITTLE MORE THAN
COSMETIC ENHANCEMENTS
IN SUPPORTED GAMES.