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2K and EA to use NVIDIA PhysX technology

Sam Alderwick   on 08 December 2008 - 20:37 · 8 comments & 4570 views

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Both EA Games and 2K Games have licensed the NVIDIA PhysX engine for use by the studios.

EA had already implemented PhysX technology in Mirrors Edge for the PC. The PhysX engine "works across all major gaming platforms, including Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC", which means we should expect to see PhysX technology in use on EA's and 2K's games in the future.

When PhysX was first released, on an individual PCI card, it received a less than lukewarm welcome; only a handful of games had support for it, and the card retailed at about $180 (about �100 in the UK) � over half the price of a mid-range graphics card. However, since NVIDIA took over and enabled support for it on existing NVIDIA GeForce cards, the number of games supporting PhysX has grown dramatically: over 150 games currently both support or use parts of it and a growing number of studios are adopting the engine.

Both EA and 2K will be making the engine available to their studios worldwide, although it is unclear which games they will be using it for, nor which platforms, as of yet. With more and more studios using the physics engine, gamers have high hopes regarding destructible environments, dynamic effects, and more realistic gameplay as a result of those. How long it will be until we see this fully implemented, however, remains unknown, but there have been several examples shown across the internet which demonstrate the potential of the PhysX engine.

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(1 reply) #1 toadeater on 09 Dec 2008 - 00:59
Weren't they already using it with the Unreal 3 engine in a bunch of games?
#1.1 +Frazell Thomas on 09 Dec 2008 - 06:07
As the article highlights... it is use in 150 games now
#2 +King Mustard on 09 Dec 2008 - 07:20
Good news
(2 replies) #3 Magallanes on 09 Dec 2008 - 11:46
physx is still a overhyped technology, the difference between to use or not is unnoticeable.
#3.1 RAID 0 on 09 Dec 2008 - 16:17
Magallanes said,
physx is still a overhyped technology, the difference between to use or not is unnoticeable.


I've never seen it in use personally... but from the reviews I've read on the subject, I'm inclined to believe you.
#3.2 toadeater on 09 Dec 2008 - 23:47
It's not overhyped. You've grown so used to the effects PhysX (and Havok) do behind the scenes that you don't notice them anymore. Physics plays a significant role in games like Crysis, Fallout 3, and various racing sims.
#4 Sazz181 on 09 Dec 2008 - 16:41
For those who don't know or haven't seen what effects PhysX can add to games, check out this video by NVIDIA:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/prs/flash/Mi...hysX_01_low.wmv

The video isn't lagging - it's slowed down to show the effects off. I think it's certainly got potential
#5 Anaron on 21 Dec 2008 - 08:47
I'm under the assumption that this will only benefit users with PhysX capable hardware such as NVIDIA GeForce 8/9/200 series video cards. What about ATI hardware? If I remember correctly, ATI and Intel are pushing Havok physics technology.

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