4 replies to this topic

[S0S]

Here's a brief overview of this new technology, it will be interesting to see how this pans out, is anyone on this board who is a coder going to give it a shot at developing?

Definitely a new innovation and one that gamers will love and also makes the possibility for even more realism in games/simulations than we have now.

Opinions?

http://www.ageia.com/

Overview

In 2002, five innovative technologists and entrepreneurs shared a vision of a uniquely diverse company teaming together to add new levels of realism to computer simulated physics processes. They brought their skills and knowledge from around the world--from America , Germany , Egypt , India and America --and named their company for the countries they originated from: AGEIA ™ Technologies, Inc.

Today, AGEIA is dedicated to delivering dynamic interactive realism to the ever demanding complexity of next generation games. Its flagship solution, AGEIA PhysX™, is the world's first dedicated physics engine and physics processor to bridge the gap between static virtual worlds and responsive unscripted physical reality. AGEIA PhysX allows developers to use active physics-based environments for a truly realistic entertainment experience.


AGEIA's major investors include Apex Venture Partners, BA Venture Partners, HIG Ventures, Granite Global Ventures, CID Equity Partners, and VentureTech Alliance.

Why do you need it?
PhysX by AGEIA delivers the most advanced gaming physics which define a totally new level of dynamic motion and interaction in next generation titles. This means thousands of objects colliding with each other, fog that oozes around characters in motion, cloth and clothing that interact with the environment, and gushing fluids that tear through the gaming world. This new level of physics and simulation combine to create an experience that draws you into the action and won’t let go. If you want to take your game to the next level, there’s no alternative—you need PhysX by AGEIA.

Who’s got it?
The AGEIA PhysX SDK is the only physics solution that’s built from the ground up to support the leading edge architectures of the latest consoles as well as PC gaming hardware driven by the massively parallel AGEIA PhysX processor. By providing a common API for next generation consoles and heavy duty gaming PC’s with PhysX acceleration, the integrity of your game design is kept intact without the need to make costly design modifications to support different platforms.

Who’s supporting it?
With over 100 titles in development from leading game developers and publishers, AGEIA PhysX technology is becoming pervasive throughout the industry. AGEIA PhysX is integrated into today’s hottest game engines, such as Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3.0 and Emergent’s Gamebryo 3D Engine. In addition, AGEIA is committed to ensuring support and optimal performance on all leading next-generation gaming platforms.

Who’s behind it?
AGEIA is an innovative new company with a solid strategy to meet the needs of leading edge developers. Our unique business model supports extensive R&D for world-class software solutions, and provides marketing and distribution channels to help you reach the rabid gamer. And unlike pure middleware companies, our revenues come primarily from hardware sales-- which means we don’t have to charge an arm and a leg for our SDK. With 90% of the company with engineering degrees, AGEIA is a company that “gets it” when it comes to advanced technology and developer support.

Where can I get it?
Qualified developers can obtain the AGEIA PhysX SDK directly from AGEIA. To download the SDK or obtain more detailed information on the capabilities of the AGEIA PhysX SDK, please visit the downloads page.

[Griffin]

Ive been watching this. From what ive seen so far it looks like it'll be worth the relatively large price tag (atleast from my viewpoint) once more games support it.

[SHIVMOO]

300 quid ontop of a current system, bit steep for me, physics are nice and all but would rather get a better graphics card than some nice physice effects that the bad graphics card wont be able to display properly

looked into it a while ago... nice enough stuff.. bit pricy.. looks like something that will drop in price for sure tho

[Prelithe]

You know, it doesn't matter how powerful your gfx card is, if the cpu cannot calculate enough physics stuff quick enough, you'll get the lag, unless you specify somewhere num of physics objects to occur each second or something.

[S0S]

I've seen the new screenshots for the next "Rise of Nations" and it looks impressive. At some point once you have a fast enough processor and a high memory on your video/graphics card having a PhysX processor to do the physics work makes having fluid animation a lot easier.

It will probably cost a lot which once again will leave it to those who actually want it and can afford it.

I know that our technology can now animate what happens when a black hole sucks in and "destroys" matter. Before that, any attempt to animate it caused the computers that did the work to crash each and every time.

Current estimates have it that it will take processor power and technology another 10 years at least before we will be able to "fully" animate the Milky Way galaxy colliding with Andromeda galaxy.

I can see NASA using this technology in the future for certain.