le Tigre 0 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 (edited) This an article from IGN, expect more in coming days LINK TO IGN ARTICLE March 21, 2006 - The Game Developers Conference doesn't really start to kick until Wednesday, but our IGN team is already on the scene in San Jose, CA. It's a tad cold and overcast compared to sunny LA, and the air smells a little funny. It must be the lack of stagnant carbon monoxide and smog. On the Gear side of things, I've been meeting with AGEIA Corporation, designer of some pretty exciting dedicated physics chips, to talk about their forthcoming hardware and software releases and the future of PC gaming. Sadly, a lot of what we've learned is still under press embargo, but rest assured, there's exciting news ready to break. In fact, it's happening already. AGEIA announced this morning that the company will release a new version of their PhysX SDK for the PlayStation 3. An SDK (Software Development Kit), simply put, is a programming package that takes care of a good deal of the back-end of coding of a game. An SDK works directly with the hardware, and programmers can make calls to the SDK's APIs (Application Program Interface), which are like building blocks that are put together. Developers like SDKs because it allows them to avoid re-inventing the wheel in the process of making a game. For example, rather than crunch the math to determine how a fragmentary explosion should react to gravity, objects, wind, an everything else, a programmer can make calls to a physics SDK that has already done the work. AGEIA's announced PS3 support is definitely good news. The software will be released to developers at the end of this month, and is fully multithreaded and ready to support the Cell Processor's many cores. Developers will have a great deal of control over where the PhysX pipeline distributes its work load between the PS3's PPU and SPUs, and AGEIA reports they have been able to reduce PPU load by 50%, which means a lot more space for game code and buffering. Dominic Mallinson, VP or US R&D with Sony Computer Entertainment, had this to say: "Real-time physical simulation is the new frontier in computer entertainment, and the PlayStation 3 will lead the way with the help of AGEIA PhysX technology. Our collaboration with AGEIA will provide PlayStation 3 developers with another powerful tool enabling the creation of amazingly rich and realistic interactive entertainment." Manju Hegde, founder and CEO or AGEIA, chimed in: "The debut of the PlayStation 3 is one of the most anticipated launches in the history of games, and we're extremely pleased that AGEIA PhysX technology will be a part of it. With AGEIA PhysX technology available for the PlayStation 3, content creators will have the tools they need to create a new era in action-packed, physics-enabled games." With any luck we'll get the chance to see some of this new-era in action later today, though on a PC rather than a PS3. AGEIA has a lot of stuff to show off this week, and will be making some sweet hardware and partnership announcements. It's a shame we can't tell you what we know right now, but don't worry: if things work out, it's looking like the high-end PC gaming rig or the future won't be complete without a dedicated physics chip taking the load off of the CPU and GPUs. Bigger, better explosions for all Sounds like We might have a chance to see GR PC in action very soon... Who knows. Edited March 22, 2006 by MissLoki Quote Link to post Share on other sites
insane snyper 0 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Uh, that link just takes me to microsoft.com Quote Link to post Share on other sites
le Tigre 0 Posted March 22, 2006 Author Share Posted March 22, 2006 Uh, that link just takes me to microsoft.com ← Should work now, whole article is posted anyways.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kingkat 0 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html Saw this over at UBI forums.................hope the link works. Looks very good................ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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