As gaming technology continues to grow from one generation to the next, and the graphics continue to get better and better, players are finding that we are getting pretty close to having completely realistic graphics. Yes, it will still take a few more systems more than likely, but look how far graphics have advanced since the early days. With the graphics being the most realistic they have ever been, players are starting to look more towards that next stepping stone to bring games even further into the world of realism. Rag doll physics is a big "it" word nowadays, but what if physics applied to just more than how a character can die? What if physics applied to everything in the environment?

AGEIA Technologies, Inc., dedicated to taking PC gaming to the next level, is the pioneer of hardware-accelerated physics for games. A fabless semiconductor company, AGEIA delivers hardware and software technologies that bring powerful real-time dynamic motion and interaction to the ever demanding complexity of next generation games. Its flagship product, the AGEIA PhysX processor, is the world’s first semiconductor chip that is dedicated exclusively to physics processing, and is designed to target the $9 billion game market. Mounted on PC addin cards called physics accelerators, the AGEIA PhysX processor promises to do for game action what the 3D graphics accelerator did for game visuals.

The AGEIA PhysX processor is the world's first physics processing unit (PPU). The AGEIA PhysX processor completes the new Gaming Power Triangle with the central processing unit (CPU) and the graphics processing unit (GPU) to deliver the huge and growing computing demands of physics and gameplay in gaming. As a result, gamers can experience unprecedented levels of action, strategy and visuals in games for the PC and next-generation consoles.

AGEIA PhysX processor adds action to games by enabling massive and pervasive:
• Rigid body dynamics
• Universal collision detection
• Finite element analysis
• Soft body dynamics
• Fluid dynamics
• Hair simulation
• Real clothing simulation

Over 100 games by more than 60 developers and publishers support the AGEIA PhysX engine and processor technology. Leading companies in digital entertainment such as Epic, Ubisoft, Sega, Microsoft, and SONY have publicly adopted AGEIA’s technology for their next generation of games.

Okay, now that is only the technical information right there, but let me say that the AGEIA PhysX performed extremely well when I got to see a hands on demonstration of it in action. Though only two unnamed games were on hand to show what they could do, it still managed to impress me with the seemingly limitless possibilities AGEIA PhysX could enable in gaming. For example, with AGEIX PhysX installed, one game gets an added, all-new weapon, which is a flame/napalm thrower where liquid squirts out of the gun like a Super-Soaker and it realistically falls and contours to the environment, so in theory the player would be able to hit an enemy hiding behind cover by arching the napalm over the cover so that gravity would force the liquid to fall and crawl over the surface.

Of course characters interact accordingly given the fact that "rag doll" physics have been quite prevalent for a few years now, but what really stood out to me were the environmental objects that react as I would expect them to in real life. For starters, fabrics tear in a believable manner, as bullets will rip holes as they make contact, and then the fabric will fall as the seams are severed. Other, simply astounding displays of the physics card at work, included instances of wooden crates splintering into different sizes and dimensions, debris pushing aside as the player walks through the carnage, and literally hundreds (hundreds!) of barrels and crates acting independently as one single explosion set them all off at one time, meaning they will bounce off each other and act according to actual physics rather than pre-canned animations. Simply put, all I could do is let my mouth slack open and utter "Wow!" Really, it is that amazing to see in action.

AGEIA PhysX is still in its infancy stage in many regards, but more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon and it appears to be for several good reasons. If the examples I saw are any indication, I can't wait to see AGEIA PhysX incorporated into even more systems and for more games to take advantage of this technology.