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BioWare - AGEIA PhysX Added to Eclipse

Here's the pertinent part of the press release:

Quote:

BioWare to Integrate AGEIA PhysX Technology into
Next-Generation Eclipse Engine™

PhysX Processor to Boost Future BioWare PC Titles

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – November 7, 2006 – AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that BioWare Corp. is integrating AGEIA PhysX™ technology into its next-generation BioWare Eclipse Engine™ for PCs and next-generation consoles. BioWare chose AGEIA PhysX for its unmatched physics capabilities and its straightforward implementation across multiple platforms.

One of the most respected game developers in the industry, BioWare has developed scores of successful game titles and currently boasts an online community of over 3 million registered users. BioWare’s integration of AGEIA PhysX technology into their next-generation game engine will deliver unprecedented physics action to a huge population of gamers using PCs and consoles.

Gamers whose PC gaming rigs are powered by the AGEIA PhysX processor will experience especially dramatic PhysX hardware-accelerated physics in BioWare’s upcoming title Dragon Age, as well as future PC games.

The AGEIA PhysX processor is available now in game PCs from Dell and Alienware, and on add-in boards from ASUS and BFG Technologies.

“There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel when you have a world-class, easy-to-implement physics solution such as AGEIA PhysX technology,” said Ray Muzyka, CEO of BioWare. “AGEIA PhysX will deliver mind-blowing physics action for games using BioWare’s next-generation game engine.”

“BioWare is synonymous with top-quality games and has an unparalleled relationship with its gamer community,” said Greg Stoner, vice president of business development at AGEIA. “We’re extremely proud that they have chosen AGEIA PhysX technology to power the physics component of their much-anticipated next-gen game engine.”

More information.

Does this mean anything? I haven't heard really good things about the PhysX cards, and it seems like they are headed for commercial failure.

Here are the tech specs for the PhysX card offered in the Dell XPS 700:

Bus: 32-bit PCI
Memory: 128MB of 128-bit GDDR3
Memory Bandwidth: 12 GB/sec.
Memory Speed: 366MHz (DDR)
Peak Instruction Bandwidth: 20 Billion Instructions/sec
Sphere-Sphere collisions/sec.: 530 Million max
Convex-Convex (Complex) collisions/sec.533,000 max

Sounds good, but PCI? I don't know if I would be compelled to get a PC like this unless the PhysX chip was integrated on the motherboard. The only way I see that happening is if they start becoming very popular and consumers/gamers demand it.

I just want to buy a PC in a retail store and not have to deal with junky integrated graphics boards. Ugh!

I know that AlienWare delivers PCs with cards like these. You get dual GeForce 7950GTX and the extra physics processor, now that's solid gaming! With systems like that you can run anything like a wet dream..

Personally I think it's good that people add support for this, as there will be more and more demand for physics processors in the future.

I agree, I think that the integrated approach would be best, maybe as part of a GFX card or even on a MOBO. Who knows though, GFX cards were in similar discussions when they first hit the market. Now we all use GFX cards for all of our gaming. At this point I haven't seen anything special coming from the PhysX products, I guess we just need someone to produce a game that will impress us in its utilization of a PhysX card. I have to say, there is great potential here.

I think price is an issue - as I was playing GRAW on the PC I saw videos of what the PhysX card could do … but it didn't look like anything I was missing! For $300 I want to drool over what I'm missing!

In GRAW it lowers FPS, because the vid card struggles to render all the extra "junk" flying around after an explosion.

So far this card hasn't had any good examples of it actually making the gameplay experience any better.

I've heard that physics could be headed towards some kind of integration with video cards. Anyways, I think that physics hardware is coming, but it might not be the Ageia card that does it. That's why I haven't bought one yet.

Well, you remember what happened to 80387 math co-processors at the end…

It is likely that this technology will eventually be integrated to other components, in the near future at least on the action gaming side there will be enough demand for it.