2008 Woodie Awards
Putting Better Physics into Video Games
Dean Takahashi/syndicated writer/krt campus
Issue date: 4/15/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment
- Page 1 of 3 next >
|
That's because the game creators haven't taken the time to calculate the underlying physics equations that govern the behavior of objects such as falling bricks. Hegde, the chief executive officer of Mountain View start-up Ageia, wants to make it easy for them to do that by making a chip for the personal computer that specializes in physics calculations.
The physics chip, dubbed PhysX, will enable things like gelatinous creatures whose bodies shift shape like a liquid, crumpling fenders in car crashes, massive explosions with 10,000 pieces of debris, clothing that hangs or wrinkles realistically and lava or blood that flows like the real thing.
"We think a game should be like the Star Trek holodeck," Hegde says, referring to the virtual reality simulator from the science fiction TV series whose illusions were indistinguishable from real life. "Our chip is the first step toward that."
Ageia has raised $38 million in venture capital from firms such as Apex Partners and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. It has commitments for $30 million more from other investors. One reason that Ageia has garnered such support is that its chip could tip the scales in the PC's battle with the game consoles.
The PC gaming community is about to be overshadowed by another set of new consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Those machines will have plenty of extra processing power to handle better physics.
The consoles will be able to calculate the interaction of moving objects and determine what the graphics chip needs to display on the screen at any instant. And they may have enough power to imbue the entire game environment with physical attributes, so that the grass sways when the wind blows or hair falls out of place when a character moves.
"The PC needs this kind of capability to beat the next-generation consoles," says physics aficionado David Wu, president of Pseudo Interactive, a game developer in Toronto, Canada. "It's a smart idea. A few years from now, everybody will do it." Hegde argues that a PC with a physics chip could match the consoles.
Physics chips are "a major innovation that is likely to breathe new life into the PC as a gaming platform," said Jon Peddie, president of graphics research firm Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon.