EA and 2K add PhysX

Top game makers Electronic Arts and 2K Games have announced they will use NVIDIA's PhysX technology.

Graphics outfit NVIDIA has something to celebrate at last.

PhysX will appear in EA's Mirror's Edge on PC, in which a courier has to outrun armed troops under the command of an oppressive government. Quite why a such a game needs PhysX is not clear... it's essentially just a big jumping puzzle.

The game has already come out on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles and will be released in January for PCs. The PhysX version shows improved image processing, in which shattering windows spray glass shards, banners flutter, fabric tears and bullets hit walls more realistically. No real gameplay is added, just graphical flourishes that increase the realism and immersion factor.

An NVIDIA GeForce spokesman said that everything was fully destructible, and he was not just talking about chips for a change.

He said that the next big thing was realism. "You really feel the world is alive."

PhysX uses combined graphics and computer processing. It is supposed to make scenes 10 to 20 times more visually complex than possible on single purpose processors.

2K Games said that it was very impressed with the quality of the PhysX engine and licensed it so its studios can use this solution early in development.