GS: Epic announced a couple of months ago that it is using NovodeX physics in Unreal Engine 3. Ageia, the company behind the NovodeX API, is preparing to release a physics chip for the PC. How will UE3-based PC games take advantage of the Ageia hardware? MR: Things that you write for the NovodeX API automatically become hardware-accelerated, automatically get faster [with a physics processor]. What's more significant isn't really that. What you get is instead of having 600 rocks rolling down a hill you have to do 6,000 rocks rolling down a hill. So you'll be able to do so much more, do much deeper simulations than what we could possibly do without it. But people who don't have it won't feel completely ripped off--they just won't get the full experience. GS: The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will both have extremely powerful multicore processors capable of doing a lot of physics calculations. Is that going to make it difficult for developers to port console games over to the PC? MR: The PlayStation 3 Cell architecture is very similar to the hardware design of the Ageia chip, so the PC will be able to get superaccelerated also. The Ageia NovodeX API, when they bring it over to the PlayStation 3, will be very fast, very powerful--similar to the Ageia [chip]. But the cool thing about that is if someone's lead moneymaking platform is the PlayStation 3, they're going physics up the wazoo because they have so much power. That makes it a very economical choice for PC users than to just pop a [physics] chip into the PC and then have the full physics effects that will be available on the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360.
Epic MegaGames - 7th Legion, Fire Fight, Extreme Pinball, Jazz Jackrabbit 1-2, Tyrian ... (4098 hits) Joan of Arc - 3D epic saga that will allow players to relive some of the most intense battles during the Hundred Years War. In Joan of Arc (1521 hits) The Wheel of Time MUD - online role playing game based on Robert Jordan's series. Enter a world engulfed in an epic age of struggle where times are unsettled... (1464 hits) Kakuro Epic - Play and solve kakuro puzzles on your PC (1216 hits) Avernum VI - The epic conclusion of the award-winning Avernum series. Travel into the strange subterranean land of Avernum, full of dungeons, labyrinths, and constant warfare. A final set of disasters threatens to destroy your homeland in a spasm of famine and warfare. Only you can help your people to get to safety before everything falls apart. (996 hits) Operation Darkness - epic fantasy WWII turn-based strategy game (846 hits) Red Orchestra - Red Orchestra is a World War Two-themed mod (Ut2k3/UT2k4) that depicts the battles of the Eastern Front between the Soviet and German armie. (832 hits) Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets - Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets is the latest strategy title from the award-winning team at Strategic Studies Group. A synthesis of the very best elements of two critically acclaimed and top-rated game systems, Decisive Battles and Battlefront, and a successor to both, the new Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets brings to life a campaign of epic scale and dynamic battles on the Eastern Front of World War II. (722 hits) Kings and Castles (Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games) - epic real-time strategy game for the PC and next-generation consoles. This one-of-a-kind experience will let players take on the role of one of three powerful kings who are vying for control of an all-new, original fantasy world. (694 hits)