Nvidia grabs gaming physics firm

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 5 Feb 2008 at 11:41

Nvidia has announced that it is to acquire gaming physics developer Ageia Technologies.

Ageia's PhysX is used to create realistic effects ranging from explosions that cause dust and collateral debris to characters with complex, jointed movements.

To take advantage of these effects, gamers need a PC equipped with a PhysX-enabled physics processing unit, or PPU. But these tend to be restricted to high-end machines, such as HP's Blackbird gaming PCs. Ageia was hoping that the PhysX-based Unreal Tournament 3 would help to popularise PPUs, but sales of the game have been disappointing.

Nvidia's plan is to integrate PhysX with its established GPU hardware, which will eventually put it on millions of PCs worldwide.

"The Ageia team is world class, and is passionate about the same thing we are - creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences," states Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's president and chief executive. "By combining the teams that created the world's most pervasive GPU and physics engine brands, we can now bring GeForce-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world."

The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.