06 - Conclusion

Accurately modelled physics has the potential to improve gaming experiences in a big way. While we're more likely to see Effects Physics being added (as this doesn't require specific hardware) our excitment is reserved for Gameplay Physics being implemented in more games than just the three Nvidia has shown us.

Gameplay Physics will change the way we play games, and make the playing of these games more realistic and more fun. No longer will incorrectly modelled scenery be able to withstand blasts from rockets, grenades and tanks rolling over it. With physics, every object in the game should behave exactly as the real thing would.

The fly in the ointment is that there are two gaming physics technologies - Nvidia's PhysX standard and Havok's Havok FX that looks set to run on both ATI hardware and Intel's Larrabee (as Intel owns Havok now). Keeping the two mutually exclusive will do nothing to encourage the adoption of Physics effects in games, but we suspect this won't be the case for long.

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