Ageia just sent me one of their PhysX graphics cards to check out. Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of games to play using it. They did include a copy of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and a PhysX-supported level called Ageia Island.
There are a few other games out there that support it, but really not that many. I'm intrigued with the concept because I sort of liken in to sound cards for the PC back in the day. There was a time, I kid you not, when sound was not a given in games. In fact it was unusual. Well real sound, you got plenty of bleeps and bloops, but I'm talking speech and honest to goodness sound effects.
I still remember the day I ponied up for a sound card. It was for Wing Commander Privateer. Before that game released a speech pack I saw absolutely no reason to spend my money on sound. How absurd, I thought, why would I want to do that. But then the voice pack hit and I was at the store buying both a sound card and the pack.
That's what Ageia needs, I suspect, a game that opens peoples eyes to the need for such a think as a PhysX card. Of course, I don't know yet if we actually do need a separate physics card. I hope to figure that out this weekend.
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