Nvidia expands PhysX toolset to Wii
by Majed Athab 
{ Mar 20th 2009 at 11:30AM }
SDKs are now available to registered Wii developers (and if you don't know what an SDK is, then you're probably not a developer and not getting one!). It'll be interesting to see how the tech handles on Wii -- the combination of a souped-up physics engine and motion sensor control could yield some very exciting results.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
oreyes170 @ Mar 20th 2009 12:52PM
I know what an SDK is, but I'm still not sure what PhysX is. Does it mean I won't be seeing the Havok logo on every singe one of my games?
jONEz @ Mar 20th 2009 1:32PM
Doesn't AMD make the graphics card that's in Wii's?
Originally Ageia created a PCI-X card that was solely used to handle physics calculations to reduce load on your processor. Then nVidia bought them and ported the engine to run off their GPU's to achieve the same result, since most people aren't going to buy an addon card just for client side physics.
Interesting technology, but not widely used as far as I can tell. Well not yet anyway,
Metayoshi @ Mar 20th 2009 2:51PM
Yeah, AMD/ATI makes the GPU that powers the Wii. I'm actually very surprised at this since ATI is Nvidia's main competitor. It's going to be interesting to see how well Nvidia's tech ports over to an ATI chip.
Andy @ Mar 20th 2009 5:19PM
Does this mean that NVidia could, theoritically, create a PhysX SDK for the Xbox 360 as well, since it too uses an ATI graphics card?
Barry @ Mar 20th 2009 4:03PM
But wait... on Wikipedia it says Sonic and the Secret Rings uses the PhysX engine... in other words, PhysX has been on the Wii for a while now...
S. Tiger @ Mar 20th 2009 7:54PM
I want more PhysX games for my PC...not my Wii... 8[ I have an 8500GT that's meant solely for physics processing...
dark.saian @ Mar 21st 2009 12:10PM
Even Red Steel uses PhysX for the wii. So what's new exactly?
Stantonio @ Mar 21st 2009 1:24PM
well people have been saying its been on the wii for some time now but whats new with it
well the new (or maybe not so new) thing about this on wii is how it is utilized:
PhysX technology allows developers to bring lifelike physics modeling to their game, letting the video chips do the work that would normally end up being handled by the CPU.
“Nintendo has reshaped the home entertainment and video game market with the success of the Wii console. Adding a PhysX SDK for Wii is key to our cross-platform strategy and integral to the business model for our licensed game developers and publishers,” said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA PhysX technology, developers can easily author more realistic game environments for the evolving demands of a broad class of Wii gamers.”