14 DAY TRIAL // Nvidia is announcing that is has been approved by Nintendo as a third-party tool provider for the Wii gaming console. The PhysX Software Development Kit is now available to all those developing games on the platform. The announcement comes just a short while after Nvidia said that it had also entered into an agreement with Sony to offer PhysX on the PlayStation 3. Versions for the PC and the Xbox 360 have been available for some time.
PhysX is a middle-ware application, a proprietary real time physics engine supposed to be able to use specialized hardware, which at the moment consists of Nvidia video cards, in order to take all the physics interaction calculations off the main processor in order to allow it to focus more on other things, like Artificial Intelligence.
The most recent example of a successful PhysX implementation is Mirror's Edge from Electronic Arts and DICE. The game really benefited from the implementation of realistic physics effects, given the fact that most of the gameplay is centered around free running, leaping and overcoming obstacles.
Tony Tamasi, senior vice president in charge of content and technology at Nvidia, said that “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.”
It's not clear whether developers will be interested in using PhysX on the Nintendo Wii, given the fact that the console is reportedly packing less hardware punch than the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 and that most of the games on the platform are not aimed at realism in movement or in looks. The future will say whether Nvidia was right to bring the physics engine to the Wii or not.