Nvidia has announced support for Sony's recently-unveiled PlayStation 4 in the form of PhysX and APEX software development kits. These SDKs are used to provide collision detection and simulation of rigid bodies, fluids, clothing and particle systems in a number of desktop PC, console and mobile games.
Mike Skolones, product manager for PhysX at Nvidia, said great physics technology is imperative when one wants to deliver a better gaming experience and multiplatform support is critical for developers. He said that with PhysX and APEX, PlayStation 4 owners can look forward to better overall games.
As pointed out in the company's press release, APEX allows developers to create intricate physics-enabled worlds. It's used to expand the quantity and visual quality of destructible worlds, for example: making smoke and other particle-based fluids integral to game play and creating life-like clothing that interacts with a character's movement or wind to achieve a more realistic experience.
As referenced to earlier, both technologies are designed to run on a variety of different CPU architectures. Furthermore, they can be accelerated by any CUDA architecture-enabled Nvidia GPU (GeForce 8-series or higher).
The company claims that more than 150 games take advantage of PhysX technology and that it's used by over 10,000 developers. Recent titles that use these technologies include Borderlands 2, the Batman Arkham series, Metro 2033 and Mirror's Edge, just to name a few. No word yet on any PS4 games that will use these technologies, however.