360 Buckling Under PhysX
PS3 can handle it; 360 features, however, are limited.
As Valve demonstrated with Half-Life 2, true-to-life physics can have a lasting impact on gameplay, and next-generation should prove that notion even more so. Ageia hopes to cash in on this trend with their PhysX line of physic-dedicated accelerator cards, of which BFG Technologies was recently announced as second add-on card partner.
What's interesting, however, is how this plays out between PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. At the European Game Developers Conference, Extreme Tech noted that the company confirmed plans to offer software-based rendering for single and dual-core PCs, PCs decked out with PhysX chips and software versions for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
That makes sense to offer development solutions on all platforms, but what's interesting is Ageia's report that Xbox 360 can't handle all of the PhysX's features because of architecture limitations. PhysX offers technologies ranging from physical object interactions to fluid-based particle effects like water and smoke and reportedly only PS3 and PCs will be able to handle all the goods.
What will Xbox 360 miss out on? PhysX's fluid-based technology. How exactly that impacts Xbox 360's future is for all intents and purposes minimal, but it's strange to see a split between the two machines after such rabid debate over which one had the edge.
