Folks with newer Nvidia cards will get a treat if they grab Mirror’s Edge for the PC next year. Nvidia has revealed that the PC flavor of DICE’s free-running action game will support PhysX hardware acceleration. All you’ll need is a GeForce 8 or better graphics card, and you’ll be the envy of your console-using friends (you know, the ones who’ve already been playing the game for a week and counting).
Here’s how Nvidia describes the PhysX enhancements:
With the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine, the world of Mirror’s Edge comes to life with real affects [sic] of wind, weapons impact, and in-game movements. Every-day objects within the game become part of the overall experience. Cloth, flags, and banners can now impact weapons and players; ground fog interacts with the player’s footsteps; explosions fill the air with smoke and debris; and weapon impacts are enhanced with interactive particles.
The company was kind enough to send us a video of the PhysX goodies in action, too. You’ll have to use your imagination when the YouTube blur gets too much, but you get the idea—destructible cloth and interactive volumetric smoke ahoy:
Mirror’s Edge should hit PCs early next year. As far as I can tell, this will the first blockbuster title to use PhysX technology since Nvidia’s purchase of Ageia in February.