A new game by Take 2 Interactive is in the works, and it blends the best of both action and real-time strategy into a next-gen mix. While the announcement isn’t anything new, it’s actually one of many games to come using the new Vision Engine 6.0, but that’s not without a lot of backbone from Ageia’s PhysX support.

More accurately, the Vision Engine 6.0 supports all the necessary components of Ageia’s PhysX technology. Recently I contacted Trinigy to get their take on the partnership (in which the agreements were made back at the GC Developers Conference) and what it means for gamers and game developers, in the long run. The General Manager of Trinigy, Felix Roeken, briefly commented that “...with the upcoming version 6.0, Vision licensees will get PhysX integrated and directly built-in into Vision's WYSIWYG environment.”

So genre bending newcomers to the market, like Take 2 and Sixteen Ton Entertainment’s The Show, could be benefitting greatly from using Vision’s updated middleware. Ian Warner, Developer Supervisor for Take 2 Interactive, stated that “...The Show’ is an ambitious, innovative and technologically challenging RTS title for PC by Sixteen Tons Entertainment”

But what does this mean for gamers? Well, it means that supporting advanced, dynamic, real-time physics effects will get a lot easier for developers using the Vision Engine 6.0, or any latter updates of the middleware. And there’s plenty of games queuing in the partnership of Trinigy and Ageia, which will make full-on use of the Vision Engine and PhysX technology. However, unlike The Show, these 2007 releases are still under-wraps and have yet to be announced.

What’s more, though, is that Ageia has even announced that they now have a no-fee end-user-licence-agreement, which will allow developers to use the PhysX in any of their products without paying a dime. So I guess there really would be no need to even bother licencing Havok anymore, eh? Nevertheless, a lot of developers (big and small) will be making great use of this new EULA. CEO of Ageia Technologies, Manju Hedge, stated in the press release: "Content is the name of the game and the real test of any technology is what people do with it. We've been amazed by some of the implementations we've seen in the past few months that are accelerated by the PhysX processor and are excited about bringing innumerable new projects to life. We've shown just the tip of the iceberg on the potential of PhysX, and are more than willing to offer PhysX software binaries for free to further accelerate PhysX's growth as the defacto standard physics solution."

I guess Ageia is safe with their partnership with Trinigy, so there won’t be much of a loss with the free licencing of the most sought-after physics engine in the gaming community. As for The Show, this fast-paced action strategy title won’t be available until Spring of 2007. And while information is limited, you can already guess that the physics will be top notch, and the visuals are no laughing matter. For more information regarding the game engines, you can visit Trinigy’s Website or Ageia Technology regarding details on the partnership, and some brief info on upcoming projects.