"APEX is a powerful addition to NVIDIA PhysX technology," said Geoffrey Selzer, CEO of Emergent Game Technologies. "technology, however, is only one piece of the solution. We chose to partner with NVIDIA for APEX/LightSpeed integrations due to their combination of best-of-breed technology and their culture of being of service to the industry which parallels our own. NVIDIA's commitment to partners, technology, and developers has been demonstrated not only through collaborative relationships like ours, but through their holistic point-of-view about what the industry needs to thrive. PhysX, APEX, and LightSpeed will provide a breakthrough for designers, artists and engineers reenergizing creativity in the game industry."

Another key component of APEX is the support for new plug-in modules, each of which provide a "high level" interface enabling artists and level designers to facilitate turnkey physics content creation with little or no programmer involvement. At GDC, NVIDIA is showcasing three new modules— destruction, clothing, and vegetation—each adding specific game dynamics functionality for fully-featured content authoring. Available for use on all major gaming platforms including the PC; Xbox360™, PLAYSTATION®3 and Nintendo Wii™, additional APEX modules are in development by NVIDIA and APEX developer partners.

"We are adding PhysX support to SpeedTree 5.0, the latest version of our award-winning foliage software," said IDV CEO Chris King. "By integrating support for the new NVIDIA PhysX APEX vegetation module, SpeedTree 5.0 is providing developers a simplified approach for adding amazingly interactive, natural trees and plants to their game environments. The next round of games is going to achieve an incredible new degree of realism, and we are very proud to be involved."

"Physics has become a significant element of game play experience and NVIDIA is committed to enabling as many developers as possible to deliver the most realistic game experiences," said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA. "With the growing importance of physics, we believe that all games and every developer should have the best tools to be creative in this realm. With NVIDIA PhysX technology and APEX, physics-based game design just moved from the programmer to artist, which we believe will result in a new level of truly compelling and realistic games in the future."