THE REVOLUTION WE TOOK FOR GRANTED: HOW PHYSX CHANGED GAMING

Back in the late 1990s, the first wave of 3D accelerators made proper 3D real-time rendering viable at last. And the Pentiums and Athlons of the time had become powerful enough to handle basic physical effects too, such as some in-game objects falling under gravity or bouncing off walls. It was an age when the idea of a game being “photorealistic” some day, was seriously looking less like science-fiction, and more like an inevitability. Still, it was early days. Very early days.

Quake was the first proper 3D rendered game, and even without a 3D accelerator, it could bounce a grenade off solid surfaces, and have an LPB’s rocket exhaust light up the environment as it hurtled toward your face.

But those effects were extremely limited.