GeForce Power Pack Showcases PhysX Effects

Nvidia's free bundle includes tech demos and even a full game to show off destructible terrain, soft bodies, realistic fluids and other PhysX tricks.

While Nvidia’s integration of the Ageia PhysX engine into its existing GPUs has seen the list of PhysX-enabled games growing lately, many gamers with capable hardware still haven’t tapped their systems to try out physics acceleration. For that group of timid gamers, Nvidia on Tuesday released the first GeForce Power Pack, a bundle of free games and tech demos designed to highlight the GeForce’s newfound abilities.

The first pack includes a water demo to highlight more realistic handling of fluids, another that demonstrates soft bodies in a real-time environment, as well as a sneak peeks at Metal Knight Zero and the Nurien social networking service. For owners of Unreal Tournament 3, the pack also includes a map pack that showcases new physics effects, and for those without, Nvidia has included its own standalone game, Warmonger, which gives players a chance to destroy terrain as a route to winning.

Owners of GeForce 8 series and higher GPUs can play with the new pack after installing specialized new drivers that enable PhysX acceleration on their machines. Both the Power Pack and drivers are available for free through Nvidia.