THE ACUTE CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA (and we don't mean rabies) which the gaming industry has been suffering from for a while is about to come to an end.

For years the gaming world has been pretty much dead and by dead I mean non-realistic in terms of weather effects – the elements which form our natural environment have been up until this point beyond the technical perimeters of gaming machines.

Water is the main limitation the gaming world has faced, as 'fluid dynamics' are a largely untouched area due to the fact that they are extremely complicated, often requiring massive amount of supercomputing to calculate.

However, the technology is advancing and graphics card giant Nvidia is one such company which has just released a demo demonstrating real time water movement.

"The fundamental simulation provides the position, direction and velocity at every point in a fluid body, and that information is used to trigger a whole host of effects like surface foam, spray and splashes, underwater particles and bubbles," explained lead games designer, Rob Hewson.

Water is an important element (pun intended) in the gaming experience, as it makes everything a great deal more realistic, it makes the game unpredictable and enables the user to drown enemies, flood places and some games will involve weather assessing in order to survive.

So, now the hydrophobia is over, gamers can expect their experience to become far more realistic – although I think the British users will agree that water isn't something they really want more of. µ