Biggest transition in history of gaming.

Graphics chipset firm Nvidia has announced a new platform for advanced game development, as the industry prepares for one of the biggest transitions in its history with the introduction of Microsoft's DirectX 10.

The core of the latest Nvidia platform is a new suite to help developers create and optimise state-of-the-art PC games for DirectX 10.

The Nvidia Developer Toolkit is designed to save time and money in creating games that deliver almost lifelike graphics and physics realism, the company said.

The platform integrates GeForce 8 Series graphics cards, nForce 680 motherboards and DirectX 10, as well as offering instructive code samples, advanced shaders and performance tuning.

Cevat Yerli, president of games developer Crytek, said: "We use the Nvidia developer tools frequently for performance analysis, optimisation, shaders and testing.

"The tools have saved us a significant amount of time and money in the course of our work on Crysis. The exceptional debugging, visualisation and profiling capabilities in these tools make them a 'must' for any development group."