LucasArts and Pixelux have teamed up to bring a revolutionary new technology to next-generation gaming. LucasArts’ next-gen [I]Indiana Jones[/I] title will feature Pixelux’s new physics engine – dubbed: [b]Digital Molecular Matter[/b].

This technology promises to vastly improve the way environments look and act as players move through them. The two companies hope the sophisticated physics engine will simulate real world physics better than ever.

Walls should crumble, glass should shatter, and pots should explode into pieces as though they were real. The DMM engine accomplishes this by calculating the strength of the object’s materials, and then calculating the physical stress being spread throughout the object. When players break a piece of wood it should splinter and fracture like it would in the real world.

The DMM engine is also intended to handle non-ridged objects. Rubber should stretch, wind will fill the sails of ships, and plants will sway in the breeze realistically. Pixelux even boasts the ability to animate realistic flesh, by attaching realistically flexible flesh to a ridge skeleton videogame characters will move more like real people.

LucasArts plans to show off this technology over the next few days at E3.