Officials from UK based technology firm Blade Interactive have announced the creation of HydroEngine, a “physically accurate” real-time fluid dynamics engine for use in video game development.

Promising effects that have “never been seen in videogames before,” the HydroEngine technology will make its debut as part of Blade's upcoming survival adventure game Hydrophobia, currently in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Commented Huw Lloyd, R&D director at Blade, on Hydrophobia, “We could have been forgiven if we had merely produced a tech demo...but this new game is a robust next gen game in its own right that pushes the limits of the new consoles.”

He added: “Our HydroEngine is the result of nearly 3 years intensive development work... Water in games has so far been merely a flat plane with ripple effects and other graphical smoke and mirrors applied to it. The HydroEngine is different in one key respect - the water flows. It looks and behaves exactly like real water.”