An application executing on a rendering computer invokes a physics function request, e.g., to model the movement and interaction of objects to be rendered. The physics function request specifies a physics function to be performed on input data. Physics function request data is formatted for transmission over a network. The physics computer receives the physics function request data and performs an associated physics function using a physics GPU to generate physics computation result data. The physics computation result data is transmitted to the rendering computer over the network. A rendering GPU renders an image using the physics computation result data.