Havok
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Microsoft buys 3D physics developer Havok to boost gaming efforts
Microsoft today announced the acquisition of Havok from Intel. Havok makes a 3D physics engine and licenses it to gaming studios; its work has been featured on more than 600 titles, including popular franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Destiny, Dark Souls, The Elder Scrolls and Microsoft's own Halo. While Microsoft says it is delighted to add Havok's technologies to its robust portfolio of tools and components for developers, like DirectX 12 and Azure, it did point out that it won't stop supporting partners going forward. "We will continue to license Havok's technology to the broad AAA games industry," Microsoft said in a statement to IGN. "This also means that we will continue to license Havok's technology to run across various game consoles including Sony and Nintendo."
Camelot Unchained gives a first look at the Viking Jotnar [Updated]
A new producer's letter from Camelot Unchained's Tyler Rockwell is out today with a first look at one of the giant races of the game. The game posted a piece of concept art for its Viking Jotnar as well as an image of a creature found in The Depths dungeon. Rockwell said that the team has a lot to do over the next month, including integrating a new game designer into the team, developing the Tuatha giant race, and vastly improving the internal testing client so that large-scale battles can happen. The game's scheduled to get Havok physics and collisions added in, allowing for jumping and projectiles to be included in the future. [Update: Tipster Matthew let us know that CU also uploaded a new developer video. It's after the cut!]
Project Anarchy, Havok's mobile game development suite now available at no cost
Havok -- the physics middleware engine used by almost every big console and PC game -- announced its start-to-finish mobile game development suite will be available at no cost to developers. Project Anarchy has tools for everything: visuals, physics, artificial intelligence and animation. We say "no cost" instead of free for a reason: Havok expects a few things out of its users in return. It wants to co-market some finished games and for clients to become part of its development community. Currently, that dev community includes folks programming for iOS, Android and Tizen. Microsofties may not be left out, however, as Havok has "flexible business models" for Windows Phone if you ping its sales team. Full details in the links below.
Havok releases 'Project Anarchy,' a free mobile development toolkit
Middleware company Havok, which you might remember from the splash screens of many hundreds of video games, has released a free development suite for budding mobile developers. Dubbed "Project Anarchy," the toolkit includes Havok's Vision Engine, Animation Studio, Physics and AI tools, as well as licenses to freely publish on Android, iOS and Tizen, with a provisional license to develop for (but not publish on) Windows. Licenses for development on other platforms, as well as fancier tools and support directly from Havok, are available for those who upgrade to Project Anarchy Pro, which has an expandable feature set. For the rest of us, Project Anarchy includes tutorials and sample projects to learn the ropes, in addition to low-level C++ access and Lua scripting/debugging for those already familiar.
Microsoft showcases Windows Phone middleware partnerships at GDC, we go hands-on (video)
Building on yesterday's announcement that Temple Run and several other games are coming to Windows Phone, Microsoft's been actively courting developers at GDC 2013. To that end, the company's booth showcases several games that highlight cross-platform development and middleware. Now that WP8 and Windows 8 share the same NT kernel, DirectX APIs and tools, it's easier than ever to write games that use the same code base for both platforms. Microsoft is sweetening the deal with a few significant middleware partnerships -- Unity, Marmalade and Havok, to be specific. We talked with Larry Lieberman, Senior Product Manager for Windows Phone development, who was kind enough to explain what these partnerships mean for developers and to give us a tour of the games. Hit the break for our hands-on video. %Gallery-184180%
Havok announces Project Anarchy, a new development engine for mobile gaming
Havok's involved itself with mobile gaming for a few years and it's now taken to this year's GDC to announce Project Anarchy. This new cross-platform mobile dev engine will include access to its own physics, animation and AI tools -- the same as those apparently used in notable series like Skyrim, Assassin's Creed and, er, Skylanders. It will also integrate Havok's Vision engine, adding in "game samples" and tutorials to ease mobile devs into crafting plenty of beautiful mobile games that hopefully involve less bird physics and approach something resembling our (admittedly zealous) mock-up above. We're itching to see those beastly smartphone processors pushed to their limits.
Embers of Caerus partners with Havok Engine, seeks more sandbox supporters
The good news continues to roll in for fans of emergent MMOs and the little-indie-sandbox-that-could, otherwise known as Embers of Caerus. Forsaken Studios has released a PR splash noting that it is making use of the Havok Vision Engine to power the forthcoming fantasy epic. If you've been keeping abreast of this story, you probably know that EoC is riding a wave of positive buzz following on from its successful Kickstarter campaign, which has already met its initial funding goal and then some with 19 days left to go. Forsaken is now seeking to galvanize additional sandbox fans, a demographic that creative director Rob Steele says is ready for EoC and games like it. "It just shows that the audience is out there, hungry for the kind of game that we're making -- one where the players take control of the world and make it their own," he says. [Thanks to flintwicktog for the tip!]
Havok physics engine comes to Android 2.3, demoed on Xperia Play (video)
Great graphics are often a component of great video games, but fancy physics can help too, and last week Havok announced that it was bringing those to Android, along with all of the requisite development tools. That means smartphones with Android 2.3 or up can potentially enjoy the same procedural animations and pretty dresses that we've enjoyed on PC and home console for years, and as the first gamer-centric smartphone with Gingerbread on board, Sony Ericsson's forthcoming Xperia Play got to be the first to demo them. Watch a pickup plow through road hazards, a gorilla get catapulted across a football field, and an Assassin's Creed-esque warrior run, jump and climb with the best of them in the video above. Oh, and just so you know, we got a (very brief) hands-on with all three demos in person at GDC 2011 last week, and each was practically enjoyable enough to be an Android game of its own. The realistically bouncing ball's in your court, developers. Don't let us down.
Linden Lab investigates new/updated technologies for Second Life
Over the last few weeks, Linden Lab staff have been talking about a few upcoming Second Life projects during their in-world office-hours sessions. Now the Lab has always been quick to stress that the accuracy and reliability of information obtained through those venues is questionable, and that we shouldn't assume that anything said at them is actually accurate. With that in mind, we went back to the Lab about several identifiable (or at least apparent) projects to get the skinny on them and find out what's actually happening with them, and where they're at.
Havok announces discount program for indie devs
Havok, developer and distributor of the powerful middleware engine of the same name, recently announced a new, altruistic initiative that should fill indie devs with gallons of holiday cheer. The aptly named Independent Developer Program offers the engine's entire software suite (Havok Physics, Havok AI, Havok Cloth, etc.) to developers at a "flexible and affordable" rate. Rather than licensing the tools directly, these developers sign up for an annual agreement with Havok, which allows them to prototype the tools, picking and choosing which ones they want to leverage for the creation of their latest opus. The recently downsized Krome Studios is the first outfit to benefit from the program. We really hope Sony Santa Monica is the next team to utilize the software, if only so we can make the following joke: "Sony tried Havok, and let slip the God of War." We're not certain it qualifies as "independent," unfortunately. Shucks.
TimeShift dev taps Havok for 'several' upcoming games
Developer Saber Interactive has been keeping to itself since its time-bending shooter, TimeShift, first bored critics in 2007. Employees have been spending their hours competing in weekly dance-offs doing the Time Warp, a heated competition that'll likely be put on hold now that the company has a new game to work on. Make that games -- plural -- as middleware firm Havok announced that its Havok Destruction tech is now in the hands of the company for use in "several" upcoming games.While no games have been announced, Saber Interactive teases that Havok Destruction will help bring "a new scale and complexity to the fully destructible city" in its next title, including the ability to punch holes through walls. In addition, the developer notes that the software allowed it to realize "large-scale destruction sequences" and reduce costs, with the outfit's budget for interactive assets dropping by 40 percent or more as a result of the Havok license. Exploding barrels, is there anything you can't do?
GDC09: Havok demonstrates behavioral tool v6.5 (with ninjas!)
With so many fantastic panels and discussions happening at GDC, how does a company make its message stand out? The answer: Use ninjas. Apparently the guys and gals at Havok got the "What's awesome?" memo and did just that, showcasing version 6.5 of its new behavioral tool set during the conference. Admittedly, video footage of the tech (found after the break) isn't going to smoke your shorts and knock your socks off, but the event-driven character behavior system hopes to make realistic reactions easier for game developers. Havok's behavioral tech demo (featuring wacky ninjas) demonstrates animation "tells," allowing characters to properly react to what is about to happen or is in the process of happening. The tech -- which uses the very technical sounding system of Hierarchical Finite State Machines and Blending Trees -- hopes to empower game devs to create realistic scenarios that are easily transferable between artists and designers. What does that mean for the gamer? When a dude gets punched, it looks like that dude done get punched fo' reals. See, we can be technical too ... we have a doctorate in Awesomology.
Havok and AMD show off OpenCL with pretty pretty dresses
With all the talk about OpenCL and Snow Leopard together and how the spec will allow Apple's upcoming hotness to exploit graphics accelerators, it's easy to lose track of the place where the standard could make its biggest impact: gaming. Yes, OpenGL may have lost favor in that realm in recent years, but OpenCL looks to captivate the hearts and GPUs of gamers everywhere by applying some much-needed standardization to the physics acceleration realm, first shown in public at GDC running on some AMD hardware. Havok is demonstrating its Havok Cloth and Havoc Destruction engines, the former of which is embedded below, and we think you'll agree it's quite impressive. OpenCL allows such acceleration to switch between the GPU and CPU seamlessly and as needed depending on which is more available, hopefully opening the door to physics acceleration that actually affects gameplay and doesn't just exist to make you say, "Whoa."
GDC09: 'Cloth' becomes Havok's fastest selling product
Havok has produced a number of extremely popular software development kits and tool sets for developers to implement in their titles, though a surprising newcomer recently became the company's fastest selling product to date: "Cloth," an engine for processing movement in garments, hair and skin, is apparently all the rage. THQ sang the tool's praises at GDC, saying it allowed the publisher to "quickly generate and visualize high quality cloth assets" for its upcoming title, UFC 2009 Undisputed.The engine, which launched in March 2008, should start appearing in games released this spring. In short, virtual clothes are going to be way prettier this year. Who's not excited about that?
GDC09: Havok gets smart, announces Havok AI
Havok is exploding like a red barrel into the world of artificial intelligence. With ragdoll grace, the middleware company announced its new Havok AI SDK during GDC 2009, promising "unique solutions" to various AI pathfinding issues faced by today's game developers. Like the folks at 1UP, we're not exactly sure what this means for gamers, though the new software is supposed to be fully compatible with Havok's other products and tools, such as Havok Physics. Perhaps now enemy patrols will get the good sense not to seek shelter behind things that go kablooey when bullets begin to fly.[Thanks David B.]
Video: Opening the Wrath Collector's Edition box
Can't wait to get your hands on the Wrath Collector's Edition box to see what shiny shiny lies within? We've all seen the list of what's included, but now you can watch it for yourselves. Somehow reader Havok of Norway got his hands on the box early and shot a 2 minute video opening it and exploring each element inside. Start about 30 seconds in to avoid some shaky camera set up.And check back with WoW Insider. We are giving away more Wrath CE boxes as part of our Countdown to Wrath Giveaway!EDIT: Mysteriously, the video has been taken down off YouTube by the user. I guess we'll have to wait until Thursday to get a look at the CE.
A brief history of void simulators/openspaces
The context in which the Second Life issue of the void/openspaces price-rise exists is a rather complex one, going all the way back to 2006. So, in order to get the whole issue in perspective, we've rounded up the history of void simulators, costs and conditions, all the way back to the beginning. And it is a far more interesting progression of events than you might think. On with the show.
Second Life SLS-1.24.6 rolling out this week
Continuing the attempts to further stabilize the new Second Life server code, SLS-1.24.5 will be replaced with SLS-1.24.6 in the latter half of this week, Wednesday through Friday. There are also some signs that precursors to yet another revision, SLS-1.24.7 are already undergoing preliminary testing. The version that is slated for deployment this week appears to be build 96673, which is marked as containing fixes for two bugs - one of which was supposed to have been fixed in SLS-1.24.5, and another which was partially fixed in that release. Both bugs impact scripts, as you might expect, and have impaired and disrupted a large quantity of post-mono user-generated content, sometimes in quite subtle ways. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Turbine licenses cross-platform Havok engine for new MMO
Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine has just announced their official licensing of Havok Physics, Havok Animation and Havok Behavior 6 for their yet-unnamed MMO project. As you may remember, Turbine stated intent for creating their next MMO on PC and consoles, which would fall in line with this Havok engine which includes support for multiple platforms including the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.The Havok 6.0 suite is a collection of development tools made specifically for programmers and artists to build "interactive character performances" that are said to respond to their physical environment in the game. With this advanced set of tools and the recent venture capital in hand, Turbine may indeed be on their way to making the first truly cross-platform MMO.
MGS inks 'perpetual' license for Havok tech
It's not the size of your explosion that matters, but rather how many random objects you can send flying about in realistic fashion. Microsoft Game Studios today announced a new "perpetual licensing agreement" with the physics connoisseurs at Havok, opening up the middleware outfit's suite of current and future tech to MGS and its development partners. Perpetual, you say? Sounds like someone is over their puppy love and is ready for a real commitment.Havok's reputation for overturning tables in dramatic fashion is well known. A number of Microsoft's titles, both internally developed and published, utilize the technology already, giving us reason to believe that whatever Microsoft Game Studios has up its sleeves next, it's sure to have exploding barrels aplenty.
