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PhysX on ATI effort gets helping hand from NVIDIA
Eran Badit of NGOHQ.com has already made some considerable progress getting PhysX to run on AMD hardware, and it looks like he's now getting a helping hand from a somewhat unexpected source, with NVIDIA itself reportedly giving the project its blessing. Apparently, NVIDIA has even gone so far as to invite Badit to join its developer program, which gives him access to documentation, SDKs and, most importantly, direct access to hardware and NVIDIA engineers, a move that Badit describes as "impressive, inspiring and motivating." Badit is decidedly less impressed by AMD, however, which has apparently been unwilling to provide with any hardware or support for the project. That stubborn stance, he surmises, can only be due to AMD's backing of Intel's Havok physics engine, which NVIDIA would no doubt like to have out of the picture (hence its willingness to help here).[Via TG Daily]
Carnival Games causing a Havok
One of the most well-known development tools in the world has been secured by 2K Games for some upoming titles. The Havok physics engine is used in squillions of high-profile games like Halo 3, Oblivion, BioShock and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Naturally, 2K wanted to acquire the license for none other than Carnival Games: Mini-Golf.Before crying shovelware, the original Carnival Games sold over a million copies, so 2K is doing the right thing by wanting to get the best software for improving the series. A few other titles are also in line to use Havok, but no word on specific names as yet.
AMD back on the Havok physics engine bandwagon
After a relationship drama that belongs on daytime television, AMD is snuggling up to Intel to add Havok physics acceleration to their CPUs and GPUs. AMD likely buckled under pressure to come up with a better physics program for its chips and just went with what Rick Bergman of AMD called "the clear market leader in physics software." AMD will add the Havok Physics engine to both its multi-core CPUs and GPUs, but AMD managing director noted that the focus is on CPUs given feedback from gaming developers who like the idea of offsetting physics computation to CPU cores. Good news for game developers, indeed.
Cinemassively: Second Life Bravia commercial
Two years ago, Sony dropped 250,000 colorful, bouncy balls down a street in San Francisco to show the clarity of their Bravia televisions. Last month, Second Life resident Dorky Mohr decided to recreate that commercial as a machinima. While it pokes fun at the physical balls not crashing the sim due to the Havok 4 upgrade, this blogger still saw the beauty of the original commercial in this one.[Thanks, Dorky!]If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Havok 4 volumes: action at a distance
This week the main Second Life grid finally upgraded to Havok 4. Watching another user puzzling over a physics-based piece of gimcrackery that wasn't working properly, we decided to take a look at the way Havok 4 is processing collisions in a practical way. By making lots of physics things, and -- you know -- shoving them about to see what happened. After about 30 minutes of experimentation it became clear that collision volumes for prims are being calculated very oddly indeed.
Cry "havoc" and let slip the squirrels of war!
Only in our case it is not "havoc" but "Havok" and most people don't wander Second Life's islands in in squirrel avatars. Apparently this weekend's RC3 update went well and Havok will be hitting the grid today -- albeit a bit late in the day. From the official blog we have the report that the server previously known as the Havok 4 Beta Server (now Second Life Simulator v1.20.0.83683), after some bug fixes this morning, has started rolling out to the live grid. Tonight it will only be implemented for early adopters, welcome areas, orientation islands, and 1200 randomly selected Second Life regions -- but by tomorrow Havok will hit the rest of the grid.Though no one around the Massively office actually remembers how long it has been since Second Life's residents were promised an upgrade from the Havok 1 engine the simulator has been using since pre-beta, but we're fairly certain it was at least 2003. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we're breaking out the champaign and party hats: Havok 4 has arrived!
Havok in Second Life. Is it upon us?
According to Sidewinder Linden, program manager for the Havok 4 project at Linden Lab, Havok 4 will be rolled out across the whole Second Life grid starting Monday, 31 March (depending on the overall performance of the RC3 update over the weekend). Looks like we win the betting pool, and that means candy! More than half of simulator crashes and restarts are tied back to physics problems. That being the case, it seems that this new code will be the most stable Second Life simulator ever. According to the timetable, assuming the current release candidate is not found wanting on Monday morning, it will be rolled out to an initial group of up to 2,000 simulators, followed by a deployment to all the rest on Tuesday, 1 April. We believe you'll also see Windlight (1.19.1) roll out as the official viewer on Monday, or perhaps Tuesday. It's going to be a hell of a start to the new quarter.
Havok preparing for deployment at last?
Sharp-eyed reader Jayden Beresford noticed that Monday's announcement about the reattempted 1.19.2 Second Life software update included a note that 1.19.3 would roll out next week, including the new Havok-4 code. The text was, apparently, very quickly withdrawn, but we think that it is very plausible that the Havok-4 code will roll out either next week or the week after. It's presently into release-candidates, and the reports we have on how it functions are all very positive. Assuming 1.19.2 goes well this week, it seems likely that Havok-4 will hit the grid within the next 14 days.
Linden Lab to retry 1.19.2 upgrade this week
Last week's deployment of 1.19.2 onto the Second Life grid did not go at all well, and affected simulators had to be rolled back to the earlier 1.19.1 version. Linden Lab's Bridie Linden tells us that the issue with the new server software (exactly what was wrong was never mentioned) has been identified and fixed, and a new three-phase update will be taking place this week, starting tomorrow evening. The first batch of 500 simulators will be updated Tuesday evening from 8PM. 1,500 more simulators will be updated from 7PM Wednesday evening, assuming all goes well with the first 500. Finally at 6PM Thursday evening (again, assuming that we have no further issues resembling last week's problems) the all of the remaining simulators will be updated to 1.19.2 (with the exception of the simulators in the Havok Early Adopters Program).
A Second Life update in four parts, 1.19.2
There is another multipart update on the way for Second Life this week to version 1.19.2 (we certainly hope it addresses some of the problems that have taken place today. It has been a rough one). While the multipart updates probably total more actual time than the earlier kinds, we like them better because they afford more opportunity to back out of major problems that are discovered along the way. This update supports PRIM_GLOW in scripts (but the viewer doesn't, so you won't be able to use it right away, necessarily). Some internal changes to do with reducing database load (hey, there's an awful lot of that going on, we've noticed) that won't be initially enabled, more internal logging and diagnostics (we suppose the servers will be logging everything in more detail), and fix for a bug where an IM might somehow wind up sent to the wrong person.
Havok offers PC game devs Havok Complete for free
It was only a few short years ago when in-game physics were a novelty, like lava lamps and black lights. Today, however, like barrels that explode when shot, obeying the laws of physics is expected behavior for objects in most any game. This turnabout is pinned largely on the popularity of Havok's core collection of animation and physics tools, which the company notes that it will make available to PC game developers for free later this year. The toolset, dubbed Havok Complete, has been used in creating a number of high profile titles, such as Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword. Beginning in May, Havok will make available these same tools to developers for non-commercial use, while both it and parent company Intel also plan to offer those devs deemed worthy with a free commercial distribution license as well. Says Havok, the move is designed to "boost creative game development throughout the industry," from indies and academics, to PC enthusiasts who for too long have lived without the joy of being able to throw virtual ragdolls down flights of stairs.
GDC08: Havok introduces two new development tools
The folks over at Havok have introduced two new physics engines focusing on some interesting properties -- one is called "Destruction" and the other is called "Cloth". The former allows for complete and realistic environmental destruction unlike anything we've seen to date. Based on the material in the game (sheet metal, wood, et cetera) they will react differently upon destruction. Rocks explode chaotically, wood will splinter along their grain and metallic objects bulge and break as expected in real life.Cloth technology is what you see in the video up top. It's not as cool sounding, but it boasts the ability to have clothes react true-to-life. Notice how the cape never tangles in the character's legs and doesn't automatically fly all the way up when he jumps. It acts like a normal cape would if you wanted to go jump around in a cape outside on a moderately breezy day. Cool stuff! We look forward to seeing these implemented in future games!
GDC08: Tech Demo - Havok cloth physics
Already some of the most-used middleware around, Havok seems to be working on expanding their repertoire, adding cloth physics to their software. The video above showcases a tech demo from GDC08 and depicts a cape on a human figure who runs and jumps, with the cape reacting accordingly. The tech seems to be working well, with no evident clipping (at least to our eyes), and if there is any complaint to made it's that the cape's movements seem a bit exaggerated and unrealistic. With the tech delivering on it's end and Havok being used in a myriad of different games originating from a variety of genres and across many platforms, we can hope to see (mostly) accurate cloth physics appear in many more games going forward. (Also, what does this mean for cloaks, shrouds, togas, robes and all other in-game cloth?)[Via 1UP]
Havok upgrades to 5.5, adds cloth and destruction
The Havok Physics engine has been upgraded to 5.5, according to a press release from today. The release includes new enhancements, features, "dramatically accelerating the development of cross platform, [and] cutting edge electronic entertainment." The Havok Animation and Havok Behavior toolsets were also updated to 5.5, and the PlayStation 3 tools also received enhanced collision query optimizations. In a separate press release, Havok announced Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction, whose intentions and use are pretty self-explanatory.
Havok 4 early adopters updated
Sidewinder Linden reports that Havok 4 early adopter simulators (all 435 of them) have been updated with a fresh code drop, fixing a tidy bundle of issues. When it comes to bug-fixes per week, this has to be some kind of record for Linden Lab at the moment. We've never seen them put out so many fixes in such a short period of time as they have in the last couple of months.
Coobico disses hard on Second Life
Coobico is a Flash-based MMO with social networking features that's purported to be set for release sometime early this year. Following a link embedded in this Gamasutra interview with Lutz Winter, Coobico's founder, I found the 'Videos and Animations' section of Coobico's website. At the top of the page was a small post whose sole purpose appeared to be to stomp all over Second Life. It talks about SL's technical problems without going into specifics, links to a bunch of articles detailing SL's woes, and ends by mentioning that the company that made SL's physics engine, Havok (which it misspells), will be acquired by Intel, but to no point other than to mention it.For a product that isn't even available in beta yet, this is some serious dirt slinging. I'm not defending SL here, but why bother shooting off your mouth about a company that you claim to have no competition with? There's really no better way to look defensive and insecure, so if that was the intent behind this weird article, then Mission Accomplished.
Havok 4 early-adopter program
Owners of private estates in Second Life can opt to run preview versions of the Havok 4 physics engine on any of their simulators. Bear in mind that this is a beta and things won't work right - at least not right away. Exactly what things won't work right? Well the whole point of this is to find out - or in other words, if there was a good answer to that question then there wouldn't be any need for the early-adopter program.
Havok refresh on Second Life beta grid (1.18.6.77074)
Sidewinder Linden reports that the Second Life beta grid (Aditi) has been updated with a new version of the Havok 4.6 adapter code, ready for a weekend beta test. There are a quite a number of good fixes in this refresh. Havok4 is starting to feel more like a physics system should, despite the engine not being ideally suited for tasks like it is being asked to perform.
Peering inside - looking back at 2007 [UPDATED]
It's been no less a tumultuous year for Second Life in 2007 this year than any previous year, frankly. There are a few standout items though. This isn't the list that anyone else might make - We might completely skip over one of the things you see as standing out as a huge impact, based solely on that we don't actually think it was that big a deal in the scheme of things.
Megaprims to stay - Andrew Linden
Megaprims in Second Life are prims (primitive geometric shapes that everything is made out of) that are larger than the standard size. These mightily oversized components were originally created through an exploit and are used in many places in Second Life, for construction, decoration and causing grief or inconvenience to others. "Megaprims are a mis-feature... a bug that many people consider a feature." -- Andrew Linden. During a talk at the Volunteer Island Meeting Area today, Andrew Linden mentioned megaprims during a discussion about the new Havok 4 implementation.
