Bad News for Nvidia and PhysX, Ubisoft to Use Havok Middleware for Future Games.

• October 9, 2009
• Written by Mark
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It is being reported over at Xbitlabs that game maker Ubisoft plans to use the Havok Physics Middleware for all of it’s future game development. This is potentially bad news for Nvidia and PhysX as Ubisoft is one of the major game developers that will not be using or promoting PhysX, read the full article here.

Havok, a video game development software firm that is owned by Intel Corp., said this week that it had signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Ubisoft, a leading game publisher, to use Havok’s software and middleware products in upcoming titles across all platforms. The decision will allow Ubisoft to use industry-standard tools better suited for multi-threading hardware.

“Ubisoft consistently delivers many of the greatest brands in the video games industry and we are thrilled to be named as its long-standing middleware partner. Havok offers the best solutions across all gaming platforms. We believe in providing the most advanced technology to developers while backing our unmatched expertise with first class global support,” said David O’Meara, Managing Director of Havok.

The two companies did not name which of Havok’s middleware will be used for future games. At present Havok’s family includes six key products:

* Havok AI – provides developers with an optimized cross-platform SDK to perform navigation mesh generation, pathfinding and path following in highly dynamic game environments.
* Havok Animation – a fast and flexible animation SDK and tool chain that provide optimized playback and real-time blending on current and next-generation game systems.
* Havok Behavior – a system for developing event-driven character behaviors in a game.
* Havok Cloth – a platform-optimized runtime and toolset that increases the believability of game characters and environments. It allows character designers to go beyond simplistic tight-fitting or hand-animated clothing, and to add believable, physically-based motion to garments like skirts, capes, shirts, trousers and coats, as well other deformable items like hair, bellies or tails.
* Havok Destruction – a cross-platform tool for simulation of rigid body destruction.
* Havok Physics – a real-time collision detection and physical simulation solution.

“We’ve always appreciated Havok’s willingness to listen and work with us on serious and sophisticated commercial and technical issues. Havok goes the extra mile to understand the complexities of our business and the challenges development teams face,” said Pierre Escaich, studio operations director of Ubisoft.

Tags: Havok, Havok Physics, PhysX, Ubisoft