HAVOK PHYSICS
//// Havok l www.havok.com
Zombie ApocAlypse
When a product wins the Game Developer Front Line Award for
middleware three times in a row, you know it is doing something really,
really well. Havok Physics is once again the winner of the award for
middleware and it truly is the premiere solution for bringing high quality
physics simulation to your game.
From an engineering point of view, Havok Physics is straightfor ward
and can be integrated into almost any existing engine with minimal
changes to the underlying
architecture. Once
up and running,
the included tools,
such as the Havok
Visual Debugger,
allow for real-time
information and
verification that
saved days, and sometimes weeks of time when tracking
hard-to-reproduce physical interaction bugs. Havok Physics
includes multiple ways to interact with any data allowing for
easy use of legacy code and allows the team to dictate how the physics
system will be used rather than having the physics system define
the game. Havok’s powerful and easy to use API and tools help your
team stay focused on finding the fun of your game without having to
compromise to meet the requirements of the middleware.
conAn
Middleware Finalists
¶ Box 2d Box 2d 2. 1.0
Keeping your engineers happy and empowering your team is
great, but let’s not forget that Havok Physics is good business too.
Cross platform development continues to be important for third party
publishers and their development partners, and Havok makes that
easy. The middleware is near ubiquitous on gaming platforms and
the physics engine is highly optimized on all the platforms it runs on.
Taking advantage of unique platform features, such as the SPUs on the
PS3, allows Havok Physics to perform at a lightning pace. If your game
is targeting multiple platforms,
there really is no better choice.
Many of the most well-known and successful games
of this generation have
been built on Havok Physics
technology. Those games
would not have been able
to deliver as compelling an
experience without the benefit
of the middleware’s extensive
capabilities, ease of integration, and fantastic tool support. If that isn’t
reason enough to win this year, I don’t know what is.
Mark Cooke is a lead systems designer and Joe Allen is a senior software
engineer at Nihilistic ( www.nihilistic.com).
game developer | January 2011 18
