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Codemasters licenses new Havok Engine

by: Chuck -
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Havok introduced a new version of their Havok physics engine at GDC this week and it looks like Codemasters was the first company to use the engine.  Check the press release for all of the info on the unnamed game and the new Havok engine.

San Francisco, Calif., 06 March, 2007 - Havok, the premier provider of interactive software and services to digital creators in the games and movie industries, announces today that Codemasters has licensed Havok Behavior™ for use in developing their upcoming next generation games. Havok’s innovative Behavior SDK and composition tool allows technical and non-technical game developers to create infinite numbers of sophisticated next generation character behaviors easily and quickly on a wide range of game platforms.

Havok Behavior is a key element of Havok 4.5, the highly-regarded modular suite of artist tools and run-time technology that includes Havok Physics and Havok Animation.  Havok Behavior accelerates the creation and run-time evaluation of sophisticated character behaviors based on hierarchical finite-state-machines and procedural modifiers. Designed with the creative members of the development team in mind, the Havok Behavior Tool gives complete control to game character creators.  It enables technical and non-technical game developers to aggregate character animation assets directly from Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, and Softimage XSI, using Havok’s content processing tools. From these raw character assets, the Havok Behavior Tool helps users rapidly compose game-playable behaviors that provide immediate “what you see is what you get” results on every major game-platform available, including PLAYSTATION®3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and Windows Vista PCs.

Codemasters Studios licensed Havok Behavior 4.5 as part of the Havok Spectrum bundled product, which provides out-of-the-box integration between Havok Physics, Havok Animation, Havok Behavior, and Havok’s Content Tools for 3ds Max, XSI, and Maya.

Said Codemasters Studios Vice President, Gavin Cheshire, “For the next generation of games platforms, we really wanted to push the boundaries in terms of realism and characterisation, but we needed to do it without compromising our time scales.  Havok Behavior allows us to create a huge range of behaviors for our next generation characters and do it in a way that makes the most of both our creative and programming resources.”

 “Codemasters has always been respected as a cutting edge developer,” said Jeff Yates, Vice President of Product Management at Havok, “We are very pleased that they have chosen to incorporate Havok Behavior within their next generation character pipeline.”

Havok is presenting Game Developer Conference audiences with a first-time look at the Havok Behavior Tool today, Wednesday 06 March, between 10.30AM-11.30AM, in West Hall, Room 3011.