GDC 08: Havok Shows Off New “Cloth” and “Destruction” Development Tools

While it’s always fun to hear new game information from the Game Developers Conference, my favorite bits of information usually involve some breakthrough technology. Recently, Havok gave 1Up.com a peek at two of their upcoming development tools. Dubbed “Cloth” and “Destruction,” the two programs do pretty much what they sound like. “Cloth” (shown above) allows for fabrics to be rendered so that they move and flow in a much more realistic manner, while “Destruction” allows for objects to break, bend, or shatter realistically, base don the material they’re made of. But what makes these two new tools really important is their price. There have been games in the past with similar visuals, but they were all produced on a large budget with huge development teams. Since “Cloth” and “Destruction” are so affordable, it opens up this technology to a wider range of projects. The software will be released in June of this year, but Havok expects there will be games using these programs by early 2009. And considering how many games have already used Havok’s physics engine, you can probably expect to see a lot more games getting a graphical upgrade in the coming years.

Via 1Up.com