Intel Wreaks Havok
By Steve on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 at 3:01 AM PST In Gamer Life, Games Industry, Hardware
If you are a First Person Shooter fan, odds are you have played a game that utilizes the Havok Physics Engine (in some fashion). Havok is famous for dynamically simulating real time things such as ragdoll physics and more recently, extremely realistic smoke (Bioshock?). Physics have become so popular lately that it almost seems integral to a game’s development. So it comes as no surprise when Chip-zilla decides to take notice in a big way…… by purchasing them:
Intel will buy Havok, a provider of software and services used by videogame creators and movie special-effects teams, the company said Friday.
Havok will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel but keep operating its business as usual, according to an Intel press release. It will add to Intel’s visual computing and graphics efforts, while continuing to develop products for all computing platforms, the company said. The acquisition will help Havok grow into new market segments, Havok CEO David O’Meara said in a prepared statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 1998, Havok’s helps game developers simulate real world physics in their games, making objects appear to move in a more realistic fashion. The Dublin company’s tools have been used on games such as “BioShock,” “Halo 2″ and “Half Life 2″ and movies including “The Matrix,” “Troy” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Founded in Dublin in 1998, the company has operations in San Francisco, Stockholm, Calcutta, Munich, Tokyo and San Antonio, Texas.
Could this mean we’ll be seeing hardware implementations of the havok API on future Intel motherboards? If true, this could not bode well for Havok’s competitor Ageia, whom have had slow acceptance of its hardware accelerated physics solution. Video card makers Nvidia and AMD/ATI have also stated they have their own physics solution in the works as well.
Via Infoworld
Good or bad… who knows.