Intel releases Free Havok physics

[EricM 0]

Quote[/b] ]The No-Charge Havok PC download is a binary-only bundle that includes all of the standard features and functionality of both the Havokâ„¢ Physics and Havokâ„¢ Animation products. The download includes Havok SDK libraries, samples, and technical documentation for software developers; as well as Havok's Content Tools for preparation and export of physical assets and characters directly from recent versions of popular 3D modeling and animation tools.

This may be of interest for the developpers : free stuff is always nice...

http://tryhavok.intel.com/

Edit : there's a part dedicated to character animation too

[Colossus 2]

There must be a catch with this.

[mr.g-c 6]

Ohh yes, BIS please take a look over it....

[maddogx 13]

Quote[/b] ]If you plan to sell your commercial PC Game above a retail value of $10 USD, (or equivalent amount in other currencies based on prevailing exchange rates at the time of launch), you must first request a no-charge PC Game distribution license from Havok at www.havok.com/PCgamedistribution, prior to retail release of your game. This PC Game distribution agreement is required to ensure you have complied with Havok logo, copyright, and attribution requirements, and that your application is a PC game (commercial non-game application distribution is not allowed). There will be no fee associated with this because the license fee has been covered by Intel under a commercial agreement with Havok.

The only "catch" I can see is that. But getting a free license shouldn't be much of a problem.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure Havok is intended to scale up to the levels it would need to in ArmA.

[EricM 0]

I think this release is made to counter nvidia and it's ageia PhysX system, so really there's no catch : they hope to get a fair share of the gaming market hooked, so that they can keep selling more compliant or specific hardware later.

But what's better ? getting "married" with nvidia or Intel or being the last lonely singleton of the block...? I'm not sure the last is the best option.

My totally uneducated guess is that in most cases it's a hard blow at ATI-AMD users, but Havok being CPU based and only recently bought by Intel, it may be more "ATI-AMD friendly" than ageia, which comes from a dedicated hardware background (PhysX cards).

Who knows, this may interest Suma in having a look at it. Running through the PDF there are plenty of good things in it... and relying on third party R&D like the one of Intel or specialists like havok can make you win a lot of time and money to be dedicated on other things...

[baddo 0]

Yeah.

The free AGEIA PhysX has become free NVIDIA PhysX.

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/physx.html

NVIDIA is developing a driver which enables the use of PhysX in CUDA. On new NVIDIA graphics cards.

They say they'll keep supporting older versions of PhysX too.

Make no mistake, the PhysX doesn't need a special hardware card to work. It is not tied to NVIDIA hardware.

This bit about the Havok: "commercial non-game application distribution is not allowed" might be a problem if BIS would like to use it for free. Is VBS a game. I don't think it would pass as a game as it is not meant for consumers but for militaries, even though it is basically a game. That could mean they would have to pay for Havok regarding VBS.

That could mean PhysX could be a better choice if one wants to get a free state-of-the-art physics engine. Although it seems for a Xbox 360 license they would have to pay.

The content pipeline could be the deciding factor though. I don't know which is stronger in that regard.

Maybe BIS has researched these options already. One thing probably preventing them a switch is that they have already built their own systems and switching now would likely mean a lot of re-writing of their game engine. But we can't know, maybe they have done it already and we'll see much improved physics in next BIS game...

[Ezekiel 0]

Uh, that bit about them making sure it's a PC game..

ArmA is going to be a console game as well, innit?

[baddo 0]

Uh, that bit about them making sure it's a PC game..

ArmA is going to be a console game as well, innit?

Yes, I know that has been announced.

I could have written my post better, I admit.

The VBS is not going to be on console is my bet. But maybe separating its core from entertainment products is not going to happen. But we don't know, that's BIS' call.

The PhysX SDK is free on Windows, Linux and PS3. That would be one console platform for which you get PhysX for free.

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/physx.html

Quote[/b] ]

Free SDK Package:

Most Current PC Binary

Commercial & non-commercial use on PC

Available for Windows & Linux

No PhysX hardware optimization requirement

PS3 platform (through Sony pre-purchase)

Licensed (Source Code) Package (US$50K Per individual application)

Xbox 360 Source

PC Source

I understand this so that with PhysX, you can make a commercial console game without paying nvidia anything. But for Havok you always need to pay if you make a console game.

But if they make an xbox360 version then they need to pay in both cases.