Overview
Developed by Irish company Havok, Havok Physics is a physics engine designed for video games to allow real-time interaction between objects in 3D. The engine uses dynamic simulation to allow for ragdoll physics. The company was founded by Hugh Reynolds and Dr. Steven Collins in 1998 in Trinity College Dublin where much of its development is still carried out. Dr. Steven Collins currently acts as course director to Interactive Entertainment Technology in Trinity College Dublin, as well as lecturing in real-time rendering. Havok can also be found in Autodesk 3ds Max as a bundled plug-in called Reactor. A plugin for Autodesk Maya animation software and an extra for Adobe Director's Shockwave are also available.
Development
Havok LogoIn 2008 Havok released details of its new Cloth and Destruction middleware. Cloth deals with simulation of character garments and soft bodies while Destruction provides tools for creation of destructible and deformable environments. Havok Cloth was the company's most widely adopted and best selling piece of software to date.
At GDC 09 Havok showcased the first details of its forth coming artificial intelligence tools which are to be called Havok AI which will allow for better performing AI in games without the need for the developers to create their own AI models.
History
Version 1.0 of the SDK was first seen at the Games Developers Conference in the year 2000. The current version is Version 6.5, released on 27 August 2008.
It is known to work on:
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