havok posts

Never mind the fact that the video is clearly watermarked with an "internal use only" label. Someone clearly got a hold of this in-progress behind-the-scenes look at The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings and decided to post it on YouTube. Yep, it's the previously unannounced (but also inevitable) sequel to the hit fantasy RPG from developer CD Projekt.

The video mixes gameplay footage from an alpha build of the game with behind-the-scenes looks at CD Projekt working on the game. The game definitely has a revamped graphical engine and the footage also shows off some of the game's magical and combat moves, some of which will be enhanced with the Havok physics engine. We have emailed CD Projekt for comment but we suspect that this video could be removed from YouTube pretty quickly.

Update: The official Witcher web site now has a comment about the video leak, saying that it was made about six months ago. The Witcher 2 is apparently still being shopped around to publishers but while they are not denying that the footage is of the game they are choosing not to comment on the game itself.

[Via Kotaku]

It's been a while since we have heard anything from Saber Interactive. The game developer has been pretty quiet since the 2007 release of their temporal-themed sci-fi shooter Timeshift (shown above) for the now defunct Vivendi Games. However it appears that the company is still around thanks to a new press release today.

Intel-owned game physics software maker Havok have announced that Saber Interactive plans to use their software for a future game. Specifically, the unanounced games will use the Havok Destruction tool which will be used "to punch holes in walls, buckle scaffolding, shatter windows, and even bend metal to create a truly dynamic and evolving cityscape." No other details on the game were announced.

Last May Havok, the game physics software company that was bought by Intel a number of months ago, released free versions of its Havok Physics and Havok Animation tools for amateur game creators to use in their projects. Today the companies announced plans for the Havok Physics Innovation Contest which will give a $40,000 cash prize to the winning teams who makes a playable demo of a game using those free tools.

Gamasutra reports that four such winners will be picked by a panel of judges and the winning game demos will be shown at the 2008 Game Developers Conferences. The winning team members will also get an All Access pass to GDC in addition to the cash prize. Unfortunately the Gamasutra story does not have a link to the actual contest page. We will update this story when we get that link. Update: We now have the contest link for all of you to check out.

Nvidia has been pushing out the press releases lately promoting the use of its recently acquired PhysX game physics tech by other game developers. Now PhysX's leading rival Havok (owned by Intel) has announced a deal of their own with MMO game developer Turbine.

As reported by Game Daily, Turbine has signed a deal to access the Havok Physics, Animation, and Behavior 6.0. middleware technology. The developed, best known for their MMO work on Asheron's Call, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online, will use the Havok tech in future unnamed games. Turbine recently raised $40 million in venture capital money to help fund those upcoming titles.

It's Bill Murrary's Ghostbusters quote time,:"Dogs and cats living together . . . mass hysteria!". That's how it seems to feel when early this morning a press release from AMD announced that it would be working with the game physics software company Havok "to jointly investigate the optimization of physics effects utilizing AMD's full line of products." Why is this odd? Because Havok was purchased in late 2007 by Intel, AMD's number one rival in the PC processor business.

According to the note, "Havok and AMD plan to further optimize the full range of Havok technologies on AMD x86 superscalar processors." AMD apparently believes Havok's solution is better than its main rival PhysX which was bought by Nvidia, AMD's main rival in the graphics chip business, earlier this year. It looks like AMD decided it couldn't create its own physics solution and went with Intel's Havok, which recently released its PC physics SDK for free for non-commercial uses.

Several months ago, PC processor maker Intel purchased the game physics development software company Havok, which is used in a ton of PC and console games. In February the company announced that it would release the PC version of the Havok tool set for free for anyone to use for non-commercial uses. Well, today is the day to download those files.

The files contain both the Havok Physics and Havok Animation tools and can only be used for independent game developers along with academic uses and "enthusiasts". The files do not include Havok's other products such as Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction. The company feels this new release "will boost creative game development throughout the industry."