Havok has announced the launch of the third major iteration to its Havok Physics technology that features "significant technical innovations" in performance, memory utilization, usability, and is a "major leap forward" for in-game physics simulation. The release is specifically targeted towards next-generation consoles, mobile devices, and PCs with full compatibility and support for current devices.
According to Andew Bond, Vice President of Technology for Havok, this version has resulted in a "new engine core built around fully continuous simulation that enables maximum physical fidelity with unprecedented performance speeds. Beta versions of the technology have been in the hands of a number of leading developers for some time and we have seen dramatic performance gains with simulations running twice as fast or more, and using up to 10 times less memory. Additionally the new core’s performance is extremely predictable, eliminating performance spikes.”
Laurent Gorga, 2K Czeck's Technical Director, further added that "At 2K Czech, our games demand a physics solution that can scale efficiently and handle highly detailed interactive environments. Having recently moved to the next generation of Havok Physics, we’ve been blown away by how Havok’s new physics technology is able to make highly efficient utilization of all available hardware cores with a very lean runtime memory footprint."
Further information about this version of the Havok Physics engine is expected to be revealed at this year's GDC, held between March 27 and March 29 in San Francisco, California.