Havok (software)

Havok Physics

Developer:	Havok.com, Inc.
Latest release:	4.5 / January 23, 2007
OS:	Linux, PS3, PS2, PSP, XBox, Xbox360, GameCube, Wii, Windows, Mac
Use:	middleware
Website:	http://www.havok.com/

Havok Physics, better known as simply Havok, is a middleware physics engine (in this case Dynamical simulation) -- developed by Irish company Havok.com, Inc. -- designed for computer and video games by allowing interaction between objects or other characters in real-time. By using physics simulation, Havok allows for more lifelike worlds and animation, such as ragdoll physics. The company has also released a Havok Animation and Havok FX, which uses Shader Model 3.0 on consumer GPUs for effects physics such as smoke.

[edit] Platform Availability

Version 1.0 of the Havok SDK was unveiled at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in 2000. It has since evolved into a number of products, mainly Havok Physics version 4.0 released in July 2006. The source code for the engine is distributed after licensing, and is currently known to work on the Microsoft's Windows, Xbox and Xbox 360, Nintendo's GameCube and Wii, Sony's PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, Apple's Mac OS X, and on Linux^{[citation needed]}. The engine itself is written in C/C++, and remains fairly portable to any system with a compatible C or C++ compiler.

Since the SDK's launch in 2000, it has been used in over 150 video and computer games. Those games have primarily been in the first-person shooter genre, however it has seen some use in other genres, such as in the THQ real-time strategy game, Company of Heroes [1]. The engine is included in Valve Corporation's Source Engine. The engine has also been used in movies such as The Matrix trilogy [2]. Havok can also be found in Autodesk Media & Entertainment's 3ds max as a bundled plug-in called reactor. A plugin for Autodesk Media & Entertainment's Maya animation software is also available.