Havok 4.5 Unleashed For PS3, Wii, Xbox360

Havok announces today the official release of Havok 4.5, the latest update to its modular suite of artist tools and run-time technology.  Fully optimized for Sony PLAYSTATION®3, as well as Microsoft Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii, Havok 4.5 dramatically accelerates the development of cross-platform, cutting edge electronic games, meeting the needs of the world’s top developers and producers.  Havok 4.5 allows game developers to scale game content to thousands of dynamically-driven game objects and characters, harnessing the full power and speed of next generation architectures.  Game developers using Havok Physics and Havok Animation products to develop for PS3 will be able to harness the full power of all the SPUs, while maintaining the complete flexibility of the Havok SDK.  Havok architecture now scales strongly across all SPUs and runs between 5 and 10 times faster than Havok 4.0 for a typical game scene on the PS3. 

Havok announces today the official release of Havok 4.5, the latest update to
its modular suite of artist tools and run-time technology.  Fully optimized for
Sony PLAYSTATION®3, as well as Microsoft Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii, Havok 4.5
dramatically accelerates the development of cross-platform, cutting edge
electronic games, meeting the needs of the world’s top developers and producers. 
Havok 4.5 allows game developers to scale game content to thousands of
dynamically-driven game objects and characters, harnessing the full power and
speed of next generation architectures. 

Game developers using Havok Physics and Havok Animation products to develop for
PS3 will be able to harness the full power of all the SPUs, while maintaining
the complete flexibility of the Havok SDK.  Havok architecture now scales
strongly across all SPUs and runs between 5 and 10 times faster than Havok 4.0
for a typical game scene on the PS3. 

“We made sure that we met our customers’ demand for a PS3 optimized version of
Havok as soon as possible” says Havok CEO, David O’Meara.  Comments Scott
Kirkland, Technical Director at Evolution Studios and lead on PS3 exclusive
title MotorStorm, “With its unparalleled environmental interaction and
spectacular destruction, MotorStorm’s brutal, chaotic, off-road racing makes big
demands on physics processing.  Unphazed by the intense time pressures of our
project, Havok rose to this next-gen challenge and provided us with an
outstanding suite of professional tools, technology and support to help realize
our vision.  We’re now looking forward to collaborating with the Havok team on
future Evolution products”. 

Optimization for next generation platforms represents one of the largest
development tasks ever undertaken by Havok.  Havok 4.5’s tools and SDK are
designed to be modular and open, so they can be integrated easily into existing
production pipelines, reducing the overall iteration time needed to create
immersive game-play experiences and special effects.  The Havok 4.5 suite is
backed by expert support and professional services, leveraging the experience of
almost 200 commercially released Havok-powered game SKUs. 

Adds Havok’s David O’Meara, “The launch of Havok 4.5 represents the culmination
of many thousands of man hours for the Havok development team.  We’ve worked
really hard to ensure that Havok technology is optimized for the next generation
console platforms, and we’ve been really excited by the results.  Havok 4.5’s
ability to allow developers to massively scale game content will make it
possible to develop even more compelling, realistic and complex worlds that
harness the full power of new generation architectures.” 

Havok 4.5 enhances Havok’s industry-leading game-play physics and animation
products (Havok Physics™ and Havok Animation™).  It also brings to new levels
Havok Behavior™, which accelerates development of sophisticated interactive
character behaviors, and Havok FX™, which delivers an unprecedented level of
physically-based “special effects” phenomena.  The combined 4.5 solution
represents a best-of-class SDK and tool set that puts power and flexibility in
the hands of today’s leading game developers. 

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