Gaming Interview: Havok Q&A
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:07 am
Q. What is the joint NVIDIA-Havok announcement at GDC?
A. NVIDIA and Havok announced an engineering collaboration that will produce a physics simulator that runs on NVIDIA GPUs, and is amplified when with NVIDIA’s SLI technology.
During GDC, both Havok and NVIDIA will demonstrate Havok FX running on the GeForce 7900 SLI. The demonstration will include technology demos from Havok and a high quality graphics with physics demo produced by NVIDIA.
Q. What demos will we show at GDC?
A. The public demonstrations include technology demos from Havok and a demo produced by NVIDIA. The technology demos from Havok isolate a particular physics feature to show the developer the basic physics effect. These demos typically do not contain high quality artwork since graphics effects tend to obscure the physics demonstration. The NVIDIA demo is set inside a museum rotunda containing a dinosaur display. It also includes the actual meteor that lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The graphics and artwork are very high impact and shows how high quality graphics might be combined with physics in a game.
Q. What is the relationship between NVIDIA and Havok?
A. NVIDIA and Havok have an engineering partnership to develop a physics simulator capable of providing high speed physics simulation on NVIDIA GPUs. Our goal is to help Havok produce a physics simulator that game developers can use to include high impact physics effects such as debris, fluids, smoke and fog.
Q. What is Havok’s relationship with ATI? Will this technology run on ATI GPUs?
A. There are no announcements or demonstrations at GDC of Havok FX technology on ATI GPUs. (Further questions should be deferred to Havok)
Q. What games use Havok FX?
A. Havok has an extensive list of developers who have chosen Havok Physics for their game development. Havok FX is still completing the development phase. There are no current announcements by game developers who might want to adopt Havok FX. (this might be updated closer to GDC) PC games that include Havok Physics technology include:
• Age of Empires III
• Armed and Dangerous
• Deus Ex: Invisible War
• Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
• Ed, Edd, and Eddy
• Evil Dead Regeneration
• F.E.A.R.
• Freelancer
• Full Spectrum Warrior
• Half-Life 2
• Max Payne 2
• Painkiller
• Pariah
• Medal of Honor: European Assault
• Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
• IHRA Drag Racing: Sportsman Edition
• IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005
• Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
• Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
• Shrek SuperSlam
• Splinter Cell 3
• Starsky and Hutch
• SWAT 4
• The Matrix: Path of Neo
• The Punisher
• Thief: Deadly Shadows
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown
• Tonka Monster Trucks
• Tribes: Vengeance
• URU: Ages Beyond Mist
• Vampire: Masquerade Bloodlines
Q. Does the combination of Havok FX and NVIDIA compete with AGEIA’s PPU?
A. Ageia has announced that it will provide a hardware solution for physics processing. Havok FX running on an NVIDIA GPU is an alternative for developers and consumers.
Q. Does it work with Novodex or PhysX?
A. This is Havok IP that only works within Havok middleware, the most widespread and industry standard physics solution for game development.
Q. Do I need a second GPU?
A. No, this computation can occur simultaneously with graphics rendering in a single GPU. The technology also works with NVIDIA SLI. With SLI, the physics simulation is processed on a dedicated GPU, and, like graphics, SLI will provide higher performance than a single GPU.
Q. What GPUs will it work on, GeForce FX 5200? 6800? 7800?
A. The minimum configuration we recommend is a GeForce 7600.
Q. Does it work with DirectX or OpenGL games?
A. Yes, it works with both DirectX and OpenGL games
Q. Can you use Havok FX in conjunction with a PPU?
A. No.
Q. Does it slow down graphics computation?
A. Whether the game slows down depends on whether the GPU or CPU is the bottleneck in performance. Due to a prevalence of CPU bound applications, the offloading of computation from CPU to GPU can actually improve performance. Nevertheless, if GPU bound, there are limits to how much graphics and physics computation you can do overall. In this case, using an NVIDIA SLI or quad configuration will add significant processing horsepower for physics simulation.
A. NVIDIA and Havok announced an engineering collaboration that will produce a physics simulator that runs on NVIDIA GPUs, and is amplified when with NVIDIA’s SLI technology.
During GDC, both Havok and NVIDIA will demonstrate Havok FX running on the GeForce 7900 SLI. The demonstration will include technology demos from Havok and a high quality graphics with physics demo produced by NVIDIA.
Q. What demos will we show at GDC?
A. The public demonstrations include technology demos from Havok and a demo produced by NVIDIA. The technology demos from Havok isolate a particular physics feature to show the developer the basic physics effect. These demos typically do not contain high quality artwork since graphics effects tend to obscure the physics demonstration. The NVIDIA demo is set inside a museum rotunda containing a dinosaur display. It also includes the actual meteor that lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The graphics and artwork are very high impact and shows how high quality graphics might be combined with physics in a game.
Q. What is the relationship between NVIDIA and Havok?
A. NVIDIA and Havok have an engineering partnership to develop a physics simulator capable of providing high speed physics simulation on NVIDIA GPUs. Our goal is to help Havok produce a physics simulator that game developers can use to include high impact physics effects such as debris, fluids, smoke and fog.
Q. What is Havok’s relationship with ATI? Will this technology run on ATI GPUs?
A. There are no announcements or demonstrations at GDC of Havok FX technology on ATI GPUs. (Further questions should be deferred to Havok)
Q. What games use Havok FX?
A. Havok has an extensive list of developers who have chosen Havok Physics for their game development. Havok FX is still completing the development phase. There are no current announcements by game developers who might want to adopt Havok FX. (this might be updated closer to GDC) PC games that include Havok Physics technology include:
• Age of Empires III
• Armed and Dangerous
• Deus Ex: Invisible War
• Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
• Ed, Edd, and Eddy
• Evil Dead Regeneration
• F.E.A.R.
• Freelancer
• Full Spectrum Warrior
• Half-Life 2
• Max Payne 2
• Painkiller
• Pariah
• Medal of Honor: European Assault
• Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
• IHRA Drag Racing: Sportsman Edition
• IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005
• Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
• Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
• Shrek SuperSlam
• Splinter Cell 3
• Starsky and Hutch
• SWAT 4
• The Matrix: Path of Neo
• The Punisher
• Thief: Deadly Shadows
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown
• Tonka Monster Trucks
• Tribes: Vengeance
• URU: Ages Beyond Mist
• Vampire: Masquerade Bloodlines
Q. Does the combination of Havok FX and NVIDIA compete with AGEIA’s PPU?
A. Ageia has announced that it will provide a hardware solution for physics processing. Havok FX running on an NVIDIA GPU is an alternative for developers and consumers.
Q. Does it work with Novodex or PhysX?
A. This is Havok IP that only works within Havok middleware, the most widespread and industry standard physics solution for game development.
Q. Do I need a second GPU?
A. No, this computation can occur simultaneously with graphics rendering in a single GPU. The technology also works with NVIDIA SLI. With SLI, the physics simulation is processed on a dedicated GPU, and, like graphics, SLI will provide higher performance than a single GPU.
Q. What GPUs will it work on, GeForce FX 5200? 6800? 7800?
A. The minimum configuration we recommend is a GeForce 7600.
Q. Does it work with DirectX or OpenGL games?
A. Yes, it works with both DirectX and OpenGL games
Q. Can you use Havok FX in conjunction with a PPU?
A. No.
Q. Does it slow down graphics computation?
A. Whether the game slows down depends on whether the GPU or CPU is the bottleneck in performance. Due to a prevalence of CPU bound applications, the offloading of computation from CPU to GPU can actually improve performance. Nevertheless, if GPU bound, there are limits to how much graphics and physics computation you can do overall. In this case, using an NVIDIA SLI or quad configuration will add significant processing horsepower for physics simulation.