Havok Announces HydraCore Multi-Processor Capabilities

[two]

Physics and character animation middleware company Havok has announced that it is developing Hydracore, a new element included in its next-generation middleware that, according to the company, "will help developers leverage the built-in power and scalability of multi-core and multi-threaded next generation game platforms from manufacturers like AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc..."

...“Havok’s HydraCore™ software technology is designed to help game developers tap into the true power of these systems, by distributing real-time computation of physics and character animations flexibly and evenly across multiple processors."

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=5909

 

[ralexand]

And so it begins.

 

[two]

Has AGEIA NovodeX multi-processor capabilities too?

 

[AlNom]

"You don't know... the true power of the Dar....."


....er...nevermind.

 

[ShootMyMonkey]

That's... kind of odd... When I saw the title on the gamasutra link, I was under the impression that they were getting to work on threading their collision detection and their solver.

But reading the full description makes it sound like all it is is a thread manager library. o__O ummmmm.... okay.

 

[Jawed]

Well let's hope this will be in games soon.

Fingers crossed.

Jawed

 

[mckmas8808]

To me this is interesting too.

According to the company's website, the HydraCore Technology will be provided as a core component of all next-generation Havok products, including the Havok Physics game physics SDK and the Havok Complete physics/integrated animation system, and will be integrated into those products as standard.

To all next-gen games being made using the Havok engine will have to capability standard. Wow I guess those guys are hard at work over there.

 

[pc999]

This will power PDZ, now I really want to know what this can do.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How will this integrate with non-Hhavok solutions to other problems? Seems to me devs will have to buy into a full engine and write anything that's needed (AI for example) rather than mix and match different libraries, unless thread management is kept simple.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

If I recall correctly, Deano said something about the characters in HS using Havok ragdolls... perhaps HS will be making use of the Hydra-core? Maybe he can enlighten us a little to how it's being implemented across multiple cores?

 

[mckmas8808]

If I recall correctly, Deano said something about the characters in HS using Havok ragdolls... perhaps HS will be making use of the Hydra-core? Maybe he can enlighten us a little to how it's being implemented across multiple cores?

He did show they were using the Havok engine. And the article says that if Havok is being used on a multitheaded game then Hydra-core will come standard. So that means HS will eventually if they are not using it now, use Hydra-core.

My question is this. If Nintendo decides to go with a single threaded CPU from IBM to lower cost how would this new technology interact with that?

 

[Titanio]

IIRC, Deano at one point said that Havok was the main thing using the SPEs in Heavenly Sword at that point in time..

It would be great to hear more about it's working. Or maybe just a hint at performance (or expected performance?)?

or

?

 

[BOOMEXPLODE]

IBM is supplying the Revolution CPU right? In that case I would be very surprised to see a single core PPC-like processor. Even PPC is going multi-core.

 

[DeanoC]

IIRC, Deano at one point said that Havok was the main thing using the SPEs in Heavenly Sword at that point in time..

Not me.

We use Havok for all our collisions and physics we haven't upgraded to the latest version that has this but we will some time soon.

 

[Titanio]

IIRC, Deano at one point said that Havok was the main thing using the SPEs in Heavenly Sword at that point in time..

Not me.

We use Havok for all our collisions and physics we haven't upgraded to the latest version that has this but we will some time soon.

Apologies, must have a very foggy memory! Hopefully it works out well once it's in

 

[osvaldomartins]

Deanoc,
when you say that you will upgrade to the latest version of the Havoc engine, you mean you´ll do this in Heavenly Sword?

 

[mckmas8808]

Deanoc,
when you say that you will upgrade to the latest version of the Havoc engine, you mean you´ll do this in Heavenly Sword?

I'm not DeanoC but yes that is what he meant.

 

[3roxor]

I'm not DeanoC but yes that is what he meant.

Either that or it's for personal use

 

[osvaldomartins]

OK mckmas8808. I was just figuring out if the NT guys wasn´t planning to release another game soon..hehe.
Thanks.

 

[olivier]

If I recall correctly, Deano said something about the characters in HS using Havok ragdolls... perhaps HS will be making use of the Hydra-core? Maybe he can enlighten us a little to how it's being implemented across multiple cores?

He did show they were using the Havok engine. And the article says that if Havok is being used on a multitheaded game then Hydra-core will come standard. So that means HS will eventually if they are not using it now, use Hydra-core.

My question is this. If Nintendo decides to go with a single threaded CPU from IBM to lower cost how would this new technology interact with that?

i dont know about game console operating system, but every modern operating system (even smartphone's os like wince and symbian) support more thread than processor. So if their is only 1 core, the library will work with a small context switch penality.