4 ms·

Microsoft buys Havok, the physics engine for pretty much every game ever

13 points by reimertz 11y ago

uno7 11y ago
I remember when I first saw Havok in action (Half-Life 2 tech demos). It ushered in a new era in gaming. Things were expected to behave at least very close to reality. The way the developers described it back then made it seem like a revolution and I think it's easy for gamers these days to take that stuff for granted, since it is indeed "in pretty much every game ever". Integrating it into Azure seems like a natural step for MS. I hope this ultimately means better environments for us to play in!
- gwern 11y ago
  > Integrating it into Azure seems like a natural step for MS. I hope this ultimately means better environments for us to play in! Could you explain that some more? I have to admit I don't immediately see what connection a physics library has with cloud hosting. How does some software for making balls bounce much more realistically connect with virtualized Linux & Windows OSes and hard drives?
  - asavadatti 11y ago
    From the article: ""Microsoft is enabling players to go in and destroy skyscrapers and everything else in the world. That mode is only possible through the power of Azure, which means Crackdown 3 developers Sumo Digital and Cloudgine are building a cloud-based destruction engine that probably runs on Havok. Once that’s built, and now that Microsoft owns Havok, it could potentially license that destruction engine out to other developers.
  - uno7 11y ago
    This is the type of stuff that I mean: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/how-crackdown-3-uses-the-cloud-to-make-whole-cities-destructible/ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/how-crackdown-3-uses-t... http://www.cloudgine.com/technology.html http://www.cloudgine.com/technology.html
legitster 11y ago
This doesn't bug me as much as it might of back in the days when Microsoft was trying to build a closed system with all of their technologies. It very much looks like they are trying to pivot into a platform agnostic services company. Good for them.
- reimertz 11y ago
  Couldn't agree more. I think what really made me have a change of hearts was when they started their investments in open-sourcing a bunch of their products.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

13 points by reimertz 11y ago

uno7 11y ago

I remember when I first saw Havok in action (Half-Life 2 tech demos). It ushered in a new era in gaming. Things were expected to behave at least very close to reality. The way the developers described it back then made it seem like a revolution and I think it's easy for gamers these days to take that stuff for granted, since it is indeed "in pretty much every game ever". Integrating it into Azure seems like a natural step for MS. I hope this ultimately means better environments for us to play in!

gwern 11y ago
> Integrating it into Azure seems like a natural step for MS. I hope this ultimately means better environments for us to play in! Could you explain that some more? I have to admit I don't immediately see what connection a physics library has with cloud hosting. How does some software for making balls bounce much more realistically connect with virtualized Linux & Windows OSes and hard drives?
- asavadatti 11y ago
  From the article: ""Microsoft is enabling players to go in and destroy skyscrapers and everything else in the world. That mode is only possible through the power of Azure, which means Crackdown 3 developers Sumo Digital and Cloudgine are building a cloud-based destruction engine that probably runs on Havok. Once that’s built, and now that Microsoft owns Havok, it could potentially license that destruction engine out to other developers.
- uno7 11y ago
  This is the type of stuff that I mean: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/how-crackdown-3-uses-the-cloud-to-make-whole-cities-destructible/ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/how-crackdown-3-uses-t... http://www.cloudgine.com/technology.html http://www.cloudgine.com/technology.html

legitster 11y ago

This doesn't bug me as much as it might of back in the days when Microsoft was trying to build a closed system with all of their technologies. It very much looks like they are trying to pivot into a platform agnostic services company. Good for them.

reimertz 11y ago
Couldn't agree more. I think what really made me have a change of hearts was when they started their investments in open-sourcing a bunch of their products.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]