Havok, AMD And Game Physics

AMD is working the game physics software company Havok to maximize the potential of AMD chips as well as the AMI Radeon GPUs and position itself at the head of the games market.

You might never think about game physics, but it’s important to any game, and the more complex the game, the greater the strain on the resources of a PC. Many of the current games use Havok’s engine for its physics effects.

Now AMD has announced deal to work with Havok to get the most from AMD chips.

Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s graphics products group, said:

“As the complexity and visual fidelity of video games increases, AMD wants to take advantage of opportunities to improve the game experience. By working with the clear market leader in physics software, AMD can optimize our platforms to consistently deliver the best possible visual experience to the gamer."

Havok’s Managing Director, David O’Meara, also welcomed the deal, noting:

"The clear priority of game developers is performance and scalability of the CPU. Beyond core simulation, however, the capabilities of massively parallel products offer technical possibilities for computing certain types of simulation."

Havok’s biggest competitor is Ageia Technologies, which has the PhysX physics platform. Ageia was bought by Nvidia in February.