havok

The promise of a new physics engine for the virtual world has been a long time in coming, and the hope is that it will bring with it fewer crashes, less lag, and better overall physics and tangibility to the virtual world of Second Life.

For the time being of course it's all still in Beta, which means it really doesn't work right yet. The picture here shows one peculiar issue where a bunch of boxes I rezzed don't quite sit on top of one another, although when stacked and walked into they tumble realistically. There are several other issues (see release notes), but this is fully acknowledged and the community is being asked to participate in getting everything worked out. They've established a wiki for the Havok 4 Beta, and a place for users to tell Linden Lab about everything they discover on the issue tracker.

For those of you really wanting to get in-depth about the Havok 4 engine, the Lindens will be holding "Havok 4 Office Hours" in Second Life at the Brampton Linden Stage Tuesdays at 9pm PDT and Thursdays at 8am PDT.

If the Havok 4 engine really does end up working the way it's supposed to, we'll see many changes in the way people spend time in Second Life. Vehicles, games, and even buildings will behave a little differently, hopefully for the better. The most basic of consumer demands - that things work the way we expect them to - may be met by this change. If that happens, who knows what else is possible?

The world's largest computer chip manufacturer Intel has announced the upcoming purchase of Havok, the middleware software manufacturer that creates physics engines used in games and virtual worlds like Second Life. Intel have been experimenting with the uses of 3D spaces for serious applications for some time, and see Havok becoming "a key element of Intel's visual computing and graphics efforts."

While some see this as a positive development for Havok in terms of resources and future possibilities, others see this as just the opposite. Steven Davis, CEO of SecurePlay, writes: "In general, this is a sad story. The games industry needs a vibrant tools industry to thrive in this increasingly competitive market."

Regardless, this connection between the two companies has the advantage of enabling them both to compete with Aegia, a combination hardware and software physics engine that has been gaining in popularity. While at present there aren't any plans to change the way Havok does business, it will be interesting to see how they take advantage of each other's resources in the future. As we've reported earlier, Intel considers the 3D web a high priority. How they'll use the physics engine to integrate into new 3D web initiatives remains to be seen.