GDC: Havok Announces Havok Behavior Tool

At Game Developers Conference in San Jose, middleware company Havok has announced Havok Behavior, a system for developing event-driven character behaviors in a game. According to the firm, the Havok Behavior product, which appears to compete at least partially with the recently announced Euphoria real-time tech from NaturalMotion, is comprised of an intuitive composition tool for artists and designers, and a run-time SDK for game programmers. Together, the Behavior tool and SDK provide “what you see is what you get” results, accelerating development of cutting edge character performances for current and next-generation game titles. The product integrates out of the box with Havok Physics and Havok Animation and supports Havok serialized animation and character assets generated in 3ds Max, Maya, and XSI modeling and animation tools using Havok’s Content Tools. It also builds upon Havok Complete, which must be licensed to use the tool. Havok Behavior enables game developers through the use of Hierarchical Finite State Machines and blending trees. The Havok Behavior tool provides an intuitive user interface and editing paradigm that lets non-technical users master these concepts, yet exposes control and scope. The product's Project scheme allows individual users to self-organize and even share common animation assets in work groups, without corrupting each other’s work. Finally, Havok Behavior’s SDK exposes behavioral controllers like grab, tackle, and climbing that add emergent performance to a character’s personality. The company will be showing the tool at this week's GDC in San Jose.