Autodesk and NaturalMotion announced a partnership to integrate their respective game development products, AI middleware Kynapse and animation middleware engine Morpheme. Autodesk Kynapse supports 3D pathfinding in destructible environments, including large-crowd pathfinding in complex terrains. It also offers dynamic 3D topology analysis and is used in over 80 titles, such as Crackdown and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. NaturalMotion's Morpheme is designed to give developers and animators control over the look of their final in-game animation by enabling them to "author and preview blends, blend trees and transition graphs in real time." The animation middleware engine is also designed to integrate with NaturalMotion's Euphoria, a "motion synthesis engine" that debuted in Grand Theft Auto IV and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. “Animation and AI have become increasingly linked in modern game development," says NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil. “Pathfinding algorithms, for example, require reliable execution by the animation network; in turn, believable motion requires precise timing and steering by the AI system.” "Autodesk and NaturalMotion believe there is tremendous potential to simplify the interaction between AI and animation for game developers, and to significantly enhance the user experience,” adds Marc Stevens, vice president of Autodesk's Games Technology Group.