Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 25, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Autodesk has announced the introduction of new versions of its two runtime technologies for game engines: Autodesk HumanIK 4 animation middleware and Autodesk Kynapse 6 artificial intelligence (AI) middleware. These powerful middleware solutions are flexible, have already proved themselves in production environments and are backed by solid support services. The products have already been used for more than 100 AAA titles, such as “FIFA 09” and “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning”.
Autodesk Kynapse 6: The Brain of Your Game
Autodesk Kynapse middleware is a leading AI solution for game development and real-time simulations. With this middleware, developers can bring their games to life in a practical way with characters that possess spatial awareness, dynamic 3D pathfinding and team-coordination capabilities.
Kynapse was recently used by EA studio Mythic Entertainment for “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning”. “Because the world in ‘Warhammer’ is so enormous, we had to find an extremely robust pathfinding solution,” said Matt Shaw, the company’s CTO. “Our entire player movement system is based on enabling players to go wherever they can get to. Autodesk Kynapse offered us an algorithmic exploration solution through which our AI-driven actors can move with the same constraints and degrees of freedom as players.”
Kynapse 6 offers new functions that make it easier for game engineers to integrate the software and achieve results.
· Remote debugger: The new remote-debugging tool lets users inspect the state of game variables. An interactive 3D view displays the debugging information. Users can also record and replay sequences while retaining access to the data in the recorded files.
· New 3D pathfinding technology: The “flat” pathfinding technology introduced in this release enables simplified workflows for data generation, more flexible streaming of runtime data and the ability to add new paths dynamically at runtime.
· Improved MMO support: Data resources and runtime services can now be shared across multiple Kynapse worlds, improving support for massively multiplayer online games (MMO games).
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· Extended dynamic 3D pathfinding: With improved CPU performance and detailed control over memory use, characters can more easily avoid dynamic, moving obstacles.
· Hierarchical 3D pathfinding: Characters can now plan paths spanning the full breadth of enormous maps, even when these maps cannot be loaded in their entirety. The path is first calculated at a low level of detail and then opportunistically refined as more detailed data becomes available. This keeps memory use within the specified limits.
Autodesk HumanIK 4: Believable Runtime Character Animation
HumanIK animation middleware frees animators from the task of producing every possible animation scene by procedurally adapting existing character animations to game environments at runtime. Developers can also use the technology’s runtime retargeting to reuse animation banks for characters of completely different scales and proportions. This saves development teams time that they can devote to more creative tasks.
HumanIK also extends animation systems by enabling characters to interact more realistically within the game environment. Characters place their feet correctly, climb walls and give up objects, even when the game environment changes. By removing constraints on the gameplay experience, HumanIK helps bring games to life with more believable and engaging character-animation possibilities.
The latest release, Autodesk HumanIK 4, includes a user manual and a new list of examples integrated into the Trinigy Vision game engine. It also offers knee reactions to ankle rotations.
Platform Support and Availability
HumanIK 4 is available immediately. Autodesk expects to bring Kynapse 6 to market in spring 2009. Both middleware products are optimised for the PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii TM video game and entertainment consoles, as well as PCs running Windows or Linux. Kynapse is also optimised for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PSP game consoles.
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