Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 23, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Autodesk Kynapse is artificial-intelligence middleware for games and simulations. The Autodesk product has so far been used in several hundred games, particularly for NPCs (Non-Playing Characters). Here, Kynapse simulates such things as orientation in the environment, perception of that environment and the movement of crowds of humans and monsters.
Among other things, the new version brings a redesigned data interface intended to validate entered values more quickly – and with a new navigation mesh, this is also said to be up to 60 times faster. The mesh also helps generate the data and can thus define and control areas for NPCs, giving them an “awareness” of their maximum environment.
There is also a library of standard behaviour patterns that can be inserted with a click. NPCs can then be controlled in lifts, in motion or in crowds without laborious programming of every parameter.