Microsoft Acquires Havok Physics from Intel

[FordGT90Concept]

Which is blatantly stupid. PhysX's problem is the lack of AMD support. That's truly not hard to fix.

Again, FleX is a subset of PhysX; it doesn't appear poised to replace it at all. From what I gather, it's just more eye candy but performed live instead of through modeling. It's more of the same fad/niche PhysX has already been relegated to and, yet again, why would any developer use it when they can use the tools they already have available (like Maya) to do the same damn thing and have work identically on AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA? NVIDIA might as well put PhysX out to pasture.

This move by Microsoft likely proves that NVIDIA won't cooperate with anyone on hardware physics. Microsoft's only option was to approach Intel and luckily Intel agreed.

 

[Prima.Vera]

here is to hoping that this will become an free api module of directx (like direct3d, dirctinput, directsound, etc), having a directcollision or something, even if not gpu accelerated by default, would certainly help.
and if this turns out to be a flop, developers can always start to adopt vulkan + bullet (at least for the pc crowd)

I'm afraid this will go the way of Direct Sound 3D.....

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Before Intel bought Havok, they were working on GPU-assisted physics with AMD as the premier partner for a more open platform that could include others.

Then Intel bought them and that was dead.

Remember those rumors for not so long ago that Microsoft was about to buy AMD? And Microsoft buys their old partner.

Ipso Facto, MICROSOFT IS BUYING AMD TO BECOME A GPU MAKER!

Microsoft Rage Fury MAXX 128 Extreme Pro XL incoming.

 

[truth teller]

I'm afraid this will go the way of Direct Sound 3D.....

if it does then thats another reason to adopt better open standards, and bullet3 is taking shape at a pretty good pace with its support for hardware acceleration via opencl (only gpu pipeline currently is supported, fully opensource).

 

[HumanSmoke]

Again, FleX is a subset of PhysX; it doesn't appear poised to replace it at all.

Maybe poor choice of words on my part. I meant Flex is folded into PhysX (along with just about everything else, VXGI etc) under the GameWorks banner.

This move by Microsoft likely proves that NVIDIA won't cooperate with anyone on hardware physics. Microsoft's only option was to approach Intel and luckily Intel agreed.

Microsoft don't have a record of licensing software from third parties if they can buy/steal it outright, and there's a good possibility that Microsoft's plans are great deal larger than Nvidia's - so buying Havok would be cheaper and offer a better tailored product. I doubt Intel put much of a price on Havok.

Microsoft Rage Fury MAXX 128 Extreme Pro XL incoming.

Wrong branding I think...
MICROSOFT Rage Fury MAXX Professional Edition.....MICROSOFT Rage Fury Nano Home Edition....MICROSOFT FirePro Office 365....

Maybe they'll charge you 10% less if you opt for the OEM version. Hopefully they don't tie Windows reactivation/reinstall with the original hardware.

 

[HalfAHertz]

I think that this is one of those rare occasions, where fanboys from the two camps should unite and collectively hate on Microsoft. When was the last time that Microsoft acquired a company and that ended up well for the company? Things don't look well for team Havok...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft

 

[GoFigureItOut]

Could Microsoft somehow make the engine run crappier on the PS4? You know, like Intel did with their compiler.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It could become abandonware outside of Windows/Xbox because once they integrate the feature set into DirectX, they really have no reason to maintain any other codebases. Ironically, this move may make Sony and Nintendo switch to NVIDIA for GPU unless open source steps up.

All speculation at this point. All I know is that this could (if Microsoft does something instead of just sitting on Havok like Intel did) really shakes up the market.

 

[Blue-Knight]

Microsoft monopolizing everything and the people go happy. As if their monopoly on their operating system arena was not enough.

What's next!? To acquire Google!?

 

[john_]

Microsoft monopolizing everything and the people go happy. As if their monopoly on their operating system arena was not enough.

What's next!? To acquire Google!?

If you have to choose between two monopolies, one that works on every hardware and one that dictates that you will only buy from ONE manufacturer hardware, what would you choose? By going Windows you are already in Microsoft's ecosystem. By choosing XBOX One you are already in Microsoft's ecosystem. If you want to fight Microsoft's monopoly you go Linux and PS4. Havok is the least of your concerns if you don't like Microsoft's monopoly. And you know something? Maybe Microsoft getting Havok is good for Vulkan and Linux, because it could push Khronos to move in that direction, to try to create an open standard physics engine, if there isn't any, for Vulkan. In the end this move could do good for future Linux gaming.

 

[medi01]

I love to read these Nvidia hater comments, about pretty much everything Nvidia does from physx to 3D glasses. There was no widespreadly used accelerated physics engine for PC gamers, so Nvidia put in time and effort and decided to bring life to their "own" solution using the stuff Ageia had to offer, and yes, they made it with their hardware in mind. They did not chop of the hands of the guys at AMD or Intel or Microsoft, etc.. to do the same. How is that a bad thing is simply beyond my comprehension.

Get your facts straight dude.
nVidia BOUGHT a company that created PhysX and changed its code not to run on competitor's product, effectively, to leverage market position to ban competitor.
"time and effort" my arse.

Some "time and effort" was put into gsync, and that was MOSTLY about how to have something that AMD could not use. Luckily, FreeSync is a cheap (included in all popular upscaler chips = can be had "for free") yet superior (slight performance increase vs decrease in nvidias, no limitations like "only one port" etc) alternative. Oh, and FreeSync is loyalty free and open to use by anyone.

 

[medi01]

Microsoft monopolizing everything and the people go happy. As if their monopoly on their operating system arena was not enough.

What's next!? To acquire Google!?

Microsoft Windows is already a monopoly as a gaming platform.
On the other hand, pumping up DirectX and including physics engine could help with getting rid of anti-compettive PhysX dependency.

So I'd sure welcome that.

 

[rtwjunkie]

As a mostly (80%) Nvidia user over the years, I have to say I am pleased by the possibility of Havok being THE dominant form of physics in games. I've always found Havok to be more "realistic". Phys-X I never run on the GPU, because it just feels over the top and wrong to me. Thus I always set mine to run off the CPU. Since this feature set is more limited, it feels to me more realistic, like Havok always has.

So yeah, I would be pleased by the death of Phys-X because of this move.

 

[Ikaruga]

Get your facts straight dude.
nVidia BOUGHT a company that created PhysX and changed its code not to run on competitor's product, effectively, to leverage market position to ban competitor.
"time and effort" my arse.

Some "time and effort" was put into gsync, and that was MOSTLY about how to have something that AMD could not use. Luckily, FreeSync is a cheap (included in all popular upscaler chips = can be had "for free") yet superior (slight performance increase vs decrease in nvidias, no limitations like "only one port" etc) alternative. Oh, and FreeSync is loyalty free and open to use by anyone.

I do check my facts just fine thanks "dude" ()
Yes they actually put in time and effort because they did marketing for it which needs a lot of money and they also brought it to developers who impemented it into games for the players (for only those who had nvidia cards indeed, but this is how the market works, you see the same shit happening with airplanes, cars, and pretty much everything).
Physx was always an utter shit and if you ask me it's still the same (even Flex is far from convincing in my book tbh), but at least we -who had an Nvidia hardware - had something, and it was good to have something instead of nothing. I understand if somebody says that they don't want to buy Nvidia products because of this and that, but nobody forces them to do so, it's simply an option... if you like that they offer physx, gsync, 3d vision, sli, shadowplay, gameworks, Nvlink, cuda, whatever...etc... you buy from them and if you don't like those you buy something else. End of story.