AMD plays Havok with game physics

A large proportion of today's video games use the Havok engine to power physics effects, but these complex calculations can place a tremendous strain on the PC hardware.

"As the complexity and visual fidelity of video games increases, AMD wants to take advantage of opportunities to improve the game experience," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of the graphics products group at AMD.

"By working with the clear market leader in physics software, AMD can optimise our platforms to consistently deliver the best possible visual experience to the gamer."

The two companies also plan to figure out how to get the best out of the ATI Radeon GPUs.

"The success of Havok as a cross-platform software company is predicated on our willingness to listen to the needs of our customers," said David O'Meara, managing director of Havok.

"The clear priority of game developers is performance and scalability of the CPU. Beyond core simulation, however, the capabilities of massively parallel products offer technical possibilities for computing certain types of simulation."

The move is bound to cause consternation in the Nvidia camp which bought Ageia Technologies in February. Ageia developed the PhysX physics engine, which competes directly with Havok.