“We’re deeply impressed by NVIDIA’s commitment to push physics to new levels of fidelity and performance, and their investment in development and support infrastructure across all platforms,” said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. “NVIDIA’s PhysX technology provides a robust, high-fidelity foundation for our advanced character animation algorithms and tools. Through our close collaboration, we will help game developers bring fully interactive and believable characters to a wide range of games.”

It's two great tastes that taste real together! Hit the jump for more details on the partnership between physics powerhouses.

NaturalMotion and NVIDIA Bring a New Level of Realism to Games

Companies Team Up to Integrate Animation, AI and Physics Technologies

SANTA CLARA, CA and OXFORD, U.K. - June 11, 2008 NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, and NaturalMotion Ltd., the developers behind the highly acclaimed euphoria motion synthesis technology, today announced that the companies have teamed up to offer game developers and publishers easy-to-use, highly integrated solutions for adding animation and physics in next-generation games.

Starting with the upcoming release of NaturalMotion’s morpheme animation engine, NVIDIA’s PhysX technology will provide rigid body dynamics functionality across its product portfolio, supporting both console (PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii) and PC platforms. In addition, PC titles will benefit from GeForce GPU acceleration for both PhysX and future versions of morpheme, bringing additional motion fidelity to the PC game experience.

“We’re deeply impressed by NVIDIA’s commitment to push physics to new levels of fidelity and performance, and their investment in development and support infrastructure across all platforms,” said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. “NVIDIA’s PhysX technology provides a robust, high-fidelity foundation for our advanced character animation algorithms and tools. Through our close collaboration, we will help game developers bring fully interactive and believable characters to a wide range of games.”

“The introduction of NaturalMotion’s AI and Adaptive Behaviors is the next big breakthrough in gaming,” said Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA. “This technology takes us into a new level of immersion as characters roll, jump, duck and react to the players’ actions and the environments around them. We are delighted to be working with NaturalMotion to bring this new level of character animation to the world.”
For more information, visit www.naturalmotion.com.

Half-Life Havoc (HLH) is a lesson in video game physics created in Half-Life 2 using the included level editing tools. Taking inspiration from games like Garry's mod and Portal, HLH aims to create an environment where players can take some time to appreciate the complex physics simulations that are present in modern games. HLH is made up of a series of rooms, each of which has a puzzle or game that illustrates a feature of Half-Life 2's physics engine. Commentary nodes spread throughout the level teach the player about what is going on in each of the games and gives insight into video game physics.

Half-Life: Havoc

Magic Pen [Fizzlebot via Jay Is Games]

"This year was kind of a perfect storm for the IGF," says Wired Magazine editor Chris Baker. "For one thing, we're well-ensconced in the current generation of game consoles, so there were no big surprises."

Independent games, however, are a breath of fresh air. And with digital distribution coming into its own, something that just continues to grow.

"I think this year further reinforced that indie game creators are getting better and better at conceptualizing ideas that likely aren't 'mainstream' enough to thrive in a $60 AAA Xbox 360 game," says IGF judge and Gamasutra editor Simon Carless, "and making them into totally fun, extremely playable titles."

Year after year, indie games are looking more and more polished. Slick, even.

"Tools are only getting easier to use, and digital distribution is increasing in scope and popularity every day," points out Andrew Maneri, character designer and AI developer for Synaesthete. "These were the two big barriers to entry for many developers."

But what about the winners of this year's IGF? Did anyone get any deals? Advance their career? We chatted up some of the winners, and got a glimpse of why deals don't really matter and how IGF changed their lives. Or didn't.

Oh, and we totally forgot to ask about indie gaming groupies. Sorry.

• Crayon Physics Deluxe Seumas McNally Grand Prize
When asked what memories of IGF stick out, Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho replied, "English isn't my first language so I had to google out what "stick out" means. And this is the only definition I found: stick out with my dick out." Purho, a student at Helsinki Polytechnic in Finland, continues, "It might be early Alzheimer symptoms, but I don't remember anything like that happening during the IGF. Or then my mind just wants to shut it down. Or then I was just too drunk to remember my penis hanging out while trying to be important during the IGF. The last sounds like the most probable scenario."

Since he was eight, Purho has been making his own QBasic games. He started up his kloonigames blog in late 2006 to focus more game design. "Idea was (and still is)," he says, "that I'd do one prototype of a game every month to learn and experiment with game design." Leading up to this year's IGF, Purho says getting his Crayon Physics Deluxe ready was a crunch. "I had to grind my way through the dungeon of C++ and fight level 5 bugs there," he recalls. "The end boss, called Change-physics-engines-one-week-before-the-IGF-deadline was particularly nasty. Especially with the lacking a proper save game system and the time limit." Lessons learned? "To spend a little bit more time working on the game, before the last week of the deadline."

While Purho only submitted Crayon Physics Deluxe to get a free GDC pass, his delightful virtual crayon physics title charmed the IGF judges, winning the grand prize. "There have been some emails and contacts from various publishers," he says. But he hasn't gotten any deals out of his IGF win. In the mean time, while the rest of us wait patiently for the long overdue DS version of Crayon Physics, Purho's keeping busy churning out games for his blog and with other things. "I'm planning on growing enough hair to beat John Romero in the hair length contest."

Good luck, Petri. That Romero was a Rapunzel.

• Synaesthete Best Student Game
Is game school the new film school?

"I wouldn't say it's the new film school," says Will Towns, Synaesthete technical director. "Maybe it's film school's illegitimate sibling. The film industry and the gaming industry share a lot of the same aspects: both contain a corporate piece and an independent piece, both fostering the same advantages and disadvantages."

What are these corporate disadvantages you speak of?

"I don't want to work on the next 20 million dollar EA genre game," says Synaesthete's designer Joseph Tkach. "Someday, I would like to have my own dev studio, where I and my team can have complete creative freedom."

Meet the new generation. Armed with gaming degrees and a fierce sense of independence. Knowing that it's possible for small teams to deliver satisfying game experiences, these guys aren't happy to be "fortunate" enough to crunch code on some bland $20 million sequel. No way.

Tkach and Town, along with Zach Aikman and Andy Maneri, are the team behind Rez inspired, music driven arcade-style shooter Synaesthete. Since the team snagged Best Student Game at IGF, it's safe to assume that they are, well, students. All four study at DigiPen Institute of Technology, where they were pulling late night after late night, preparing their game for IGF. After their win, the team says they've been in talks.

"There's exciting news on the horizon," says Zach Aikman.

Game deals or not, the Synaesthete guys are sitting pretty for college kids.

"Getting recognized by such a large industry is the best thing that can happen to us, being soon-to-be graduates," says Towns. "Anything else is just icing on the cake."

Like paying off those student loans, for instance.

• Fez Excellence In Visual Art
When Montreal-based Fez designer and artist Phil Fish took the stage at IGF to accept the Excellence in Visual Art award, he wore, well, a fez. The 2D-meets-3D game stars a fez-wearing character named Gomez. Fish had been kicking around the idea for Fez for ages. He wanted to make an inviting game, built on childhood gaming cliches, but turning them on their ear.

"Having no time or money," says producer and the game's soundtrack composer Jason De Groot. "It was made in our free time." What did they learn from that? "That we'd like to have more time and money."

De Groot first came on board last year. The Japan-based De Groot was in Kyoto on business and on his laptop watched the Fez clip Fish had put together of the prototype.

"It was a "Woah...." kind of moment," recalls De Groot. "Until then, I had only seen concept art and a couple questionable cell phone videos. Right then I knew that I had to be more involved in things."

Post IGF, Fez garnered considerable interest. Not just for an indie title, but for a game — a still very much in development game.

"No moneyhats yet," says De Groot. "But we've been getting a lot of interest."

We're sure of that.

• Iron Dukes Best Web Browser Game
"The IGF seemed very professional this year, both in terms of the competition and production of the festival," says Iron Dukes programmer Darren Koepp. "I was expecting a kiosk next to the sandwich tables."

He and the game's writer and designer Tynan Wales submitted the game to give themselves a deadline. You know, just to finish the damn thing.

Iron Dukes is about 19th century fictionalized treasure hunting made by two guys who ran out of money.

"I ran out of money," says Koepp. "Yes," confirms Wales,"we had money trouble."

Both Koepp and Wales, industry vets, haven't seen big profits from their win yet, but are in talks.

"The Sundance comparison was bandied about a fair amount this year," says Wales. "There was an air of indie camaraderie, but I'm not sure if the IGF is as much of a golden ticket as Sundance is now. I saw no one leaving with bags of money."

Still, the pure acting of winning is in itself satisfying.

Recalls Koepp: "During the IGF, the awards night was really a surprise. I remember one of the volunteers ushering me down to the "VIP" area. He called me sir. That was hilarious. Winning was nice too. I couldn't feel my knees."

Winning is always nice.

• World of Goo Design Innovation, Technical Excellence
Two former Electronic Arts employees make good.

"The first commercial game I worked on was an urban Sims game at EA, and we learned that putting 3D versions of the Black Eyed Peas into a game might not necessarily increase the funk," says World of Goo creator Kyle Gabler. "On the other hand, it has recently been discovered that putting dinosaurs into a game will increase the funk every time."

Blobs of goo work well, too. Gabler and co-designer Ron Carmel created gooey gaming goodness with World of Goo. The puzzle game has players overcome gravity and build goo ball structures that reach the in-game exit. A simple, yet brilliant mechanic.

"World of Goo is one big physics lab, so things move and interact exactly like you would expect," says Gabler. "It's fun just to fling things around."

"We spent most of September in a tizzy, working from the minute we woke up until the minute we fell asleep in order to meet the IGF submission deadline," recalls Carmel. "We didn't touch a computer for two weeks after the submission date."

Crunch time paid off in spades. The game charmed the IGF judges, and World of Goo won not one, but two awards: Design Innovation and Technical Excellence. Two awards? They're on easy street! For like, forever!!

Uh, no.

"I was a little surprised that actually winning an award didn't help us much on the business end of things," says Carmel. "But overall, the IGF really helped us get the word out. In my opinion there's nothing else out there that is doing as much good for the indie game scene as the IGF."

True, true. So instead of waiting for some plum deal, Gabler and Carmel are selling the game through digital distribution on their 2D Boy site.

"I think people are realizing that a game doesn't need to be complex or contain two zillion polys or 193 hours of gameplay in order to be worthwhile, it just needs to be fun," says Carmel. "This allows micro-studios like ours to actually make a living doing this... If I thought we'd need to find a publisher for World of Goo in order to get it out into the world I might not have left my job to work on it."

Gabler and Carmel are developing a Wii version of World of Goo on a profit sharing basis.

"If a team of three people make a game that brings in a million dollars in profits, they should each see a third of that amount, not get a $5k bonus and a round of applause."

Spoken like a true industry vet.

Not precisely a game, but there has been talk lately of physics (and science in general) in games, and this is a neat little program that's fun to spend a while playing with. It's still in beta and has the requisite bugs you might expect, but here's what the creator has to say about it:

Phun is a Master of Science Theises by Computing Science student Emil Ernerfeldt for supervisor Kenneth Bodin at VRLab, Umeå University. The solver is based on work by Claude Lacoursière

Phun is meant to be a playground where people can be creative. It can also be used as an educational tool to learn about physics concepts such as restitution and friction.

You can snag the download (Windows only for now, but an OSX version is apparently on its way) at the Phun website, where there's more information. There's also a thread going over at the GameDev.com forums.

For the last few years, the buzzword for game engine design has been physics, but most games didn't use it for anything more than the most basic eye-candy. HL2 showed that the model itself could actually be fun and interesting as part of the gameplay. I like to imagine doing the same thing for other fields - chemistry, for example, which has never been one of my strong subjects but would almost certainly make for amazing puzzles a la MacGyver. To some degree, this progression is already taking place; what's Spore but an expansive biology toy?

A fun and thought provoking read, even for those of us who run screaming from labs of any kind. Give me musty library stacks any day.

Anomalous Materials [The Escapist]

This isn't a real-time representation of Crysis' physics engine, but it's a sublimely beautiful one. It explores the impact of tornadoes, trucks, planes and base jumping on a man (and his top hat) fashioned from hundreds, maybe thousands, of crates. Those interested in the technical details behind the clip can read more at the YouTube page.

Crysis - Mass Physics [YouTube]

In a press release that went out yesterday, only to be instantly smothered in a sea of Wii, Havok announced that Blizzard Entertainment has licensed the physics engine for god knows what.

Interestingly, Apple is mentioned specifically:

Jeff Yates, Havok's Vice President, Product Management comments, "The Mac is an important piece of technology and because of the cross-platform nature of Havok's technology, the port to Mac was easy to do. Furthermore, Blizzard Entertainment's commitment to OS X and to the Mac community is a good indication of the growth potential of the Mac as a games platform. Blizzard has always put out great games on the Mac, and we look forward to Havok becoming a part of that tradition."

Blizzard has always been good to the Apple community, even when Mac gamers were even worse off than they are now. Eliza Gauger

Havok Press Release [Havok]

1Up sends word that in the October issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, Alex Ward, Burnout 5's game design director, says that coolness is numero uno. He states:

Real physics don't make for great gameplay all of the time. If we want to blow the car up, we'll blow the car up. Like when they blew up the Death Star—there's no fire in space.

What's more automobiles in the next-gen Burnout 5 will have 80 different blow-offable parts, while the previous version Burnout: Revenge only had 12. Bring on the 'splosions. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [1Up]

New Indy 2007 footage from LucasArts, in a faux German WW2 propaganda-flavored shell that calls to mind the flippant and endearing flavor of the old adventure games. If they can preserve that feeling while imbuing it with fistfights and car chases, I'm going to be extremely pleased. Computer and Video games, where I got this clip, says:

LucasArts has of course spilled the beans on the euphoria technology previously, explaining that, in a nutshell, it imbues in-game characters with more 'natural' behaviour. It not only adds an extra layer of authenticity to proceedings but additionally, because it all works in real-time, we'll never see the same behaviour or action or reaction from an NPC twice. Just watch the game footage - which features lots of Indy punching people - in the trailer and it'll all become crystal clear. Hopefully.

It looks better on CVG than YouTube, so head over there for a closer look if you haven't seen enough above.

I wonder if the graphics have been slowmo'd a little for this trailer (aside from the obvious slow motion sequences), because everyone still looks a bit floaty. I'm hoping for snappy combat, more like the feel of GTA, where cracking a bat over someone's face felt more realtime than this trailer makes Indy look. Everything looks gooey and rubbery, and needs to be sped up by about 10%.

Still, I love the idea of never-the-same-way-twice combat. This makes reloading at checkpoints and fighting the same guys, or replaying the game at all, far more interesting.

Eliza Gauger

Better quality vid here [Computer and Video Games]

If you read my last update you'll know that things are a little unstable at the office today, so I did my best to check and see if we'd already posted this (sorta old) little movie demonstrating the post-ragdoll physics being used in the new Indiana Jones game. And I don't think we have. Be sure to write outraged e-mails to the tips address if I'm wrong, 'kay?

I think that might be Bashy scrabbling at the door just now, so I'll make this quick. This here video was made using the Endorphin engine, which LucasArts has mysteriously appropriated and renamed euphoria (yes, it does have to be lowercased and italicized)

The video is neat-ish, but I would have liked to see some clearer representations of the "same scenario, different results" thing being trumpeted in Game Informer's June Indy article. The screenshots look promising, if a little over-lightbloomed. But it sounds like Lucas himself has been a key part of the project from beginning to end, so I'm already resigned to be enraged by the story and dialogue. Sigh. Eliza gauger

Club Skill has an excellent retrospective on the role of breasts in the history of video games. The article is crammed with illustrative screenshots and amusing factoids; apparently, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 is the first game to have each breast assigned its own set of physics. Someone's been researching long into the night.

That said, the article is remarkably cleancut and quizzical, with nary a whiff of fanboyish slavering. Especially entertaining is the anecdote about Dead or Alive being named such because it was Tecmo's last ditch effort to save itself, which it did through the power of jiggle physics. And there's more bizarre stuff as well:

When talking about Mortal Kombat and breast physics, this only applies to the recent titles that in the series. This includes Deadly Alliance, Deception, and the upcoming Armageddon. The breast physics in this game seem a bit odd. Probably the best way to describe it is that it moves like very stiff jello. The games even went as far as to add bruising and bleeding. Sometimes matches would end in a pair of bloody breasts.

Boob Physics [Club Skill]

It does seem like we're hitting diminishing returns with new video cards. Vehicles and buildings look nearly as real as they can, and people usually have the same creepy-undead look you often see in high-end computer generated movies and commercials, so maybe the next big expansion in the world of gaming will be in terms of physics. Read the article, decide for yourself.

Oblivion's Missing Physics [GamersFirst]

I ran into the Naked Sky Entertainment team on the expo floor at the Game Developers Conference last week. They seem to really enjoy what they do and what they do, at least right now, is work on a cool game for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade and computer.

The thing that makes Robo Blitz so cool, besides its fun sense of humor, is that it is powered by the Unreal Engine 3 Ageia PhysX and Allegorithmic ProFx.. in other words it live physics instead of canned animation to make things move about and interact with one another.

The game features 18 levels and, from what I saw of it, looks like it's going to be the next big Arcade title.

What I loved most about the game were the weapons, they rocked.

My favorite was Naked Sky Entertainment's take on the gravity gun, which lets you tag objects or robots with little nodes that than create little magnetic chains to each other. There's nothing like chaining together three or four explosive barrels to an enemy and then watching him run around into something blows up especially when a robust physics engine is involved.

Another weapon turned your victims into colorful fireworks, shooting them into the air with a whistle and then causing them to explode into a delightful array of colors. Fun stuff.

The game doesn't have multiplayer support, but it sounds like the team is already playing around with the idea of an expansion of sorts. Can't wait.

For this reason, the next big revolution in gaming is definitely going to be physics processors. We all know it. So we're excited that NVidia and Havok are set to demonstrate the first GPU-powered physics solution at GDC. The solution will offload physics processing from the CPU to the GPU, allowing developers to program more realistic physics — effects like smoke, liquid, friction, debris and gravity — without slowing games down to a crawl.

Excellent news. Developers — please start designing the Katamari Breastacy game we suggested above post haste.

NVIDIA and Havok Demonstrate World's First GPU-Powered Game Physics Solution at Game Developer's Conference [Yahoo]