Havok Behavior™

Havok Behavior is an innovative, cross-platform development system for creating dynamic event-driven character behaviors in a game. Havok Behavior accelerates the development of cutting-edge character performance by coupling an intuitive composition tool for artists and designers with a run-time software development kit (SDK) for game programmers. Together, the Behavior tool and SDK provide "what you see is what you get" results, accelerating development of cutting edge character performances for current and next-generation game titles. The tool is designed to sit between the proven Havok Physics and Havok Animation game engine and the linear animation and modeling worlds of Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Maya® and Autodesk SOFTIMAGE®|XSI.®

• A flexible project scheme and asset viewer that organizes 1000's of character assets including rigs, skin/mesh bindings, animation clips, events, variables, sequences, and behaviors
• A graphical editor for authoring character behaviors as Hierarchical Finite State Machines with blend trees
• Sophisticated Blend Trees per state that match in-game results
• Storage of Behavior assets in XML and as Havok serialized binary files that load directly in the game
• Unique event-driven simulation mode that enables interactive traversal of arbitrarily complex state machines
• A Sequence editor that provides repeatable behavior testing through automated playback of event and variable manipulations
• Variable declarations and bindings within Blend Trees and animation clips, enabling two-way interaction between the game's AI and the Havok Behavior SDK
• A "GameView" test application for verifying all character behaviors, including event generation and variable tweaking, independent of the Behavior tool (replaceable with "your game engine")
• Modern UI paradigm includes undo/redo, flexible layout, floatable windows, and hot-key controls
• Extensive help documentation including getting started tutorials, concept overviews, and full reference material

• Hierarchical finite state machines on current and next-generation game platforms
• Full support for fast loading of serialized character and behaviors assets
• Compatible with earlier serialized character assets
• Provides run-time integration with animation and physics techniques – enabling pose matching, powered ragdolls, and IK fix-up
• Supports AI-driven run-time variable changes at arbitrary points in the Blend Tree and in animation clips
• Supports user-supplied custom Blend Tree nodes – enables open-ended customization within the Havok Behavior framework (requires Tool source code extensions)
• Enables unified representation for entire character performance – including facial and hand-based animations

Resources

Havok Behavior Brief

Press Releases:
Ubisoft's Six Flags Fun Park for Wii Built On Havok Behavior

Watch the PodTech GDC video on Havok Behavior

Try Havok