Autodesk Offers Expanded Mobile Game Development and Artificial
Intelligence Solutions; Improves Overall Usability and Performance
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 6, 2012--
Game Developer’s Conference 2012 — Autodesk,
Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) has announced new and enhanced game
development middleware from its recently launched Autodesk
Gameware product line. The company has extended its mobile game
development and artificial intelligence offerings, while providing
usability and performance enhancements for existing products.
At GDC, Autodesk unveiled its proof-of-concept game, "Hyperspace Madness," developed to showcase the company's Gameware products. (Graphic: Business Wire)
Autodesk Gameware comprises production-proven solutions that have been
used in at least 1,000 games to date, including Eidos-Montreal, a Square
Enix company’s “Deus ExTM: Human Revolution,” Epic Games’
“Gears of War® 3” and Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC
(SCEA)’s “Resistance® 3.” Evaluation versions of the products
will be available on the Autodesk Gameware website, http://gameware.autodesk.com,
along with related videos, tutorials and forums.
“We united our efforts to streamline the game development process under
the Autodesk Gameware banner and created the Gameware website to reach
out directly to the development community,” said Marc Stevens, Autodesk
vice president, product management. “Over that past four years, we have
been investing significantly in the area of runtime technology. The new
releases of our Gameware products highlight our continued commitment to
providing game development solutions that help increase production
values, while reducing development risks.”
Autodesk Scaleform 4.1 for All Types of Video Game Development
The latest version of Autodesk’s video game user interface (UI)
solution, Autodesk
Scaleform 4.1, offers new features and enhancements designed
especially for mobile game development. A new mobile-ready player,
flexible input support, game kits and tutorials extend the product’s
toolset for developing mobile game UI, as well as 2D games and apps.
Further usability and performance enhancements for all types of video
game development have also been included. Scaleform 4.1 rounds out its
Action Script 3 compatibility by adding support for BitmapData, AS3 XML
and regular expressions. The new release also offers a user-friendly
front-end client for the middleware’s export/cooking tool, with
graphical preview of assets. In addition, a new version of the Analyzer
for Memory and Performance (AMP) tool for fine-tuning Flash applications
provides an easier-to-use UI, as well as improved graphics processing
unit (GPU) profiling capabilities.
Scaleform 4.1 is newly available for use with the award-winning Unity 3
engine. It also now supports the new Microsoft Windows 8 Metro platform,
which provides an excellent touch-based interface to tablets and PCs.
New Products and Enhancements Expand Autodesk’s Artificial
Intelligence Offering
Autodesk has integrated recently acquired artificial intelligence (AI)
technology from Grip Entertainment into its Gameware line through the
introduction of two new products: Autodesk
Cognition and Autodesk
Population. The company further expanded its AI offering through new
enhancements in Autodesk
Kynapse middleware for real-time 3D pathfinding.
Autodesk Cognition 2013 is a visual programming system and run-time
engine for creating and managing high-level artificial intelligence.
Based on the paradigm of behavior trees, the system’s visual
representation of AI behavior can be more widely understood for better
collaboration. The formal structure of nodes and trees helps keep code
organized, so it can be managed, reused and modified more easily, while
comprehensive debugging tools help game creators correct complex AI more
quickly.
Autodesk Population 2013 is an AI software module for Epic Unreal Engine
3 technology that enables game designers to create and manage large
numbers of secondary characters. With Gameware Population, game
designers can rapidly create vibrant, living worlds populated by
hundreds of nonplayer characters (NPCs), resulting in a more meaningful
and compelling gaming experience.
The 2013 version of Autodesk Kynapse offers enhancements for more
realistic navigation by NPCs. A new mode of pathfinding enables
characters to navigate around changing environmental conditions by
dynamically updating pathdata based on aggregates of dynamic objects in
a level. Automatic path smoothing capabilities also help animation
systems to better anticipate motions and produce more naturally moving
characters. In addition, further memory optimizations have been made
specifically to reduce the footprint of AI bots, to allow for higher
numbers of NPCs in a game level.
Easier, Interactive Lighting With Autodesk Beast 2013 Middleware
The 2013 release of Autodesk
Beast lighting solution enables live scene authoring, so artists can
see results interactively as they edit scene geometry, lights, as well
as their parameters and baking properties. These features are integrated
into the Beast Unreal Engine integration, as part of a more efficient
lighting workflow that provides interactive previews in the viewport.
Beast 2013 also helps artists achieve high-quality lighting without
delving into configuration through a global illumination mode that
provides quick and simple lighting setups.
Improved Solving With Autodesk HumanIK 2013 Animation Middleware
Autodesk
HumanIK 2013 middleware enables more realistic character animation
with simplified access to its two-bone IK solver, a new shoulder solver
and an improved spine solving technique that uses a new parameter to
control spine curvature. Animators can also now pinpoint issues in
problematic character animation more easily by loading the character in
Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012 software using an improved HumanIK plugin.
Availability
The new versions of Scaleform, Cognition, Population, Kynapse, Beast and
HumanIK middleware are expected to be available in spring 2012. Learn
more about Autodesk’s game development products at the Autodesk
Gameware website.
About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D
design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the
manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and
entertainment industries -- including the last 17 Academy Award winners
for Best Visual Effects -- use Autodesk software to design, visualize
and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in
1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of
state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information
about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.
Autodesk, AutoCAD, Beast, HumanIK, Kynapse, MotionBuilder and
Scaleform are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc.,
and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other
countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names
or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the
right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and
pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for
typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50194911&lang=en
Source: Autodesk, Inc.
Autodesk, Inc.
Brittany Bonhomme, 416-874-8798
brittany.bonhomme@autodesk.com
or
Karen
Raz, 310-450-1482
karen@razpr.com