The first tech demo of the legendary Havok physics engine in 10 years impressed gamers

Believable physics in games won’t convince anyone these days, but there was always something special about the Havok logo on the eve of a new adventure. The other day, the Irish company showed the first new tech demo of its engine in 10 years.

Image source: Havok

The first demo on the Havok YouTube channel since August 2014 (see attached video below) shows the capabilities of the company’s physics engine using the example of a game environment created in Unreal Engine.

«You can change any environment, block paths, open new areas for players, or destroy the world! Dynamic destruction and a large number of physically simulated objects add depth and excitement to any level,” Havok describes.

As Havok notes, this is just a small example of the functionality of its physics engine. Users in the comments were overwhelmed by a wave of nostalgia for games with high-quality physics like Half-Life 2 (the sound of the siren at the beginning of the video is exactly from it).

The published video preceded the release of the engine version of Havok 2024.2, which debuted on January 20. The update includes support for larger worlds, improved CMake integration, and improved performance.

Despite ten years of inactivity on YouTube (not counting recordings of presentations from developer conferences), Havok technologies are present in many modern games, including Doom Eternal, Helldivers 2, Starfield and Final Fantasy XVI.

Havok was founded in 1998 and has a rich history of collaborations with gaming giants. In 2007, the company was acquired by Intel for $110 million, and since 2015, Microsoft has been its owner.