Autodesk introduced updated versions of their game development middleware from their Autodesk Gameware product line. Autodesk Scaleform, Autodesk Navigation, Autodesk Beast and Autodesk HumanIK have all received new updates that enhance their compatibility with multiple game engines as well as getting them ready for some next-gen consoles.
Autodesk Scaleform 4.3
Autodesk Scaleform uses the powerful Adobe Flash toolset to create 3D user interfaces for games ranging from AAA titles to casual games. It provides game artists with a design-driven workflow for creating game menus, heads-up displays, animated textures, in-game videos and mini-games. It works on some mobile platforms, and with some third-party or in-house game engines.
Scaleform 4.3 integrates support for additional ActionScript 3 API classes to increase platform compatibility and support for Adobe AIR, facilitating the use of a wide variety of third-party and community-developed extensions directly within Scaleform. It also allows a greater range of color and shape transformations, with improved Adobe Flash blending, and had examples of gesture and touch UI interaction. Scaleform 4.3 is compatible with the Unity 4 engine and also supports Microsoft Windows 8. Other features enhance its compatibility with mobile devices.
Autodesk Gameware Navigation 4.3
Gameware Navigation 2014 is an application used for the creation and application of AI within the game engine. With source code access and an extensive API, it allows extensive customization of AI within a game. Gameware Navigation features automatic NavMesh generation to help with pathfinding and path following in complex game environments. Character and obstacle avoidance, dynamic NavMesh, swappable sectors and Unreal Engine 3 are supported out of the box. The Gameware Navigation API is compatible with certain major gaming platforms.
Autodesk Beast 2014
Beast 2014 is the latest version of Autodesk's tool for designing in-game lighting. It offers physics-based rendering for more natural lighting, and Open Shading Language support for better lighting effects and a more accurate preview render- i.e. a preview that represents much closer to what the player will see. Beast can be integrated into game level editors to give level designers a more accurate representation of the final look of a level.
Autodesk HumanIK 2014
HumanIK is Autodesk's character animation tool for creating in-game animation. It uses full-body inverse kinematics and real-time motion retargeting allowing a single character motion to be applied to a wide range of characters. Improvements to the 2014 version include a rewritten IK solver to reduce he processor load for mobile devices, and a dial-able solver scale to lighten the processing load for background characters. HumanIK is accessed as a C++ library which supports several major gaming platforms.
Availability
Scaleform 4.3, Gameware Navigation 2014, Beast 2014 and HumanIK 2014 are expected to be available in spring 2013. To learn more about Autodesk's game development tools or access evaluation versions of the products, please visit: http://gameware.autodesk.com
