TCD group puts PlayStation on new level

The next generation Sony PlayStation will offer many features when it launches in Japan in March. High quality 3D graphics, DVD shipped as standard, and Internet connectivity. A team of Dublin-based scientists are applying the laws of physics to allow PlayStation II players interact more physically with the games environment.

Havok.com is the gaming division of Telekinesys, a Trinity College spin-off company founded and developed by a team including seven PhD holders from the college computer science department. Co-founders Dr Steven Collins and Mr Hugh Reynolds are both former lecturers in game development having conducted pioneering research in the field at Trinity.

Thrown together in temporary office facilities in Merrion Square, 15 people currently work in Havok. All are former students of the company founders, and over the last year they have made a significant breakthrough in applying physics simulation to the delivery of interactive 3D content.

Late last year, Havok signed a licensing agreement with Sony to develop software which will assist games programmers in designing games for the PlayStation II. Working on the only Sony development kit currently in the Republic, Havok has developed an end product that takes all the laws of physics and maps them into a 3-D environment. Now between 12 and 15 independent gaming houses are contacting Havok each week to request the software, even though it's not due for official launch until the annual Games Development Conference in San Jose in March.

Based on middleware technology, Havok's software will allow game designers spend more time on the creative, and less on tedious coding. Havok's product can be applied to any architect's drawing of a game environment. Once an inanimate object is introduced, the software intuitively depicts how it will react with gravity and outside forces.

For example, if Lara Croft picks up a boulder and throws it, it will fall exactly in the way it would in the real world. At the moment thousands of man hours go into programming the various ways an inanimate object will behave when it interacts with an animate object. Havok's software automatically takes care of this end of the programme.

"This technology cuts the time to market for developers significantly. They no longer have to worry about programming animation after animation of interactions with objects. This will bring the normal 12-month period initially spent by developers on new games down to around four months," says Dr Steven Collins, chief executive officer of Telekinesys.

With the global gaming industry currently worth £20 billion (€25.39 billion) annually - more than either the film or music industry - and growing at 30 per cent per year, Havok is aiming to capture around 20 per cent of the market for physics-based technology, which accounts for around 8 per cent of the entire games market.

It is currently working with four independent games development houses, and once the PlayStation II becomes available Havok hopes its middleware will be used in a good proportion of the new versions of some of the 800 game titles produced last year.

Dr Collins also sees applications of the physics-based software beyond solely the gaming industry. There are e-commerce possibilities, where visitors to a website can not only view a 3D image of a product for sale, but replicate the experience of touching and feeling the item, examine its moving parts, and feel its weight. Such an application is a little further down the line as it relies on the widespread availability of a force-feedback mouse which will feed these sensations through the user's hand. Telekinesys worked with Logitech recently to develop the first mouse of this kind, the WingMan force-feedback mouse.

Dr Collins believes one of the more compelling aspects of Havok's software for the games industry at present is the economies it offers when it comes to online gaming.

"This technology is one of the cornerstones of bandwidth reduction. We are currently talking to Sega which is Beta testing its 10 Six game in February. Up to 50,000 people connected to the Internet can play the game at any one time, but to do so efficiently they have to reduce the amount of traffic over the Internet. Our technology allows this."

Dr Collins also envisages further applications of the technology in medical and robotic applications where physical simulations are increasingly required to allow virtual reality experiences.

The next challenge for Havok - which is the first commercial arm of Telekinesys specialising solely in games software - is to launch its sales and marketing campaign. To date the company has been funded by £250,000 in BES funding, including investment from Davy Stockbrokers director, Mr Tom Byrne, and £20,000 from Enterprise Ireland. Now the company needs to expand into the US and Japan, and is currently in negotiations to raise $2 million (€2.05 million). Davy Stockbrokers is managing the process, and the company has had discussions with potential investors. Dr Collins says Telekinesys is keen to find a strategic partner, typically a large IT player with a venture capital arm.

While the technical pedigree of Havok cannot be questioned - it is one of few organisations worldwide with such an installed base of developers qualified to such a high academic standard - it is operating in a highly competitive environment, and needs a major marketing rollout if it is to reach the mass market it needs for large-scale success.