Autodesk Joins UE3 Integrated Partners Program

With the integration of its animation middleware HumanIK and AI middleware Kynapse into Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3, Maya owner Autodesk has become a member of Epic Games' Integrated Partners Program. UE3 licensees now have access to the in-game character animation and 3D navigation/spatial reasoning solutions. HumanIK includes a run-time, a full-body inverse kinematics (IK) solver and a run-time retargeting engine for characters of differing size, proportions and skeletal hierarchy. The middleware enables animators and game designers to alter animations on the fly and let characters interact with their environments. Kynapse, which was previously integrated with UE3, is designed to give non-player characters spatial awareness for navigating digital environments. Its engine supports dynamic 3D pathfinding, 3D topology analysis, dynamic environment evaluation, and large-crowd pathfinding in complex terrains. HumanIK has been previously licensed for several titles, such as Ubisoft's Assassin’s Creed, as well as Electronic Arts’ Def Jam: Icon, FIFA Soccer 07, and NBA Street Homecourt. Kynapse has been adopted for over 70 titles. Epic Games' Integrated Partners Program provides continuous Unreal Engine 3 source code access and technical support to companies who have made cross-platform technologies that integrate with, and are complementary to the engine. IPP companies agree to provide technical support for Unreal Engine 3 licensees, keep their implementations up-to-date with the latest engine versions, and collaborate with Epic on promotional and co-marketing efforts. "Autodesk is working to help game designers create the most realistic characters possible," says Autodesk's Game Technology Group business development director Michel Kripalani. "Believable characters have life-like movement and can navigate their environments intelligently. Integrating HumanIK, along with Kynapse, into UE3 makes it much easier for publishers and developers to achieve this level of realism, which is demanded by gamers today."