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UPDATED: Diablo III to use new Havok physics engine
Blizzard’s forthcoming Hellish RPG to use latest physics technology, including destructible environments, and it's rumoured to support DirectX 10.1 too
After the runaway success of World of Warcraft, many people thought that Blizzard’s devilish Diablo series of games had been pushed to the side, especially as the series hasn’t seen a release since the Diablo II expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, in 2001. However, Blizzard has answered the pleas of Diablo fans on Saturday, when it finally announced that is indeed working on Diablo III. Not only that, but that game will also support Havok physics.
Using a brand new graphics engine, Blizzard claims that Diablo III ‘can display characters and hordes of monsters in lush, fully 3D environments.’ As well as this, the developer promises that the game’s ‘powerful special-effects systems and Havok-powered physics allow the player to lay waste to the Hells' minions in spectacular ways.’
According to Blizzard, the new game engine ‘not only simulates advanced animation sequences and sound effects, but also uses a custom physics engine that allows for realistic object dynamics and cloth simulation.’ Based on Havok, the new physics engine is a bit of a blow for Nvidia which is currently pushing its recently acquired PhysX technology from Ageia. Meanwhile, Havok is now owned by Intel, although the company is now working with AMD towards getting the technology working on both AMD’s CPUs and GPUs.
We don’t know if Havok in Diablo III will be GPU-accelerated, and it’s more likely that it will be CPU-accelerated, given that Havok support on both Intel and AMD’s CPUs will make for much more widespread support. This is important if you want to have advanced physics features such as destructible environments that actually affect the game, and this is precisely what Blizzard has planned for Diablo III. ‘The game's physics-enhanced environments will be interactive and destructible,’ says the developer, ‘offering traps and obstacles that create added danger for players and monsters alike.’
The Diablo series have traditionally run on a wide range of graphics APIs in order to ensure widespread hardware support, and Diablo II even supported 3dfx’s proprietary GLide API, which was well past its use-by-date in 2000. However, Blizzard isn’t planning to alienate a load of potential players with its choice of API, and the game will also support DirectX 9 on Windows XP. In an interview on IGN, the Blizzard team said that ‘The team wants the game to be able to run on as broad a range of systems as possible. The game will not require DX10 to run.’
That said, there are a lot of rumours on the Web about the game supporting DirectX 10.1, as well as DirectX 9, adding extra graphical features for owners of supporting GPUs such as ATI's Radeon HD 3000 and 4000 series.
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Fun is most definately subjective... and I can only say from my point of view on that, although Diablo II is I think a very successful game, so that maybe says something (but then so was Everquest, which appeared very dull to me, so... *shrug*). Remembering spellforce, which was a top down rpg that could be controlled like an FPS makes me shudder, and not just for the awful scripts and voices. Unlike most RPG's Diablo is very fast paced and action oriented, you need to react fast, and with a number of different actions that often require you to have your keyboard hand far away from either wasd or arrows. Quite simply, although I think the controls felt quite intuitive and comfortable, you just didn't have the luxury of tying one hand up predominantly for movement. This contrasts starkly with tedious RPGs where you have a limited number of things to watch and react to at a time. Diablo is really just a reaction testing adreneline rush of a game, probably more suited to action gamers than rpg. Plot, collecting loot all subservient to a mindless rampage through the hordes. In a way it reminded me of the frantic parts of starcraft, when you are constantly trying to hold that line between survival and being swamped by the zerg.
Comment by NewParadigm at 7:53pm 1st July 2008
Just regarding your comment about point and click. RTS games need to be that way because sometimes you need to drag and drop multiple groups of targets and send them in a direction or to a location. In this type of game, where you control one character, you could achieve the controls in the same way as in FPS. After all consoles have had no problem with these games using a 'D' pad for generations. In general I have nothing to say about the fun aspect after already admitting that I haven't played them. Although I will say that with regards to everything, fun is a personal perspective thing and connot be argued in a general term.
Comment by PokerMuppet at 5:09pm 1st July 2008
I have both Diablo I and Diablo II, and I still play DII. They just don't make them like they used to...
Comment by DudQuitter at 3:45pm 1st July 2008
Diablo has always been about bashing as many monsters, as fast as you can. What sets it apart is that it was deliberately started in this way. The controls are point and click (that being the only way you can really do any game that looks down on the character... same as nearly all strategy games), but they are also pretty streamline and elegent, meaning it never feels like a chore, allowing you to enjoy the feeling of dealing out massive amounts of death and destruction to a staggeringly huge amount of enemies in one time. Its not a deep game by any means, but it is extremely good fun... and pretty good stress relief too :)
Comment by NewParadigm at 3:15pm 1st July 2008
ATTENTION! The following is purely my opinion and is not intended to be taken as fact! Thank you!... lol. This is yet another game slapping a few DX10 (or even DX10.1) touches to the overall graphics. While I have no issue with this, the end result is the same. For very little graphical advantage over pure DX9 the game ends up taking a massive performance hit although in this type of game, maybe it won't be as bad as others have been. As for the physics, well it is well documented that until there is a unified standard all that Ageia/Havok are really offering is again, some slight graphical benefits. Neither of these points are either going to make me buy the game or put me off it. That comes down to the game itself. Admittedly I have little experience of the Diablo series or RPG's in general but that is for a reason. To me, they all seem like over developed, point and click button bashers and the video for Diablo III does nothing to dispell me of that analysis. With linear maps that go round in circles, hordes of dull enemies with the odd, more difficult boss-type enemy, it all leads to repetative attacks and mindless frantic clicking. The developers make a point in the video that the environment is interactive and destructable. But in reallity, it is only certain items placed here and there that you can interact with and damage or use. I mean at one point you can knock down the wall to take out the enemies but your path is blocked by a locked door that you can't even scratch (I'm talking about the doors in the background, not the ones you do knock through.). I admit that there may be an involving storyline, but I don't care enough to even find out... not with all the enemies attacking and dieing EXACTLY the same way over and over. EG: The fat slimey looking dude who when is attacked bends over backwards and bursts into multiple eel like creatures. The animation of this character was EXACTLY the same as a previous version killed moments before. For this reason alone, although there are others, I think, I for one, will be leaving this game well alone. Maybe I am wrong and time will tell if there is more to the game. We shall see...
Comment by PokerMuppet at 7:27am 1st July 2008
Well, I've never been into this games genre, But PC gaming got me into FPS games because of the graphics, so I might just be tempted to buy this game if its graphics are something special!, plus its good to see that they have gone with the Havok API because most of us will be able to use it!!
Comment by NikoBellic at 5:47pm 30th June 2008
Right when everyone was saying that Nvidia purchasing Agea was the end of Ati I kept saying that either Intel or Nvidia would have to release a public API, and that whichever AMD chose to support would immidiately become dominant. Not you one game can be called dominant, but if this starts a trend then Nvidia will end up with an expensive lame duck. Also if the DX10.1 rumours are true then Nvidia may begin to wish it had paid attention and added support in.
Comment by NotFred at 5:27pm 30th June 2008
It's all twists and turns on the graphics front this month, not a good month to be trying to put a new spec togethger' but I guess it's a decent problem to have!
Comment by countstex at 4:49pm 30th June 2008
Letting AMD/ATi use Havok is the best way for Intel to stomp on Nvidia and PhysX. Here we see a prime example of why that will work, Blizzard will know that almost every PC out there will be able to use Havok in one form or another, that's why they've used it.
Comment by l3v1ck at 4:23pm 30th June 2008
Put a copy back for me thanks. This looks amazing!
Comment by marcus at 4:19pm 30th June 2008
The HD4870 is very tempting at the moment...
Comment by C7ouD at 3:56pm 30th June 2008
I'm a big diablo fan, and i must say this is looking very nice indeed, the physics will be a great addition to the already great series of games. The gameplay looks awesome too although graphically i'm hoping there will be some improvements. Fingers crossed it doesn't take as long as starcraft II has to be finished.
Comment by dr4ygon at 3:49pm 30th June 2008
Sorry, Custom PC comments are now closed.
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