Havok Releases Free Version For PC Developers

An anonymous reader writes "Havok has released the free version of its widely-used physics and animation engine (but without source code), including tools that integrate with Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya. Developers may use Havok for free for non-commercial games, middleware, and academic projects. Here are the SDK and tools."

Re:Only gratis,

[tomhudson]

You mean "free as in crack cocaine - the first hit is on the house".

Still, it's a valid way to get developers interested in using your tools. Not everything in life is free, and they have the right to do this, same as other softwae companies did in the past (eg: Borland with Kylix licensing).

Re:Only gratis,

[.orvp]

Havok is indeed being released as 'free' under certain circumstances. Yes, it is 'gratis' but 'gratis' is indeed 'free', just not 'Free'. Throughout the blurb, the software is referred to as 'free', not 'Free', it is only capitalized in the Headline, as per standard Title Conventions (although, I think 'for' should be lower case).

Just because the FSF doesn't consider it to be 'free' does not mean that it is not. To the average user, consumer, and non GNU evangelist, this release is indeed 'free', as there is no financial cost to use.

Re:Only gratis,

[c_forq]

I beg to differ. Slashdot is very familiar with free as in beer. Unless an article is specifically about the GNU, FSF, or Stallman I think it is safe to assume the average slashdotter will interpret free as in beer, and Free as in freedom.

Don't complain

[Enderandrew]

Havok wasn't obligated to do this. It is a kind (and perhaps savvy) gesture. I can't wait to see all the open-source Linux shooters integrate Havok. How long before it is in Ogre 3D and common engines like that?

I think it might be savvy, that if physics become common even in free games, that consumers won't want to pay for a commercial game unless it features physics as well.

I recall a while back someone was trying to create a homebrew engine that would play Jedi Knight levels, and it was a fairly impressive engine, except they couldn't finish it because they couldn't find a coder who could integrate even basic physics stuff. People looked and looked on all the usual sites, but it seems not many people know that stuff.

Re:Don't complain

[Enderandrew]

Not everything OSS is GPL. And I don't want to start a GPL-flame-fest here, but this is another example of GPL restricts as much as it protects freedom.

Re:Ok, I'll bite:

[chromatic]

There's absolutely no way you can simultaneously abide by the terms of both the Havok license and the GPL.

From the GPL side, you can -- but you cannot distribute the resulting work.

I don't know that the GPL expressely forbids linking to non-GPL libraries.

It doesn't. The GPL only governs redistribution.

Re:Strike one!

[johannesg]

It does not support Visual Studio 6. Only 2003 and 2005. Boo!

Fixed that for you...

why not GPL it?

[RiotingPacifist]

Given that no closed source game is going to GPL themselves instead of pay for a license why didnt they just GPL the thing and let open source games benefit? I'm no Stalmanist but in this case there is no down-side to GPLing it only extra geek credit.

Re:Strike one!

[johannesg]

I use that ten years old IDE because it is more pleasant to work with than the more recent versions.

Something really simple that *really* annoys the hell out of me in any later version: in VS6, you can cancel the message window (i.e. make it disappear) by hitting escape. In later versions, you cannot.

In VS6 you can create keyboard macro's and bind them to any key you want. I've been looking for this option in later versions and could not find it.

In VS6, DevStudio was first and foremost a C++ environment with some other stuff thrown in. In later versions it is the other way around: the normal C++ stuff seems to be an afterthought, and the focus is on lots of other stuff I don't use and don't care about, like HTML and .NET.

The list was longer, but it has been a while since I last used those later versions.

Oh, and those "free" versions of yours? They aren't free for corporate use...