Telekynesis Research Limited was founded in 1998 by two university students Hugh Reynolds and Steven Collins of the computer science department in Trinity College, Dublin who would form the studio based in Dublin, Ireland. The software was originally named Omniate initially, but was then renamed to Havok (Named after the Marvel X-Men character).
Ipion Virtual Physics
In 1999, a German-software company based in Munich had developed their own physics engine called Ipion Virtual Physics, it was a real-time middleware physics engine developed in the late 1990s by the German software company Ipion Software. Designed for the simulation of rigid body dynamics in video games and interactive media, it was a significant early competitor in the physics middleware market along with MathEngine. In June 2000, Ipion was acquired by Havok, and its core technologies were subsequently integrated into the Havok Physics engine.
Ipion was founded in 1998. The development of the Virtual Physics engine was led by chief architect Oliver Strunk and a decentralized team of engineers across Germany. Developed in C++, the engine was built with cross-platform compatibility in mind, supporting Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, and the PlayStation 2 console.
On June 8, 2000, the Irish company Havok acquired Ipion. This merger transformed the Ipion team into Havok's Munich office, marking the company's third international location after Dublin and Palo Alto. The acquisition was a pivotal moment in the industry, as the sophisticated algorithms of the Ipion Virtual Physics SDK became the technological foundation for Havok's 1.5 release and beyond.
Ipion was noted for its advanced handling of complex physical interactions for the era. Its architecture included:
- Collision Detection: A multi-phase system that optimized performance by utilizing bounding volumes before proceeding to detailed geometric checks.
- Constraint Systems: The SDK allowed developers to define kinematic pairs with specific degrees of freedom. This included native support for complex joints such as ball-and-socket and hinge joints.
- Dynamic Controllers: Beyond simple impulses, the engine allowed for persistent forces through various "controllers," enabling simulations of magnets, springs, and customized user-defined forces.
- Pipeline Integration: While the SDK did not include proprietary 3D exporters, it was uniquely compatible with the Quake II .BSP file format, allowing developers to integrate physics directly into established level design pipelines.
At the time of its commercial peak, the Ipion SDK was licensed for approximately $50,000 to $60,000 per project. The software package provided developers with a 76-page technical manual and a comprehensive C++ library.
Ipion's most visible legacy is found in the 3DMark 2001 SE benchmark. The software's "Game 4" and "Physics Feature" tests utilized the Ipion engine to demonstrate high-end hardware capabilities through complex rigid body simulations. It was also utilized in several retail titles, including the 2001 racing game Route 66 (known internationally as USA Racer). Following the Havok merger, the Ipion name was phased out, though its influence persists in modern physics simulations through its direct contribution to the Havok engine.
It is also famously used in Half-Life 2, albeit heavily modified by Valve as VPhysics (VPhysics uses custom proprietary code from Valve, with additional Havok code for constraints and memory optimized partial polytype). Half-Life 2 is lauded as one of the early licensees of a real-time physics middleware such as the Ipion Virtual Physics early in its development cycle at the start of the millennium.
