The State of Gaming Middleware

With several gaming and design companies downsizing in the wake of economic changes, it seems every company is looking for ways to save money.  One way many companies are achieving this is by not reinventing the wheel, and investing in pre-built 3rd party tools.  This has led to some huge gains for creators of gaming engines like Unity and others, and CGSociety has a look at how the market is growing.

These shifts are not the only trends middleware companies have their eyes on. Heightened realism and more immersive game experiences are certainly trends that most middleware companies have never lost sight of, even with all of the market turmoil.

“Believable character motion is an area that Autodesk pursues with both our software products — MotionBuilder, Maya, 3ds Max and Softimage — and our middleware products — HumanIK and Kynapse,” said Autodesk’s Haggerty. “As our customers push new boundaries in entertainment, Autodesk is serving the industry with the tools and middleware to create believable characters.”

via CGSociety – Middlware report.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .

Graphics middleware, video games