Kynapse 5 to be released at Game Developers Conference
Paris, France - February 6, 2008 - Kynogon announced today that the latest version of their AI middleware, Kynapse 5, will be unveiled this month at the forthcoming Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Kynapse remains the industry leading solution for artificial intelligence in games and has been licensed by 7 of the world's top 10 publishers.
In response to feedback from our clients, Kynapse 5 includes the following new key features:
Dynamic Pathfinding
The introduction of fully physically-modelled worlds provides a challenging environment for AI. New games feature destructible terrains with thousands of dynamic objects that obstruct characters' path, provide cover and block visibility. To meet this challenge, Kynapse 5 introduces a new 3D Pathfinding that helps Non Player Characters find their way around complex arrangements of objects in highly dynamic worlds.
Multithread and Multicore architectures
Kynapse 5 offers a new parallel processing framework that leverages the latest multi-threaded and multi-core architectures for consoles and PCs. Time-consuming pathfinding calculations can now be offloaded to secondary threads, processors and SPUs running outside of the Kynapse main loop. This asynchronous framework is activated simply through configuration and significantly reduces CPU consumption on the main game thread and processor.
Distributed Path Data Generation
The Kynapse SDK includes powerful automatic tools for the creation of AI data. Non-player characters use this data to find their way through the 3D world. They also use it to analyse the 3D topology in real time, to identify hiding places, threats and other key features of their environments. Kynapse 5 offers the ability to distribute the automatic data generation process over multiple computers in a network, dramatically reducing generation times and improving productivity.
"We always have worked hard to listen to our clients and anticipate market evolutions. The new features in Kynapse 5 are a direct response to our clients needs," said Pierre Pontevia, CEO of Kynogon. "We are particularly looking forward to seeing what types of new gameplay developers will produce using Kynapse 5."
Kynapse 5 is currently undergoing beta testing with a selected group of developers and the final version of the software will be released at GDC this month. For further details on the new software, please visit www.kynogon.com <http://www.kynogon.com/> or visit our booth at GDC at #5739, North Hall.
About Kynogon
Kynogon develops and markets Kynapse, a unique A.I. engine. Kynapse is used by the world's leading game developers such as Electronic Arts, Activision, Bethesda Softworks, Lionhead Studios, Real Time Worlds, SEGA, Sony Online Entertainment, Spark Unlimited, THQ and Turbine, for the development of their AAA titles. Available for the PlayStation®2, PLAYSTATION®3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox360, Nintendo GameCube, Wii and the PC, Kynapse has been used in the development of more than 70 of some of the best known game titles including Crackdown, Alone in the Dark 5, Fable 2, Sacred 2 and The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Kynapse has also been selected by industry leaders such as EADS and British Aerospace Systems as their preferred AI solution. For more information please visit www.kynogon.com <http://www.kynogon.com/> .
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