Features

With the release of Meqon Game Dynamics SDK 1.5 we definitely have reach the same level of technology as our toughest competitors. Even though we still offer a reasonable and affordable pricing, we never compromise when it comes to features and performance. Here are some of the improvements in 1.5:

• Improved stability and efficiency
  The Meqon engine is very robust and stable in comparison with other physics middleware. Constrained objects, both jointed and stacked, are now handled superbly by the Meqon engine making it almost impossible to pull things out of place. The engine is also more memory efficient and faster to get up and running on the Playstation 2.
  
• Continuous Collision Detection
  The new Continuous Collision Detection avoids tunnelling for fast moving objects and resolves penetration with ease. Instead of implementing a rather expensive geometry sweep or 4D algorithms we have a unique solution that produces the same results or better in shorter time.
  
• Character animation improvements
  Our Character Module has been generally updated with more cool features making your characters come alive.
  
• New Content Creation Tools
  Totally re-written tools for artists and game designers who can define and preview all the physics parameters within 3DS Max or Maya.
  
• Debugging tools
  As the majority of time spent in games development is devoted to debugging, the Visual Remote Debugger has been improved to visualize what's going on and minimize that unnecessary time.

Below are some short descriptions of the modules included in the Meqon Game Dynamics SDK:

API

• Meqon Simulation Framework
  This is the foundation of the complete API which is designed to let you extend the engine with your own technology.
  
• Rigid Body simulation
  Massive interaction between solid geometries such as cars, walls, rocks and so forth. A must in all games! The engine is very stable and can handle fast moving objects and very thin objects we ease. Some really smart routines makes the simulation very fast and efficient, so you can literally fill a scene with objects and just wreck everything up in real-time!
  
• Character simulation
  Create any animal or biped characters in a minute. The Meqon Character API has a number of interesting parameters that enables animation driven physics. The module also offers something that can most easily be described as “physics driven IK”, and other character-specific functionality. It's very flexible and you can do most of the stuff you need to create live and vivid characters.
  
• Vehicle simulation
  The Meqon Game Dynamics SDK contains a powerful customizable vehicle module; create cars, scooters, bikes or tanks from a toolbox of vehicle specific components: motors, wheels, axes, gearboxes and differentials. There are different tire dynamics models to choose from, so you should be able to get the vehicle dynamics as you want them regardless if the game is a hardcore racing game or a more arcade-style driving game.

Tools

• Content Creation Tools
  Meqon provides plug-in exporters for both 3DSMax and Maya. The tools are designed to be as flexible and usable as possible and were totally re-designed for Meqon1.5. These new tools let the artist define complete scenes with all the physical stuff going on. The artist can preview the scene live (in real-time 3D) with the push of a button! Developers can also do custom scripts and merge the export with game specific exporters to get a more streamlined export pipe.
  
• Profiling and debugging agent for Windows
  The Meqon Agent is a great tool for monitoring performance and memory allocations of meqon in real time, which is great for tracking down bottlenecks in the simulation.
  
• Visual remote debugger for Windows
  The Visual Remote Debugger can be connected to a simulation locally or remotely, in real time or off-line, to debug a simulation. You can play the simulation backwards and forwards in time to detect errors or just to get an overview of the scene. Are the joints correctly set up? Why does the box penetrate that wall? What is the inertia of that object?

Written documentation

• Getting started guide
• Integration guide
• Developer guide
• API reference
• ...and more!

Source code examples

• Custom vehicles
• Particle systems
• Liquid surfaces
• Actions
• Serialization
• XML
• ...and more!

Supported platforms

• MS Windows / PC
• Playstation 2
• Xbox
• Mac
• Linux