Is Microsoft Launching a New API?

A new trademark filed by Microsoft suggests that it could be set to launch a new API. The Redmond company has trademarked the term Direct Physics, which potentially points to a new physics API, possibly integrated with DirectX 12.

As pointed out by WCCFTech, the Direct Physics trademark may mean that we will finally see the integration of the Havok middleware, as purchased by Microsoft in October 2015. At the time, Microsoft said:

“As we welcome Havok to the Microsoft family, we will continue to work with developers to create great gaming experiences, and continue to license Havok’s development tools to partners. We believe that Havok is a fantastic addition to Microsoft’s existing tools and platform components for developers, including DirectX 12, Visual Studio and Microsoft Azure.

Havok shares Microsoft’s vision for empowering people to create worlds and experiences that have never been seen before, and we look forward to sharing more of this vision in the near future.”

The Direct Physics concept, though, is not a new one: Microsoft first floated the idea eleven years ago. While the plan was seemingly abandoned – or at least put on the backburner – a Microsoft job posting from 2006 revealed that the company was seeking a Software design Engineer to help develop “Direct Physics”. The posting read:

“The Windows Graphics and Gaming Technology group is looking for a software design engineer to join a growing team responsible for developing Direct Physics. This team is responsible for delivering a great leap forwards in the way game developers think about integrating Physics into their engines. Physics and real time, accurate simulation is a key part of the next generation gaming experience, bringing increased realism, greater immersion and more interesting experiences.

You will be a member of the core engine team who will be primarily responsible for working closely with our Direct3D team, helping to define, develop and map optimized simulation and collision algorithms onto data structures that are optimized for the GPU. Extensive experience with graphics shading languages such as HLSL is expected as well as a good understanding of modern graphics hardware and associated algorithms.”

With E3 2017 coming this Summer, we could find out more about Microsoft’s plans for Direct Physics very soon.