Hot in the industry today is news that two technological companies have joined forces to package both animations and physics to developer companies. NaturalMotion, responsible for the motion synthesis technology in Grand Theft Auto IV, announced together with NVIDIA, new proud owners of PhysX technology, that they will offer "highly-integrated" solutions for developing games on all current generation gaming platforms, including the PC. Find out how at the full story.

She may have missed small details before, but we found it hard to resist telling you guys about Surfer Girl's latest batch of rumors. This time, an announcement of Diablo 3 was mentioned and other intriguing  games were brought to light. Head over to the full article to find all the details.

Lego Indiana Jones won't include the latest Indy movie in its game plot, but perhaps we'll see different in LucasArts' new Indiana Jones game. The studio has announced that the game is now in production, but unfortunately won't be coming out this year. Check out the full article for more details.

Just how close will Rockstar take Grand Theft Auto 4 (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3) to reality? Apparently, the developers went as far as acquiring NaturalMotion's Euphoria technology to ensure drunkenness in the game is the most believable to date. Know what we're talking about by heading over to the full article.

NaturalMotion Ltd. has announced that it has shipped morpheme 1.3, a middleware solution for popular consoles such as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and the Wii This version of the application adds support for Epic's Unreal Engine 3, live debugging of remote runtime targets, implementation of Inverse Kinematics and more. If you want to find out what else this middleware solution can deliver, head on over to the full article for more information.

We all know there's a huge disparity between games based on movies and vice versa. A movie based on a game (or the other way round) inevitably falls short of expectations because it was only riding on the success of the first. In the last SIGGRAPH, this is the gap that LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) are aiming to bridge.

In a panel between the two companies, the discussion held shows that there's been huge progress in that area.

Film and game collaboration is a commitment they have stuck to for years and has increased in speed ever since the two have moved into the same building in San Francisco two years ago.

The panel in SIGGRAPH discussed a number of things, including a huge advance in the tech they use for the collaboration between film and games. The programs stem back from years ago and have evolved to cater to the collaborative process, so it's exciting to see how this would affect The Force Unleashed.

They also emphasized a move on simulation-based gameplay. They have expressed that a number of future games will be based on NaturalMotion's engine "Euphoria," the same engine that powers the Rockstar Games. They also demonstrated Pixelux, a program that simulates the manipulation of objects according to the material it's made of, allowing for 3D effects even more faithful to its real-world counterpart.

We can expect a lot more from the collaboration of these two giants. We should see more solid proof of their progress once Star Wars: Force Unleashed (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PS2, DS) comes out so watch out for that one.

Lucas Arts turned up the heat during this year's E3 by unleashing the latest trailer of the next highly anticipated Force-using, butt-whooping, lightsaber wielding game in the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is, by the looks of it, going to be the most epic title released in that line to date.

Set in the time between Episodes III and IV, players take control of Darth Vader's secret apprentice and are let loose on the universe to wreak havoc with the force. Utilizing the Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) developed by Pixelux Entertainment and NaturalMotion Ltd.'s euphoria technology, this game promises some of the most realistic physics and biological responses found within a game.

With beautifully rendered and intricately detailed animations, an epic storyline approved by George Lucas himself, and some of the most realistic environmental details this side of Naboo, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will surely bring out the Sith in you. Watch the trailers and give in to the call of the dark side.

Perhaps one of the most overlooked details in the GTA IV trailers is the unbelievable realistic motion and animation it sported. And although the dynamics cannot be demonstrated by a recorded video strip, Rockstar Games has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV (for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) is already using Dynamic Motion Synthesis and (quite possibly) Digital Molecular Matter, features integrated into the euphoria engine.

Designed by NaturalMotion for LucasArts titles, euphoria is a next-generation solution for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC to address the monotony of "canned" animations and in-game element reactions. By eating a bit of your platform's processing power, euphoria will generate a unique animation on-the-fly guaranteeing a unique animation sequence even if the incident was repeated in exactly the same way. The additional processing power can simulate the human body and the nervous system.

Some speculation has also arisen that Grand Theft Auto IV is the first title to sport the euphoria engine, despite the fact that LucasArts has previously made known the engine's exclusivity to their published titles. NaturalMotion still confirms euphoria to be integrated to The Force Unleashed, a next-gen Star Wars title by LucasArts to come 2008.

Activision reveals a first look at Star Wars: The Force Unleashed to IGN and we're happy to share the meaty details to be had, after having been fed snippets about this latest Star Wars title. As we all know by now, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed time line happens between Star Wars Episode III and IV, with Darth Vader now training an apprentice he plots to use to destroy the Emperor. The player takes on the role of this said apprentice.

The project leader of The Force Unleashed, Hayden Blackman claims that the team has to work closely with George Lucas, to keep up with the image of the game as "the next big thing". To keep up with the theme of The Force Unleashed, Blackman explains:

The experience is all about 'The Force unleashed'. What does this mean? It's not just about using Force Push to knock over a Stormtrooper or a couple of droids. It's about hitting that Stormtrooper like he's been hit by a cannonball - sending him backwards and thrashing through columns and breaking glass and denting metal.

More about Star Wars: Force Unleashed after the jump!

 

We've previously reported on the NaturalMotion's Morpheme Animation Package for the PS3, 360, and PC. Well, here's a little more on NaturalMotion's animation package that's supposedly set to improve work-flow for next-generation game developers.

NaturalMotion has announced that it will demonstrate Morpheme publicly for the first time during the 2007 Game Developers Conference at booth number 118.

Anyhow, just in case you folks were to lazy to click on that link to the previous report, Morpheme consists of two components: Morpheme:run-time and Morpheme:connect. run-time, is a run-time engine optimized for Sony's PS3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and the PC, and ships with full source code. :connect, on the other hand, is the much touted 3D authoring application, that will streamline production work of videogame animators.

Morpheme is designed to seamlessly integrate with other 3D middleware technologies, and is even set to complement NaturalMotion's Euphoria Engine - which Rockstar loves oh so much, by the way.

Morpheme, Euphoria, Endorphin - is it just us, or does NaturalMotion have a habit?