Novint Software
3D touch software has been a primary focus of Novint since its inception, and Novint has had more focus historically on software than hardware. Novint's software was created to give users an accurate sense of touch in computing.
Novint creates software in several different categories. It has developed a low level driver software called HDAL, which stands for Haptic Device Abstraction Layer. HDAL handles the low level communications between the Falcon and the computer. Novint has created a software layer above HDAL, called HFX (i.e. Haptics Effects), which is used for creating force effects in games. Novint has developed a variety of applications for its professional projects. Novint has also published a number of video games, some of which were developed by Novint directly and some of which were existing games in which Novint added support for the Falcon. An independent group has also developed an open source driver library for the Falcon.
The Falcon is packaged with 3 applications; a tutorial, a game called Newton's Monkey Business, and the Feelin It Sports Pack. The tutorial allows users to feel a virtual sphere that can have a variety of textures applied to it. For instance, choosing an ice texture presents a hard, slippery surface to interact with, while sandpaper feels rough, and molasses presents a viscous texture the 3D cursor can move through. The tutorial also shows the feeling of dynamics through a ball attached to a rubber band which can be swung around, and a simulation of catching a baseball with a catcher's mitt. Finally the tutorial allows a user to shoot a virtual slingshot which can be used to shoot cans off a fence. Newton's Monkey Business contains 24 mini games which contains a variety of mini-games showing many different types of game interactions. The Feelin It sports pack has several sports games, including bowling, a home run derby, a three point shootout, table tennis, and Feelin It Golf.
One of Novint's earliest games was a free download called Haptics Life 2, a Half-Life 2 mod in which the mouse controls have been replaced with Falcon controls and 3D Force Feedback was incorporated. As a result, weapons recoils, the weight of carried objects, damage dealt to the character, and character and vehicle accelerations are all conveyed by the Falcon to the player. Each gun in the game has a different, tangible recoil.
Novint has developed a variety of additional games across a wide variety of genres. As of 2009, Novint had published over 50 titles that work with the Falcon. A majority of Novint's game library is based on existing games that Novint added touch to.
Novint is currently releasing 2 types of game support, FalconHD and F-Gen. FalconHD games are games in which Novint has licensed source code access for a game, and integrates forces directly into the game. F-Gen games utilize Novint's F-Gen application to add controls and forces into games. Mods, or modifications to games, will continue to be developed by Novint and its community, but mods will generally become classified through F-Gen support.
F-Gen was developed to create a larger number of supported games and applications for the Novint Falcon with the understanding that the control and forces for many interactions in games/apps could be implemented without source code access. Novint therefore developed a system, F-Gen, where its community and users themselves could add support for games and applications, share their work, and get more game and application support more quickly, that is more robust. F-Gen was designed to be a community tool. It includes a strong scripting language and the ability to add F-Gen 'Tools', which can add functionality to F-Gen.
The F-Gen drivers emulate a mouse, and are customizeable, making the Falcon work with any PC game or any PC application. Users can adjust the movement scales for the Falcon's control, and save settings for various games. Grip buttons can be mapped to different controls in games. Novint is developing a gesture recognition system, called the Gesture Cube or G-Cube, in which a user can easily access 36 simple to remember gestures to activate any key press or macro. A movement such as moving right then moving forward, will be able to turn on a flashlight (along with haptic cues to make the movements easy to control), while down-down could make the character crouch. The G-Cube will be able to be used universally in other applications, such as mapping forward-up to 'cut' while forward-down could be mapped to 'paste'.
Beyond the FalconHD titles, there are 3 levels of game support for F-Gen. They are F-Gen Bronze, F-Gen Silver, and F-Gen Gold. F-Gen Bronze will just be basic mouse support with customized inputs. F-Gen Silver will have basic forces. F-Gen Gold will have strong force feedback support.
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