Middle Ware

In the context of video games, Middle Ware is software that a game developer can add on to their game for certain features. Middleware developers help other developers by not having them "re-invent the wheel". Middleware can either come from a third party company, or developed in-house. Contrast to a complete Game Engine, which may comprise of almost everything in the game, or just the core components.


 * Physics
 * Havok
 * PhysX (ex- Novodex, from NVIDIA)
 * Eurphoria
 * Bullet
 * ODE (used in Call of Juarez)
 * Newton Game Dynamics
 * Tokamak
 * Video codecs
 * Bink/Smacker
 * Sofdec
 * Other
 * SpeedTree: For when you really need a tree, and fast.
 * FMOD: Handles audio playback
 * Scaleform: Used for HUDs and menus.
 * OGRE: 3D engine, already compatible (see addons) with several physics engines.
 * The Yake Engine: cross-platform game engine / application framework.