Divinity Engine

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Divinity Engine is a game engine developed by Larian Studios. [1] It has undergone several iterations, with the latest version being Divinity Engine 4.0 developed for Baldur's Gate 3 . [2]

Divinity Engine 2 toolkit used in Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity engine 2 editor.png
Divinity Engine 2 toolkit used in Divinity: Original Sin 2

History

Larian began development of Divinity Engine 1 for its game Divinity: Original Sin on a budget of only a few million dollars. [1] Larian included a copy of the Divinity 1.0 Engine with Divinity: Original Sin for some Kickstarter backers, allowing them to make custom mods. [1] To showcase the abilities of the engine, Larian included a "cow simulator" game made with the Divinity Engine Toolkit in its early access release. [3] [4]

Divinity Engine 2 was developed for Divinity: Original Sin II . [5] Divinity Engine 2, along with all the in-house tools Larian developed such as for making levels, was included in the game files as "DivinityEngine2.exe". [5] [6] It had a focus of improving existing tools from Divinity Engine 1 as well as creating new tools and improving documentation. [5] The engine has also been referred to as "Divinity Engine 3.0." [7]

Divinity Engine 4.0 was developed for Baldur's Gate 3 . [2] [8] A major focus for the new iteration was better support for cinematics. [9] It included a Vulkan backend which was used as an option in Baldur's Gate 3 alongside the DirectX 11 backend. [10] [2] The modding tools initially included with Baldur's Gate 3 were not as extensive as those included in previous Larian games. [11] In September 2024, an update for Baldur's Gate 3 was shipped that included essentially a modified version a Divinity Engine 4.0 but with many of the features disabled by default, including the level editor, although there are mods that can enable it. [12] Larian developers attributed part of the game's success with their continued use of Divinity Engine as opposed to using a commercial engine such as Unreal Engine, having used and worked on the engine since 2010 while with commercial engines "the engine's roadmap is not necessarily your roadmap". [13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mozuch, Mo (30 June 2024). "10 Years Ago, an Ambitious RPG Paved the Way for 2023's Game of the Year". Inverse.
  2. 1 2 3 Lewis, James (5 August 2023). "Baldur's Gate 3 | What Engine Does it Run on?". Hardcore Gamer.
  3. ↑ Purchese, Robert (27 June 2014). "Cow Simulator 2014 built for Divinity: Original Sin". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  4. ↑ O'Connor, Alice (23 June 2014). "Nude Skins Ahoy! Divinity Original Sin Editor Due This Week". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 Cox, Matt (6 October 2017). "Divinity: Original Sin 2 dev on mod tools, accessibility and favourite mods". Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
  6. ↑ Wilde, Tyler (4 October 2017). "How to set up Divinity: Original Sin 2's mod tools". PC Gamer. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  7. ↑ Palumbo, Alessio (22 August 2016). "Divinity: Original Sin 2 Available on Steam Early Access from September 15th". Wccftech.
  8. ↑ "Support - Larian Studios | General Information". larian.com.
  9. ↑ Dealessandri, Marie (27 February 2020). "Larian plays dungeon master for a new era of Baldur's Gate". GamesIndustry.biz.
  10. ↑ "Support - Larian Studios | What is Vulkan? What is the difference between Vulkan and DX11". larian.com.
  11. ↑ Wilde, Tyler; Litchfield, Ted (22 March 2024). "Baldur's Gate 3 mod tools won't be as extensive as Divinity's: 'We're not a tools company,' says Swen Vincke". PC Gamer.
  12. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (8 September 2024). "It only took two days for someone to unlock a developer mode in Baldur's Gate 3's modding tools, opening up the possibility of custom levels and campaigns". PC Gamer.
  13. ↑ Tapsell, Chris (28 March 2024). "The big Larian interview: Swen Vincke on industry woes, optimism, and life after Baldur's Gate 3". Eurogamer.net.
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