The lighting, shadow, and texture streaming of the engine's 4.0 version can be seen in this screenshot, taken from the multiplayer mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 . | |
Developer(s) | Infinity Ward |
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Initial release | October 2005 |
Stable release | IW 9.0 ( Modern Warfare III ) |
Written in | C, C++, Python |
Platform | |
License | Proprietary |
The IW engine is a game engine created and developed by Infinity Ward for the Call of Duty series. The engine was originally based on id Tech 3. Aside from Infinity Ward, the engine is also used by other Activision studios working on the series, including primary lead developers Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, and support studios like Beenox, High Moon Studios, and Raven Software. [1] [2] [3]
The engine has been distinct from the id Tech 3 engine on which it is based since Call of Duty 2 in 2005. The engine's name was not publicized until IGN was told at the E3 2009 by the studio that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) would run on the "IW 4.0 engine". [4] Development of the engine and the Call of Duty games has resulted in the inclusion of advanced graphical features while maintaining an average of 60 frames per second on the consoles and PC.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released using version 3.0 of the engine. This game included features such as bullet penetration, improved AI, lighting engine upgrades, better explosions, particle system enhancements and many more improvements. Treyarch began using an enhanced version of the IW 3.0 engine for Call of Duty: World at War . [5] Improvements were made to the physics model and dismemberment was added. Environments also featured more destructibility and could be set alight using a flamethrower. The flamethrower featured propagating fire and it was able to burn skin and clothes realistically. Treyarch modified the engine for their James Bond title, 007: Quantum of Solace . [6]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) was released using the IW 4.0 engine, the only game to do so. The IW 4.0 engine featured texture streaming technology to create much higher environmental detail without sacrificing performance. Call of Duty: Black Ops was not based on IW 4.0; rather, Treyarch further enhanced the version of IW 3.0 they had used in their previous game. This version of the engine also featured streaming technology, lighting enhancements, and support for 3D imaging. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) utilizes an improved version of the IW 4.0 engine. Improvements on the engine allowed better streaming technology which allowed larger regions for the game while running at a minimum of 60 frames per second. Further improvements to the audio and lighting engines were made in this version.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II was developed using a further iteration of the IW engine. [7] Texture blending was improved due to a new technology called "reveal mapping" which compared tones between two textures and then blends them together. Also, there were upgrades to the lighting engine which included HDR lighting, bounce lighting, self-shadowing, intersecting shadows and various other improvements. Call of Duty: Black Ops II took advantage of DirectX 11 video cards on the Windows version of the game. The "zombie" mode was moved to the multiplayer portion of the engine which will allow for much more variety within this part of the game. [8]
Call of Duty: Ghosts features an upgraded version of the IW 5.0 seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) . It was unknown whether or not any engine features have been taken from Call of Duty: Black Ops II . Since the main developer was Infinity Ward they returned to their original engine naming system and called that iteration IW 6.0. [9] IW 6.0 was compatible with systems such as Xbox One and PlayStation 4 so polygon counts, texture detail and overall graphical fidelity had increased. IW 6.0 was also compatible with Microsoft Windows, Wii U, PS3 and Xbox 360. The IW 6.0 engine featured technology from Pixar, SubD, which increased the level of detail of models as one got closer to them. [10] Mark Rubin said about the HDR lighting "We used to paint it in and cover up the cracks, but now it's all real-time". [11] [12] Ghosts used Iris Adjust tech which allowed the player to experience from a person's point of view how their eyes would react to changes in lighting conditions realistically. Other features included new animation systems, fluid dynamics, interactive smoke, displacement mapping and dynamic multiplayer maps. [13]
Call of Duty: Black Ops III used a highly upgraded version of the engine used in Black Ops II for the PS4/Xbox One/PC/macOS version. [14] [15] Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare 's IW 7.0 featured weightlessness system, game physics improvement, improved AI and improved non-player characters behaviors. [16] For Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 , Treyarch heavily modified the engine used in Black Ops III to support up to 100 players, and introduced a new 'Super Terrain' system. [17] [18]
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Call of Duty: Warzone , Infinity Ward employed their Poland studio to rebuild the engine completely. [19] [20] Dubbed IW 8.0, the engine was created within five years, and featured substantial upgrades such as spectral rendering, volumetric lighting and support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing on the PC version. [21] [22] [23] Support for Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) was added later in April 2021. [24] [25] [26] Activision stated that the new engine was also shared across the board for all Call of Duty developers to use in future titles. [27] Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War does not use this new engine, but instead uses a highly modified version of the Black Ops III and 4 engine. [28] Call of Duty: Vanguard was powered by the same engine used in Modern Warfare and Warzone with enhancements from developer Sledgehammer Games. [29] [30]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) was developed on a highly upgraded version of the engine first used in 2019's Modern Warfare. [31] [32] [33] Dubbed IW 9.0, [34] the engine was co-developed by Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games, and was planned to be used in future installments of the series in a unified effort to ensure that every studio was working with the same tools, [35] [36] [37] allowing them to create a single cross-game launcher, known as Call of Duty HQ. [38] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) was also planned to use this engine and be integrated into the Call of Duty HQ launcher. [39] Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 introduces a new movement system called Omnimovement which lets players sprint, dive, and slide in any direction, combined with the ability to rotate 360 degrees while prone. [40]
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare featured Sledgehammer Games' in-house custom engine with only a few lines of legacy code remaining from the IW engine. [41] Majority of the engine in Advanced Warfare had been built from the ground up. [42] [43] Sledgehammer Games incorporated brand new animation, physics, rendering, lighting, motion capture and facial animation systems. [44] [45] [46] The developers reworked the audio engine which had also been built from the ground up. [47] According to Sledgehammer Games audio director Don Veca, the team was able to integrate an audio intelligence system to the game. [48] [49] [50]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered was confirmed to have been developed on an advanced version of this engine with modifications from Beenox. [51] Beenox introduced enhancements to the original game including new models and animations as well as rebuilt textures. [52] Call of Duty: WWII uses an improved version of Sledgehammer Games' in-house custom engine from Advanced Warfare. [53] Sledgehammer Games eventually replaced this engine with IW 8.0 for their next game, Call of Duty: Vanguard , in 2021. [54] [55]
Title | Version | Year | Notes | Features |
---|---|---|---|---|
Call of Duty 2 | IW 1.0 | 2005 | Modified version of id Tech 3 from Call of Duty (Call of Duty: Classic on PS3/Xbox 360) |
|
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Reflex Edition | IW 3.0 | 2007 2009 | Highly upgraded version of Call of Duty 2's IW 1.0 engine |
|
Call of Duty: World at War | IW 3.0 | 2008 | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's IW 3.0 engine updated |
|
007: Quantum of Solace [6] | IW 3.0 | 2008 | Modified version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's IW 3.0 engine |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Call of Duty Online | IW 4.0 | 2009; 2015 | Upgraded from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's IW 3.0 engine |
|
Call of Duty: Black Ops [60] | IW 3.0 | 2010 | Call of Duty: World at War's IW 3.0 engine updated |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 [62] [63] | IW 5.0 (MW3 engine) | 2011 | Improved version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's IW 4.0 engine |
|
Call of Duty: Black Ops II [64] | Black Ops II engine (Updated version of IW 3.0) [65] | 2012 | Call of Duty: Black Ops' IW 3.0 engine heavily modified |
|
Call of Duty: Ghosts [67] | IW 6.0 [9] | 2013 | Significantly upgraded version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's engine (IW 5.0) [68] |
|
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | Sledgehammer Games engine | 2014 | Heavily modified and overhauled from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's IW 5.0 engine | |
Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4/Xbox One/PC/macOS version) [82] | Black Ops III engine (derived from IW 3.0) | 2015 | Call of Duty: Black Ops II's updated IW 3.0 engine heavily modified [83] | |
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare | IW 7.0 [86] | 2016 | Significantly upgraded from Call of Duty: Ghosts' heavily modified engine (IW 6.0) and incorporating aspects of the engine overhaul for 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [19] |
|
Call of Duty: WWII | Sledgehammer Games engine | 2017 | Improved version of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's engine |
|
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | Black Ops 4 engine (derived from IW 3.0) | 2018 | Updated from Call of Duty: Black Ops III's engine |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Call of Duty: Warzone | IW 8.0 (Rebuilt engine) [19] | 2019; 2020 | Heavily rebuilt and overhauled version of IW engine with much improved lighting, rendering, physics, textures, audio, etc. |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered | Modified IW (derived from Sledgehammer Games engine) | 2020 | Upgraded version of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's engine with modifications from Beenox [51] |
|
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | Black Ops Cold War engine [104] | 2020 | Upgraded version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's engine (heavily modified IW 3.0) |
|
Call of Duty: Vanguard | IW 8.0 [110] | 2021 | Upgraded version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's engine |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | IW 9.0 [34] | 2022; 2023; 2024 | Highly upgraded version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's engine |
|
Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Middleton, Wisconsin, and part of Activision. Founded in May 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company is most known for the dark fantasy franchise Heretic/Hexen, the first two Soldier of Fortune games, as well as licensed titles based in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series and Marvel Comics's X-Men characters, including 2006's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Since 2011, Raven has been working on multiple Call of Duty games as both lead and support developer.
Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game Call of Duty, along with seven other installments in the Call of Duty series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward in 2002 after working at 2015, Inc. previously. All of the 22 original team members of Infinity Ward came from the team that had worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault while at 2015, Inc. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its early days, buying up 30 percent of the company, before eventually fully acquiring them. The studio's first game, World War II shooter Call of Duty, was released on the PC in 2003. The day after the game was released, Activision bought the rest of Infinity Ward, signing employees to long-term contracts. Infinity Ward went on to make Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the Modern Warfare reboot, and its sequel.
Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the studio worked with Playmates Toys, where they worked on the game Skeleton Warriors, which was based on a animated television series of the same name. Throughout 1996, the studio grew, and worked on projects with Crystal Dynamics and Sony Computer Entertainment, but due to internal conflicts, they were cancelled.
Treyarch Corporation is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it was acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio is known for its work for the Call of Duty series, which it develops alongside Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software.
Call of Duty is a military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, was released on November 10, 2023. The upcoming title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, is scheduled to be released on October 25, 2024.
Beenox Inc. is a Canadian video game developer established in 2000 in Quebec City. The studio became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision on May 25, 2005.
Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at Visceral Games and are responsible for the creation of Dead Space. The company is based in Foster City, California. The studio has developed and co-developed various video games in the Call of Duty series. The company is owned by Activision.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a 2011 first-person shooter video game, jointly developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. The game was released worldwide in November 8 2011 for Microsoft Windows, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and OS X. It is the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), serving as the third and final installment in the original Modern Warfare trilogy and the eighth Call of Duty installment overall. A separate version for the Nintendo DS was developed by n-Space, while Treyarch developed the game's Wii port. In Japan, Square Enix published the game with a separate subtitled and dubbed version.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a 2014 first-person shooter video game published by Activision. The eleventh major installment in the Call of Duty series, the game was developed by Sledgehammer Games for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One, while High Moon Studios developed the versions released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and Raven Software developed the game's multiplayer and the Exo-Zombies mode.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a 2018 first-person shooter game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is the fifteenth installment of the Call of Duty series and the fifth entry in the Black Ops sub-series, following Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015). The game was released on October 12, 2018, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a 2019 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. Serving as the sixteenth overall installment in the Call of Duty series, as well as a reboot of the Modern Warfare sub-series, it was released on October 25, 2019, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Call of Duty: Warzone was a 2020 free-to-play battle royale first-person shooter game developed by Raven Software and Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It was released on March 10, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One as part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and was subsequently connected to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020) and Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021), but did not require purchase of any of the aforementioned titles. Warzone allowed online multiplayer combat among 150 players and featured both cross-platform play and cross-platform progression between the three aforementioned titles.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a 2020 first-person shooter game co-developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision. It is the seventeenth installment of the Call of Duty series and is the sixth entry in the Black Ops sub-series, following Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018). The game was released on November 13, 2020, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
The Call of Duty Endowment (C.O.D.E.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation co-created by Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, and General James L. Jones, Jr., a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general, to help U.S., and later, U.K. military veterans find high-quality careers. The Endowment funds non-profit organizations that help former service members transition to high quality civilian careers after their military service and raises awareness of the value veterans bring to the workplace. The name of the Endowment is a reference to the video game series Call of Duty.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It was released on November 5 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It serves as the 18th installment in the overall Call of Duty series. Vanguard establishes a storyline featuring the birth of the special forces to face an emerging threat at the end of the war during various theatres of World War II.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is a 2022 first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the nineteenth installment of the Call of Duty series, serving as a sequel to the 2019 reboot of the Modern Warfare sub-series. The game was released on October 28, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is a 2023 first-person shooter game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It is the twentieth installment of the Call of Duty series and is the third entry in the rebooted Modern Warfare sub-series, following Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022). The game was released on November 10, 2023, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
David Vonderhaar is an American video game developer and game designer. He is best known for his work on the Call of Duty Black Ops franchise.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is an upcoming first-person shooter game co-developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision. It will be the twenty-first installment of the Call of Duty series and the seventh entry in the Black Ops sub-series, following Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020). The game is scheduled for release on October 25, 2024, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and is set to be available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers on release day.