14 DAY TRIAL // Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was finally revealed to the world earlier this month and now developer Treyarch has started talking about its technical features and how it still uses the same Call of Duty engine made back in 2005, but with some major improvements to graphics and lighting.
Activision impressed quite a lot of Call of Duty fans at the beginning of the month when it unveiled the first details and the first gameplay video of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which, despite still looking similar to previous games in the series, boasted quite a lot of new visual effects.
As such, many people have started asking Treyarch if it’s using a new graphics engine for Black Ops II.
In order to clear things up, the studio’s head, Mark Lamia, discussed the game’s engine with Dan Amrich and revealed that it’s the same basic engine that powered Call of Duty games since the first Modern Warfare.
“People always ask me, “Is this a new engine?” I liken it to people who live in an older house that has been remodeled. Just because you’re remodeling the house and it will look new or it will have a new kitchen, you don’t tear out the foundation, or break out some of the framing. There’s a lot of good still in that foundation that you wouldn’t get rid of, and we don’t. We look to advance in the areas that support our game design,” Lamia said.
“Engines, each time they get touched, they change. The creators alter them; they don’t modify what they don’t need to, and then they alter what they need to. You can’t make a competitive product if you’re not upgrading that engine along the way.”
Despite using the same basic engine, the Treyarch boss emphasized the fact that two major areas, graphics and lighting, have been overhauled, so players are in for a different kind of visual experience.
“Two areas we did focus on for this game were the graphics and the lighting — a pretty significant amount of work is going into that,” Lamia added. “I think what people are asking for is for us to push. They want us to make a better-looking game; they want things. I don’t think those are things people can’t ask for.”
“We asked ourselves that very same question — we wanted to advance the graphics. I think the questions are valid. The answer may not need to be an entirely new engine, but you might need to do an entire overhaul of your entire lighting system. The trick is, we’re not willing to do that if we can’t keep it running at 60 frames per second — but we did that this time. So this is the Black Ops II engine.”
Do you agree with Treyarch’s philosophy of improving upon the Call of Duty engine instead of completely reworking it?