14 DAY TRIAL // After emphasizing that the new Call of Duty: Ghosts shooter is running on a next-generation engine, Infinity Ward has admitted that the technology isn't an all-new one.
The team took the old technology powering the franchise and just improved various aspects and systems.
The Call of Duty series has always prided itself with a rock-solid 60fps framerate, even if it meant that its engine was based on the extremely old Quake 3 technology.
The developers of the Call of Duty games have emphasized time and time again that improvements are constantly being made to the engine and with the new Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward highlighted that it's powered by a new "next-generation engine."
[admark=1]Now, the studio's animation lead, Zach Volker, has admitted to OPM that Ghosts doesn't actually have an all-new engine, as Infinity Ward decided to upgrade core components in order to take advantage of the extra power in next-generation consoles like Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
"When we’re talking about a new engine we’re talking about upgrading significant systems within in that engine. We’re not talking about throwing it all away and saying we’re starting from the ground up. It comes down to the systems we’re augmenting and upgrading, and trying to decide what is the significance of this upgrade," he said.
"So there is certainly going to be remnants here and there of our pieces of our last engine, where it was appropriate when, you know what, this doesn’t need any changing. It’s good the way it is."
Volker emphasizes that, with Infinity Ward's current 2-year development cycle, creating an all-new engine would require a lot of time and a lot of engineering work.
"It’s a fine line when you define a new engine, and augmentations to an engine. What you want to be careful of is making too much of a distinction of a new engine. As we develop and we add features, at what point does it become a new engine? Because it’s impossible to develop a new engine from the ground up in a two year cycle. You would need an army of 200 engineers."
Volker also highlighted that, while the original technology dated back to Quake 3, there have been so many improvements that nothing is the same.
"The original engine years ago was built on Quake engine. We’ve done so many new engines and overhauls on top of that I’m not sure any of it still exists."
Infinity Ward has already compared visuals and character models from Call of Duty: Ghosts with ones from its previous game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.