Game engine developed by Infinity Ward
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]
History [ edit ]
IW 2.0 to IW 3.0 [ edit ]
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]
IW 4.0 to IW 5.0 [ edit ]
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]
IW 6.0 to IW 7.0 [ 🧾 edit ]
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]
IW 8.0 to IW 9.0 [ edit ]
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
(2024) 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 2024.[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
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 (2024) was developed on a highly upgraded version 🧾 of the
engine first used in 2024'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
(2024) was also planned to use this engine and be 🧾 integrated into the Call of Duty HQ
launcher.[39]
Sledgehammer Games engine [ edit ]
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.[40] Majority of the engine 🧾 in Advanced Warfare had
been built from the ground up.[41][42] Sledgehammer Games incorporated brand new
animation, physics, rendering, lighting, motion 🧾 capture and facial animation
systems.[43][44][45] The developers reworked the audio engine which had also been built
from the ground up.[46] 🧾 According to Sledgehammer Games audio director Don Veca, the
team was able to incorporate an audio intelligence system to the 🧾 game.[47][48][49]
Call
of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign
Remastered were developed on an advanced 🧾 version of this engine with modifications from
Raven Software and Beenox, respectively.[50][51] Raven Software and Beenox introduced
enhancements to the 🧾 original games including new models and animations as well as
rebuilt textures.[52][53] Call of Duty: WWII uses an improved version 🧾 of Sledgehammer
Games' in-house custom engine from Advanced Warfare.[54] Sledgehammer Games eventually
replaced this engine with IW 8.0 for their 🧾 next game, Call of Duty: Vanguard, in
2024.[55][56]
Games using IW engine [ edit ]
