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| IW | |
|---|---|
The lighting, shadow, and texture streaming of the engine's 4.0 version can be seen in this screenshot, taken from the multiplayer mode ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. | |
| Developer | Infinity Ward |
| Initial release | October 2005; 20 years ago (2005-10) |
| Stable release | IW 9.0 (Black Ops 7) |
| Written in | C,C++,Python |
| Platform | |
| License | Proprietary |
TheIW engine is agame engine created and developed byInfinity Ward, with the current iteration developed in its studio inKraków, Poland for theCall of Duty series.[1] The engine was originally based onid Tech 3 byid Software withRitual Entertainment's ÜberTools enhancements. Aside from Infinity Ward, the engine is also used by otherActivision studios working on the series, including primary lead developersTreyarch andSledgehammer Games, and support studios likeBeenox,High Moon Studios, andRaven Software.[2][3][4]
The engine has been distinct from theid Tech 3 engine on which it is based sinceCall of Duty 2 in 2005. The engine's name was not publicized untilIGN was told at theE3 2009 by the studio thatCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) would run on the "IW 4.0 engine".[5] Development of the engine and theCall 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 forCall of Duty: World at War.[6] Improvements were made to the physics model anddismemberment was added. Environments also featured moredestructibility 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.[7] Quantum of Solace on the PlayStation 2 did not use the IW Engine as the PS2 version is a separate game developed byEurocom.
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 60frames 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.[8] 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 includedHDR lighting, bounce lighting,self-shadowing, intersecting shadows and various other improvements.Call of Duty: Black Ops II took advantage ofDirectX 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.[9]
Call of Duty: Ghosts features an upgraded version of the IW 5.0 seen inCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011). It was unknown whether or not any engine features have been taken fromCall 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.[10] 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.[11] 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".[12][13]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.[14]
Call of Duty: Black Ops III used a highly upgraded version of the engine used inBlack Ops II for the PS4/Xbox One/PC/macOS version.[15][16]Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's IW 7.0 featuredweightlessness system,game physics improvement, improvedAI and improvednon-player characters behaviors.[17] ForCall of Duty: Black Ops 4, Treyarch heavily modified the engine used inBlack Ops III to support up to 100 players, and introduced a new 'Super Terrain' system.[18][19]
WithCall of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) andCall of Duty: Warzone, Infinity Ward employed their Poland studio to rebuild the engine completely.[20][21] Dubbed IW 8.0,[22] the engine was created within five years,[23] and featured substantial upgrades such as spectral rendering,volumetric lighting and support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing on the PC version.[24][25][26] Support forNvidia'sDeep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) was added later in April 2021.[27][28][29] Activision stated that the new engine was also shared across the board for all Call of Duty developers to use in future titles and is next-generation ready.[30][31][32]Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is an exception (compared toBlack Ops 6), utilizing a highly modified version of theBlack Ops III and4 engine.[33]Call of Duty: Vanguard was powered by the same engine used inModern Warfare andWarzone with enhancements from developer Sledgehammer Games.[34][35]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) was developed on a highly upgraded version of the engine first used in 2019'sModern Warfare.[36][37][38] Dubbed IW 9.0,[39] 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,[40][41][42] allowing them to create a single cross-game launcher, known asCall of Duty HQ, which was later known as theCall of Duty launcher.[43]Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) also used this engine and was integrated into theCall of Duty launcher.[44]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.[45][46]Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was mostly unchanged with its engine compared to the previous entry, being based on theBlack Ops 6 branch of IW 9.0. However, it did introduce new movement options, primarily wall jumping. Tactical sprint was also locked behind a perk instead of being a normal game mechanic inBlack Ops 7.Black Ops 7 also contains the same Omnimovement systems seen inBlack Ops 6.[47]
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare featured Sledgehammer Games' heavily modified in-house branch of the IW engine, with only a few lines of legacy code remaining.[48] The majority of the engine inAdvanced Warfare had been rewritten.[49][50] Sledgehammer Games incorporated brand new animation, physics, rendering, lighting, motion capture and facial animation systems.[51][52][53] The developers reworked the audio engine which had also been built from the ground up.[54][55] According to Sledgehammer Games audio director Don Veca, the team was able to integrate an audio intelligence system to the game.[56][57][58]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered was confirmed to have been developed on an advanced version of this engine with modifications fromBeenox.[59] Beenox introduced enhancements to the original game including new models and animations as well as rebuilt textures.[60]Call of Duty: WWII uses an improved version of Sledgehammer Games' in-house engine fromAdvanced Warfare.[61] Sledgehammer Games eventually replaced this engine with IW 8.0 for their next game,Call of Duty: Vanguard, in 2021.[62][63]
| Title | Version | Year | Notes | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty 2 | IW 2.0 | 2005 | Modified version ofid Tech 3 fromCall 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 ofCall of Duty 2's IW 2.0 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[7] | IW 3.0 | 2008 | Modified version ofCall 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 fromCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's IW 3.0 engine |
|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops[68] | IW 3.0 | 2010 | Call of Duty: World at War's IW 3.0 engine updated |
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3[70][71] | IW 5.0 (MW3 engine) | 2011 | Improved version ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's IW 4.0 engine |
|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II[72] | Black Ops II engine (Updated version of IW 3.0)[73] | 2012 | Call of Duty: Black Ops' IW 3.0 engine heavily modified |
|
| Call of Duty: Ghosts[75] | IW 6.0[10] | 2013 | Significantly upgraded version ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's engine (IW 5.0)[76] |
|
| Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | Sledgehammer Games engine | 2014 | Heavily modified and overhauled fromCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's IW 5.0 engine | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4/Xbox One/PC/macOS version)[90] | Black Ops III engine (derived from IW 3.0) | 2015 | Call of Duty: Black Ops II's updated IW 3.0 engine heavily modified[91] | |
| Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare | IW 7.0[94] | 2016 | Significantly upgraded fromCall of Duty: Ghosts' heavily modified engine (IW 6.0) and incorporating aspects of the engine overhaul for 2019'sCall of Duty: Modern Warfare[20] | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered | Modified IW (derived from Sledgehammer Games engine) | 2016 | Upgraded version ofCall of Duty: Advanced Warfare's engine with modifications fromRaven Software | |
| Call of Duty: WWII | Sledgehammer Games engine | 2017 | Improved version ofCall of Duty: Advanced Warfare's engine |
|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | Black Ops 4 engine (derived from IW 3.0) | 2018 | Updated fromCall of Duty: Black Ops III's engine |
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Call of Duty: Warzone | IW 8.0 (Rebuilt engine)[20] | 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 ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered's engine with modifications fromBeenox[59] |
|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | Black Ops Cold War engine[114] | 2020 | Upgraded version ofCall of Duty: Black Ops 4's engine (heavily modified IW 3.0) |
|
| Call of Duty: Vanguard | IW 8.0[120] | 2021 | Upgraded version ofCall 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 | IW 9.0[39] | 2022; 2023; 2024 | Highly upgraded version ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare's engine |
|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 | Upgraded IW 9.0 | 2024; 2025 | Upgraded version ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare II & III's engine |