Infinity Ward animation lead Zack Volker recently spoke to Official PlayStation Magazine about the specifics of the new engine powering Call of Duty: Ghosts, which will be releasing for the current and next generation of consoles.
Despite not talking about the gameplay elements too much aside from the new mantling and sliding systems, a few little tidbits have been revealed about the engine.
The team at Infinity Ward never felt that technology itself has limited them. Very rarely have they required more horsepower but in this case, they want to increase the level of immersion. The new engine also allows them to include animal characters – as can be seen with the new dog companion – increase fidelity of particles, lighting quality and number of polygons on screen to aid in immersion.
However, as Volker reiterates, no matter what you buy the game on – next gen hardware or current gen machines – you will get the same gameplay experience. This is so no one feel short-changed from not having the best-looking versions. It is a given though that the current gen versions won’t be as visually impressive as the PS4 or Xbox One versions.
As for developing a new engine, it’s something that came out of necessity. Volker states that creating a new engine from the ground up is impossible, and would reportedly require an army of 200 engineers (or exactly one John Carmack and lots of pizza).
Since the current engine couldn’t handle all the available bandwidth, it is observed as to what elements are significant and encompassing of the engine and its visual quality, and whether upgrading them will lead to any significant advancements.
The original engine was built on the Quake engine, and has since seen many adjustments with each subsequent sequel, whenever talk goes on about upgrading certain systems in the engine, it’s always done from a gameplay perspective. If it doesn’t add to the gameplay experience, then certain aspects aren’t included in the engine.
So if your question is, “How are fish swimming away adding to the gameplay”, then the answer is immersion. For this experience, Infinity Ward deemed it necessary for increasing the immersiveness of the game.
We’ll see how well that adds to the experience when Call of Duty: Ghosts releases on November 5th worldwide for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Wii U, PC and Xbox One.
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