Developer: The Call Of Duty Engine is a "Porsche"

[The Wooster]

Developer: The Call Of Duty Engine is a "Porsche"

Modern Warfare 3 co-developer Sledgehammer Games has sent forth a champion to defend the aging Call of Duty game engine's honor.

Now to be fair, the IW engine is getting a bit long in the tooth. Originally a heavily modified Quake III engine (yes, that's the correct number of Is there) licensed from id Tech, the little-engine-that-could has been used for every Call of Duty title since 2005's Call of Duty 2. Of course, there's been a lot of changes to the engine since shooting Germans went out of fashion. The Quake III code is long gone, and there's been a host of modern features added over the years, but the engine is still over half a decade old. Will that be an issue for the upcoming Modern Warfare 3? Not according to Sledgehammer games general manager Glen Schofield, who vigorously defended the engine in an interview with with CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/322694/interviewsmodern-warfare-3-our-engine-is-a-porsche-copy-and-paste-critics-have-no-idea/].

"Well I'll tell you one thing, I've worked on a lot of engines over my lifetime and spent a lot of time putting graphics in to them and this thing is Porsche," he said. "And what I mean by that is that it is stream-lined, everything in it is perfectly freaking clean. You can tell it's been worked on for years. It's easy to upgrade.

"We worked with engines before that are like f***ing spaghetti. You can't work on a part and put it back in without messing with everything else."

He went on to add that anyone who doesn't see the difference between Modern Warfare 3's and its predecessor has "no idea." "There is so much that we've added, so when someone says 'cut and paste', I don't even want to talk to them because they don't know," he said. "They just don't know."

"And then on top of that you have what we added to the audio engine. Then there's a lot of stuff under the hood," he added. "People don't think about this but when you make your tools better and you can iterate twice as many times, you make the game better."

We'll find out if the IW engine can cut it when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is released on the 8th of November on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.


Permalink

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Inb4 obligatory CoD hate. Time to live up to my title!

OT: I agree that many people see Modern Warfare 3 and say it looks the exact same to MW2. But most of them dont think about all the little changes to how the game feels and sounds, they just see the graphics and say that its the same game because of it.

Must say that the "They just dont know" bit sounds like he's the character in a monster movie who goes to the police about the monster. I also read that bit in a very melancholy and weepy voice in my head.

 

[Sassafrass]

Well, Porsche are fairly well known for making cars that look identical to the ones that came before it, so it's a pretty fair comparison I think.

...What?

Still, small jab at Porsche and MW's engine aside, as long as it works and I can make out who or what I'm trying to shoot to death/shoot down, I see no reason to change it just yet.

 

[llafnwod]

He went on to add that anyone who doesn't see the difference between Modern Warfare 3's and its predecessor has "no idea." "There is so much that we've added, so when someone says 'cut and paste', I don't even want to talk to them because they don't know," he said. "They just don't know."

Don't you miss the days when professionals, you know, TRIED to act professional?

 

[wooty]

The CoD engine is a Porsche? So.....its a mid-range fairly cheap little runner that looks an awful lot flashier than it is?

Dont get me wrong, I ejnjoy playing CoD as much as the next guy, but.....I cant see this analogy working too well.





[Edited, to stem the innevitable stream of retalliation quotes from over-sensitive members.]

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

I dunno, I'm not one to get hung up on engines and graphics and what not, but it's using old technology in places.

To compare, the BF3 engine, Frostbite 2 (I think)is brand new tech and has been redesigned for the game.

But, as they say, the proof is in the pudding =)

 

[maturin]

Yeah, developing from legacy codes makes a lot of good business sense and does not mean the game will suffer. Valve is proof of this, even if Call of Duty is just proof that you don't need a new engine to make essentially the same game. New engine whoring is one of the irritating tendencies of PC gamers.

 

[BgRdMchne]

Easier to work on =/= performance automobile.

This analogy falls flat. I thought computer game guys were good at car analogies.

 

[Pandaman1911]

Give me enough changes to gameplay and content, and I don't give a damn what the game looks like.

 

[OverweightWhale]

"Well I'll tell you one thing, I've worked on a lot of engines over my lifetime and spent a lot of time putting graphics in to them and this thing is Porsche," he said. "And what I mean by that is that it is stream-lined, everything in it is perfectly freaking clean. You can tell it's been worked on for years. It's easy to upgrade.

I'm a bit confused. If it's so easy to upgrade then why haven't we seen any significant changes to it over the past couple of years?

 

[ValiskofDarknes]

In terms of quality, if the Call of Duty engine is a Porsche, what does that make the Frostbite 2 engine? A Lamborghini made of solid gold with diamond encrusted wheels?

Joking aside, I just don't see how this is a good comparison at all. I mean, I know it's this guy's job to promote and defend his product but the Call of Duty engine is kind of... dated. Aside from very small bumps in visuals, it hasn't really changed at all since 2007.

 

[Delusibeta]

The Call of Duty engine is a Porsche: a 1950s 356 with its roof missing. Hell, they still have "Powered by id Tech" on the box, so there must be some decade-old code in there.

 

[chadachada123]

The engine is clean, that's cool and all, but that's only looking at it from the developer perspective. That really only affects the user when determining patch fix releases. Even then, there are still multiplayer-destroying glitches in all of the other CoD games, making your assertion that the engine is clean completely goddamn useless.

The game itself LOOKS THE GODDAMN SAME, and simply saying "You just don't get it" without even attempting to give an example just makes you look like a whiny kid.

I'd rather a buggy but unique (so long as it isn't too buggy, *ahem* Brink *ahem*) game with quick bug fixes than a "pristine" but exactly the same game with $15 map packs every other month on top of the $60 release cost, with so much hacking that it's nigh-unplayable when stuck with a hacking asshole.

That developer sounds like a [insert submissive prison-esque insult here].

 

[kaltes]

If the call of Duty engine is a Porsche. then I would guess it's sitting in a barn somewhere covered in manure.

 

[Rad Party God]

As much as I like to bash CoD, I have some respect for this guy. I mean, why working on something different if you already know your own engine that's more than enough to get your game up and running, while still looking decent at good resolutions?.

God, I can't belive I actually wrote that...

 

[Torrasque]

Ehhhh... I'll wait till the game comes out to see what "changes" have been made, but beside subtle things here and there that I saw in the trailers, it isn't "ZOMG THE GAME IS SO MUCH BETTER NOW", it is just MW2 + 1
If he could give us regular gamers that don't code, a before and after, that would be much appreciated.

 

[gunner1905]

I do think COD is like porsche, like porsche the outside looks the same every revision but on the inside there's small changes (whether good or bad) that people can't see easily.
You can read that as a negative or positive comment, up to you.

 

[Major_Tom]

Porsche? More like Wartburg 353...

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Oh great, more chances to bash CoD. Just what we need!

To be honest, as easy as it is for people to bash CoD for just about everything, the engine is still pretty solid.