COD:WaW Engine to Rival/Surpass Unreal

Phahtrox: Really?

You’re sharing the engine with Infinity Ward; what’s it like to use in comparison to something like, say, the Unreal Engine 3?

Farrelly: Our team has had a lot of experience working on that engine. A lot of our guys have been working on it as far back as Call of Duty: United Offensive, which is in fact a similar toolset to what Call of Duty 4 uses. We’ve been working on Call of Duty for longer than World War II lasted and the toolset has evolved over time, so we’re very comfortable with this stuff!

And so when we got the Call of Duty engine and all the tools from IW it was like putting on an old pair of gloves. It’s great because we got this engine that has already shipped quality with all these great features, and not just gameplay features, but the lighting and the sound as well. IW gave us a really good foundation with which we can build our own level of quality, with the fire technology, the water technology, with the plane-based weaponry and so forth.

Heller: I’ve worked on plenty of engines in my career, including Unreal. And I’d say the big difference with this engine is how close it allows designers to get their vision into the game. You’ll be startled to see how close the concept art is to what was replicated in the game. If an artist wants to make a bottle in the game, he designs it and hits a button and a minute and a half later it is in the game.

Farrelly: Rapid Iterations have really allowed us to polish, polish, polish really quickly. And we’ve managed to get more content than we’ve ever managed to before, polished to a level of quality that’s astounding.

Source: http://www.developmag.com

Phahtrox: I'm not going to lie... This is really really really good news.