frostbite-2
Latest
Wii U Frostbite engine tests yield 'not too promising' results
EA DICE technical director Johan Andersson revealed that the developer's Frostbite 3 engine, which powers Battlefield 4 and the next entries in the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises, does not run on Nintendo's Wii U. Responding to fan questions on Twitter, Andersson explained that DICE's Wii U experiments with Frostbite 2 had "not too promising" results, leading to the company abandoning efforts to get Frostbite 3 up and running on Nintendo's latest console. During the Game Developers Conference in March, Epic Games' Mark Rein noted that Unreal Engine 4 does not currently run on the Wii U. Rein later clarified, explaining that licensed developers could potentially port Unreal Engine 4-powered games to the Wii U, at their discretion.
Next Mass Effect, Dragon Age 3 powered by Frostbite 3
Both the next Mass Effect game and Dragon Age 3: Inquisition use the Frostbite 3 engine, despite initial official word from publisher EA saying otherwise. An official press release for Dragon Age 3 from September 2012 said the upcoming RPG was underpinned by Frostbite 2. However, BioWare Montreal & Edmonton General Manager Aaryn Flynn, following some speculation, took to Twitter to settle the matter.Flynn tweeted: "For everyone who's been asking after the #BF4 reveal, #DA3 and the next Mass Effect are also using Frostbite 3. It's awesome."While the Dragon Age 3 press release was explicit, looking back certain BioWare devs were coyer on the matter. BioWare Montreal Studio Director Yanick Roy only said in a November 2012 blog post that DA3 used Frostbite tech, not specifically Frostbite 2. That correlates with the careful wording of DA3 Executive Producer Mark Darrah, who in an announcement post said his studio was working on a new game engine for DA3, and that it had "started with Frostbite 2 from DICE as a foundation to accomplish this."So Battlefield 4 isn't the only Frostbite 3 game confirmed to be arriving this year, as Dragon Age 3 is scheduled for a "late 2013" release.
DICE aims to bring Frostbite engine to Mac
EA developer DICE is looking to bring its Frostbite engine to the Mac, according to a job listing on the studio's website. DICE is seeking a Mac OS X engineer to work with "a team focusing on bringing Frostbite to Mac." The engineer will also "work closely with game team customers and the Frostbite team to deliver an engine as great on OS X as it is on Windows and traditional console platforms."Presumably, the listing refers to Frostbite 2, which would enable Electronic Arts to bring a large back catalog of games to Apple's platform, including Battlefield 3, the most recent Medal of Honor games and Need for Speed: The Run. More importantly, it would allow EA to publish future Frostbite games on Mac, including Dragon Age 3, Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel and the next Mass Effect.
Popcap seeks dev with Frostbite 2 experience for a AAA game
Popcap is looking for a generalist software engineer with "experience working with the Frostbite 2 engine" for a "AAA console title," a job posting spotted by Superannuation reveals. Popcap is, of course, the mobile and social studio behind Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies, so a foray into AAA territory is surprising, to say the least.The job listing says, specifically: "The PopCap studio is looking for an experienced generalist SE to build a AAA console title. This generalist will work on a broad range of game systems including, but not limited to: animation, audio, resource management, pipelines and visual effects. The ideal candidate will also have experience working with the Frostbite 2 engine."Keep your eyes peeled for a first-person version of Plants vs. Zombies – the twist? You play as the plant.
Shredding Spanish architecture in Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel
The Army of Two franchise has always been a mixed bag of brotastic co-op shooting. The first game poorly chose to take a lighthearted approach to the war in Iraq and in the eyes of series stars Salem and Rios, everyone was a terrorist. The 40th Day made things infinitely more interesting, sending Salem and Rios over to Shanghai where the pair had to keep a watchful eye out for civilians in danger throughout their exploits.In the franchise's third outing, Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, the co-op development teams of EA Montreal and Visceral Games have chosen to take the series down another new path. Now Army of Two's third entry, built on DICE's Frostbite 2 engine, ejects the brotacular humor in favor of a more serious narrative."We're trying to add a more serious tone to the characters," Visceral Games producer Greg Rizzer told Joystiq at a preview event, explaining the new game is "trying to take some of the frat boy stuff out of there."%Gallery-169924%
One shot, one kill: Medal of Honor: Warfighter takes us to sniper school
While the years of training that go into becoming an elite sniper are impressive, we'd be lying if we didn't say the coolest thing in this Medal of Honor: Warfighter video is how these guys can alter the sound of their voices. How do they make themselves sound like robots? So neat!
Something Need for Speed is being produced at EA Gothenburg
EA producer Alan Baker is based out of EA's recently opened Gothenburg, Sweden studio. He is also, apparently, working on the Need for Speed franchise as a producer, as Videogamer discovered. Whether that means a Need for Speed game is in the works at EA's Gothenburg studio is another question altogether, and one that doesn't have a clear answer just yet.Baker lists user interface and Autolog as his production responsibilities, and only says he's "working on the best racing franchise ever" – not that he's heading up production of another NFS franchise entry. In fact, Criterion VP Alex Ward said back at E3 that the NFS franchise is, "definitely a Criterion gig now" – a reference to this year's Need for Speed: Most Wanted – and that "it's not going to be spread anymore across different companies."When EA opened its Gothenburg studio back in March, its responsibilities were announced as, "focused on making a new generation of games using the Frostbite 2 engine." The currently-in-production NFS: Most Wanted doesn't run on the Frostbite 2 engine, but EA's previous NFS entry, The Run, did. The mystery continues, but it's certain that something Need for Speed is being worked on at EA's Gothenburg studio. We've asked EA for more and will update this post if the company says anything.
DICE vows continued support for Battlefield 3 in light of Battlefield 4 announcement
EA officially revealed Battlefield 4 today as a project being developed at the company's Sweden-based DICE studio. Beyond that, however, no one's saying a peep about the game. Lest you forget, three more DLC packs are planned for DICE's last game, Battlefield 3, and that apparently means DICE isn't ready to talk Battlefield 4 just yet."There is no further Battlefield 4 news at this point," reads a post from DICE on the Battlefield 4 subpage. "With the Back to Karkand and Close Quarters expansion packs already out, Armored Kill around the corner, and End Game and Aftermath still on the horizon, we're looking forward to many more hours of gameplay with you, and can't wait to see the stories you will tell through Battlelog and player created videos."With Medal of Honor's 2010 reboot, EA set out to match its competition's annual shooter, Call of Duty. EA's Los Angeles-based Danger Close studio is in charge of EA's Medal of Honor franchise, apparently trading off years with DICE and the Battlefield franchise. The two franchises currently share DICE's Frostbite 2.0 game engine, and Danger Close's next MoH employs DICE's Battlelog system as well. Thus far, EA has yet to best Activision's Call of Duty powerhouse (in terms of sales and critical reception) with its two shooter franchises.
Next-Gen Starts When We Say It Does
You're reading Reaction Time, a weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro. If the world does come to a wailing and irreversible halt in 2012, the most terrible loss (besides billions of lives, the infrastructure of civilization, your dog, etc.) will be the glaring glut of video games already scheduled for 2013. Promising brand builders like BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider and Devil May Cry are all bailing on 2012, and inevitable behemoth Grand Theft Auto V has yet to pick a landing zone.Most of these games are massive, costly undertakings that can't afford to stumble out with stuttering marketing campaigns, let alone on a stage crowded with other huge products. If we're to predict the emergence of powerful next-generation platforms, care of Sony and Microsoft, the movements of third-party publishers should give us our first clues. No manufacturer is in a position to escape the catch-22 of a new console launch on its own: You need standout games to get the system out there, but it's tough to obtain and support those games properly with an install base that starts at zero.
DICE to require 64-bit OS for some 2013 games, that Windows ME box in the den isn't cutting it
We're entering a world of mainstream 64-bit computing -- whether we like it or not. Just weeks after Adobe started requiring 64-bit Macs for CS6, DICE's Rendering Architect Johan Andersson has warned that some of his company's 2013 games using the Frostbite engine will need the extra bits as a matter of course. In other words, it won't matter if you have a quad Core i7 gaming PC of death should the software be inadequate; if you're still running a 32-bit copy of Windows 7 come the new year, you won't be playing. The developer points to memory as the main culprit, as going 64-bit guarantees full access to 4GB or more of RAM as well as better virtual addressing. Andersson sees it as a prime opportunity to upgrade to Windows 8, although 64-bit Vista and 7 (and presumably OS X, if and when Mac versions exist) will be dandy. Just be prepared to upgrade that Windows XP PC a lot sooner than Microsoft's 2014 support cutoff if you're planning to run the next Battlefield or Mirror's Edge.
Battlefield 3's rendering architect details his dream specs for the next generation of consoles
During the Game Developer's Choice awards, DICE took home the prize of "Best Technology" for its Frostbite 2 engine. After accepting the award on behalf of his team, we asked DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson what the next generation of consoles would need to include for Frostbite 2 to work 'perfectly and as intended on high-end PCs.' To Andersson, the answer is "pretty easy to answer." "There's two things: memory and processing power," he said. "We need lots and lots of processing power. The more you can cram into a machine, we'll take advantage of that." While 'more power' is the obvious answer -- both on the CPU and GPU side -- we wondered what wouldn't be 'enough' to work with."Two gigabytes would not be enough when it comes to RAM [random access memory]" Andersson said. "Four gigabytes would work. Eight gigabytes? Yeah. I think that would be perfect when it comes to memory." Recommended system specifications for Battlefield 3 call for 4GB of RAM.
Medal of Honor Warfighter powered by Frostbite 2.0
Medal of Honor Warfighter executive producer Greg Goodrich told Joystiq this evening that October's Danger Close game is being built using EA DICE's in-house Battlefield engine, Frostbite 2.0. This marks the second use of Frostbite 2.0 outside of its origin studio, following last year's Need for Speed: The Run.After a brief on-stage presentation of the game in action, Goodrich spoke to us about how Danger Close is attempting to distinguish the game visually, despite it being built in the same engine that powers EA's other big shooter. To us, the game didn't look dramatically different from what we've seen in DICE's work with Frostbite 2.0, via BF3."I don't think the engine dictates on what it's gonna look like," Goodrich said. "We have a wonderful art director who has a very clear vision of the type of lens he wants to tell our story through. The tech is just a canvas, and that canvas is much larger than it's ever been before."MoH Warfighter is being developed entirely in-house at Danger Close this time around, with DICE offering little more than engine support (and perhaps the occasional hearty back pat). Goodrich confirmed to us that he and his team aren't growing the same impressive beards during Warfighter's dev cycle."My wife won't let me this time," Goodrich said with a smile. "Same guys, less beard."%Gallery-149880%
Report: Medal of Honor: Warfighter is Danger Close's next game, hits in October [updated]
EA's been teasing the next Medal of Honor for some time now, so it's not a huge surprise to hear more about it on Twitter. Game Informer's Jim Reilly spent the past half hour sharing some info, saying the game is called "Medal of Honor: Warfighter," is arriving this coming October, and runs in DICE's Frostbite 2.0 engine.The info is apparently coming from a copy of OXM, which arrived a bit ahead of EA's intended marketing push, it would seem. Reilly also says the game's multiplayer will be handled in-house by EA Danger Close now, rather than DICE as was the case with 2010's Medal of Honor reboot.Update: The Medal of Honor blog offered a teaser image of the game, confirmed the title, and teased more details in the coming weeks. Boom! See the full image on the other side of the break.
Battlefield 3's 'Back to Karkand' expansion clearly has a problem with structures
In case you didn't believe DICE when the studio informed us that Battlefield 3's destruction engine would be more destruction-ey in the upcoming "Back to Karkand" expansion, the latest trailer should convince you. Just look at all that debris!
Need for Speed: The Run detailed, racing to stores Nov. 15
Following yesterday's teaser reveal of Need for Speed: The Run, EA has today spelled out some details we didn't know and confirmed some that we inferred from the trailer. First and foremost, the game is indeed speeding toward a holiday release date of November 15, 2011 in North America (and Nov. 17 in Europe). EA Black Box is at the wheel (as rumored), with EA DICE's Frostbite 2 engine under the hood. Additionally, The Run will feature the much-loved Autolog feature (as loved in Hot Pursuit and Shift 2), as well as the "hot cars and crazy-fast chases" we've come to expect from the NFS series. As seen in the trailer, the game will follow racers cross-country (Cannonball Run-style) from San Francisco to New York, with plenty of stops in between. EA's announcement also notes that "entering the race is just the beginning," with races taking place in "dense urban traffic," on "icy mountain passes" and "narrow canyons." Presumably we'll find out more about The Run as E3 approaches, this June.%Gallery-122527%
Battlefield 3's executive producer, on balancing realism in Frostbite 2
It's been over five years since Battlefield 2. Although DICE has had concepts for a sequel in mind since then, the real work could only begin once the team had the tool Battlefield 3 demanded: a new engine. Why? "The short answer is this: No other engine can build a Battlefield game." "If you don't have the right tech, you can't build the right experience," DICE executive producer Patrick Bach told us. Unlike other engines, which are meant to be repurposed and packaged for third-party licensors, Frostbite's reason for existence is singular: "The Frostbite engine is solely created to make Battlefield games." Battlefield 3 is unnervingly beautiful. The GDC presentation is one of those rare moments where you see a new graphical benchmark being defined. Bach claims they are the "first ones in the next generation." Seeing the game running on a souped-up PC, it's hard to disagree.
Battlefield 3 to have dedicated servers, leading on PC
Game Informer's cover story on Battlefield 3 reveals DICE's plans to support dedicated servers, and delves into some of the particulars of its multiplayer offering. Once again, you'll be able to select between four classes -- executive producer Patrick Bach calls this number "the sweet spot" -- and Bad Company 2's four-person squad mechanic will be expanded, though no specifics are given. "Squads are really easy to set up, but how can you take that further? We have some really cool things that we'll show later when it comes to dictating how you play with friends," Bach teases. Furthermore, due to BF3 using a new version of DICE's game engine, Frostbite 2.0, mod tools won't necessarily reflect earlier Battlefield mod functionality. "We will not deliver mod tools in the way that we delivered them for Battlefield 2," Bach says. "Creating mod tools today -- dumbing them down -- takes a lot of energy and what we are discussing more every day is, 'Where do we put our focus?' Right now our focus is to create the best possible multiplayer, single-player, and co-op game -- the core game of Battlefield 3. We're still discussing how we handle modifications of any kind," he adds. And though the third Battlefield title will arrive on launch day in Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 flavors, the game's primary development platform is the PC. "We won't make it for console and port it to PC -- that's not how we do things," Bach says. "We're focusing on PC first, and then we fiddle with it to fit it onto consoles." Frankly, we wanna fiddle with it wherever it is.
Battlefield 3 stops by 'Paris, Tehran and New York,' down to 24 players on console
While the Battlefield 3 pre-order text appearing on GameStop is almost identical to the text that briefly appeared on EA's own pre-order site, BF3Blog.com snagged the full copy from EA before it was stripped. While the GameStop text simply says that battles will be fought in "diverse locations from around the globe including Europe, Middle-East and North America," the original EA text was a bit more specific: "Paris, Tehran and New York." What that tells us is that Battlefield 3 will have some seriously urban environments, which is a good thing for the seemingly massive multiplayer levels. While we've known that the PC version would support 64 players in its multiplayer component, Best Buy lists "massive 24-player online battles." Game Informer – which is hosting the reveal of the title via its March issue – lists the multilplayer component as supporting 64 players on PC and 24 on consoles, a not-unusual limitation for console face-shooting. And lastly, so long as you're here already, we wanted to share this video of Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine busting out real-time radiosity using the Enlighten middleware toolkit. We're sure DICE will be highlighting the work it's put into this new engine, so consider this an early (and admittedly sedate) look at the tech behind BF3. [Thanks, Darren and Zach the Maniac]
