Fans’ issues with the Call of Duty game engine baffling, says Treyarch

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   October 11th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

There is no denying the fact that the Call of Duty franchise has and is doing exceptionally good in the market.

However, the fans of the franchise do not see too happy with the quality of graphics and make frequent demands from the developers to upgrade the engine.

Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar, however, appears confused over the frequent calls for a better engine as he believes the existing engine is pretty good and giving desired results.

In a recent interview with Official Xbox Magazine, he defended the current Call of Duty game engine, saying that he really does not understand why the fans are not satisfied with an engine that runs at 60 frames per second and is gorgeous.

“To me, it’s like I never really understood,” Vonderhaar added. “It runs at 60 [frames-per-second] and it’s gorgeous. What exactly is there to be upset about with the engine?”

He asserted that even though the engine was introduced by Infinity Ward six years ago, so much work has been on it over the years that it can hardly be compared to its original form now.

“People like to talk about the engine, but the truth of the matter is that this isn’t like something that was invented six years ago,” he said. “At this point that engine doesn’t resemble anything like any engine. We’ve ripped out the UI system; the rendering and the lighting are all new, the core gameplay systems are all new.”

Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia had commented earlier this year that the developers were aware of the fans’ demand for a “better-looking” Call of Duty game.

He had claimed that rather than investing in an entirely new engine, the studio was capable of improving the graphics by tweaking the Infinity Ward engine by offering new features such as lightning advancements for instance.

The studio has indeed made plenty of improvements in the engine over the last six years, something that becomes evident by comparing the graphics of the Call of Duty game released six years ago with the one released most recently.

However, the fans are still not too happy with the improvements and often end up comparing the engine to that of Electronic Arts’ (EA) Battlefield franchise, which is considered among the most visually stunning first-person shooters.

While Vonderhaar has confidently claimed that the latest instalment in the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops II, will show a really improved engine with new features that will make it really stand out from its older iterations, it remains to be seen if his claims prove to be true and manage to impress the fans.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is scheduled to release for multiple platforms on November 13, 2012.