The IW engine is a game engine created and developed by Infinity Ward for the Call of Duty series. The ♠ engine was originally based on id Tech 3. Aside from Infinity Ward, the engine is also used by other Activision ♠ studios working on the series, including primary lead developers Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, and support studios like Beenox, High Moon ♠ Studios, and Raven Software.[1][2][3]

History [ edit ]

IW 2.0 to IW 3.0 [ edit ]

The engine has been distinct from the ♠ id Tech 3 engine on which it is based since Call of Duty 2 in 2005. The engine's name was ♠ not publicized until IGN was told at the E3 2009 by the studio that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ♠ (2009) would run on the "IW 4.0 engine".[4] Development of the engine and the Call of Duty games has resulted ♠ in the inclusion of advanced graphical features while maintaining an average of 60 frames per second on the consoles and ♠ PC.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released using version 3.0 of the engine. This game included features such as ♠ bullet penetration, improved AI, lighting engine upgrades, better explosions, particle system enhancements and many more improvements. Treyarch began using an ♠ enhanced version of the IW 3.0 engine for Call of Duty: World at War.[5] Improvements were made to the physics ♠ model and dismemberment was added. Environments also featured more destructibility and could be set alight using a flamethrower. The flamethrower ♠ featured propagating fire and it was able to burn skin and clothes realistically. Treyarch modified the engine for their James ♠ Bond title, 007: Quantum of Solace.[6]