The developers of Infinity Ward and the teams behind Call of Duty ® have focused on improving the gaming experience in Call of Duty ®: Modern Warfare ® II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. Today we will highlight four striking tech pillars enhancing the game in Modern Warfare II. We spoke with Michal Drobot, the Polish studio manager and technology fellow of Infinity Ward.
For the first time, there is a unified engine for Call of Duty ®, starting with the release of Modern Warfare ® II and Warzone 2.0. And it is this next-generation engine that was first introduced with the original Modern Warfare ® (2019) and will deliver the most advanced Call of Duty in history. Inspired by this cohesive development machine, the teams set out to take on these new challenges. In this article, we will introduce four of the many gameplay improvements that players experience in Modern Warfare II.
One of the first things players notice when they enter the new battlefield in Modern Warfare ® II – and the reaction to it-is that the water is not just a bandage or any other obstacle. Players can (literally) dive, rotate and use water as a strategy advantage. And in order for her to work, she had to look and react as real as possible.
“We have spent a lot of time working with designers to ensure that the water is understandable and realistic,” reveals Drobot.””Our goal is to imitate effective CGI in movies: you know that a CGI is good if you don’t really pay attention to it. ”
Call of duty: in Modern Warfare II, water is not just a lateral aesthetic. In fact, it is so important for the environment that the development team has already noticed that it influences and influences the emerging gameplay even at the beta testing stage.
This new system is so strong that it can even affect the tactics of the game. “In a team game, you can actually find out that the opposing team has gone through flooded tunnels because they are dripping wet,” suggests Drobot.”
To this end, Drobot and its crew have literally implemented a complex new system that allows anything in the game to be soaked with variable effects on appearance and performance, and eventually dried depending on the type of material.
Despite the additional computing power available for the latest PCs and consoles, development teams approach the latest hardware with a more stylistic mindset than substance: “If we have a choice to use a shiny and chic one that does not improve the gameplay, we try to avoid it. It’s about the first gameplay. For us, next-generation consoles primarily mean better visibility, better clarity for players, better latency and then better performance. ”
“In addition to the obvious advantages that next-generation consoles offer, such as higher resolution and more stable streaming, there is also visual clarity and performance,” says Drobot.””Call Of Duty’s hallmark performance level is 60 frames per second; the latest consoles can deliver stable 120 Hz. It is actually very effective for a more competitive gameplay. Even casual gamers will not have much trouble recognizing the difference between these two modes — it’s definitely a lot of fluidity at 120 Hz . ”
The devil is in the details and in this case the studio has tried to make sure that no detail is too small or neglected . “We worked hard to improve the game so that it runs at 120 Hz with high clarity and resolution, and then we asked ourselves: what’s left? If there is an additional power that we can use, we will use it to further improve the visualization. Therefore, we have added high-quality shadows and textures. Basically, we have done everything we can distinguish in terms of quality . And there are special handful of features for next generation consoles. Perhaps the most specific is the water rendition mentioned above.”
Call of duty: in an intense multiplayer experience like Modern Warfare II, The Paradox and visibility of the characters is an old challenge that developers have to master. Basically, it is about the danger of characters mixed with the environment, especially from afar . “If your card has a dark corner and there is someone hiding there who has dark skin, what would you do? “Drobot asked his team. “Or when you are in a dark room and you see from the outside in a bright environment and you have someone using skin that is too light ? ”.
Infinity Ward has developed a system that automatically tracks players and their surroundings visually to correct the contrast . “We carry out a lot of processing that a real human perception system does,” explains Drobot. He added: “in our game we know where all the players are, but we don’t always know what they actually look like for you as a player . So we try to figure out how the image, light conditions, the type or character of the skin of the character actually look, and make sure that they are dynamically opposite, depending on the situation.”
A big question that the team was confronted with, which Drobot shared, was: “How do you make the game look visually fantastic, while at the same time being a shooter that is more about the skills of the players and not about something interfering with the gameplay?”
“We actually have a lot of systems that you can use to make sure that the players, their enemies or friendlies are more visible to you,” he says. “We have a very special type of rendering that uses something we call variable-rate shading, where we can change the resolution of the screen at a very precise level. We can actually say, ‘Oh, the middle of the screen will have a higher resolution than the sides of the screen. Or maybe there is an interesting point on the screen that should have a higher resolution.”
“Of course, player characters should get the highest resolution,” Drobot emphasizes. “Whether you are playing in HD, Ultra HD or 4K, we can still throw more resolution in a certain part of the screen, just to make sure that the enemy and the environment appear clearer to you.”
By focusing on a few small things, the Infinity Ward and Modern Warfare II developers have nevertheless managed to focus on the big picture: to inspire the players. Every technical upgrade and improvement has been made with meticulous dedication to ensure the best gaming experience, regardless of console or platform. After all, it’s always the gameplay that matters in the heat of battle, whether you’re a hardcore fan or a franchise newbie.
Modern Warfare II has already made a great start. And now that Warzone 2.0 is available, we’ll be back soon to take a close look at how advanced Call of Duty technology is powering the next generation of Warzone.
In addition, be sure to visit the Infinity Ward website for more news and updates directly from the studio. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 will be released by Activision. Development for both games is being handled by Infinity Ward, with additional development support (in alphabetical order) provided by Activision Central Design, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Beenox, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, and Treyarch.
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