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What Game Engine does WoW use?
MMOExposed
Member RarePosts: 7,400
Whats the game engine that WoW uses?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Comments
Their own engine.
Blizzard doesn't use 3rd party code for that, cuz they rule..'n stuff.
Proprietary as far as I know. May have some added features that are not.
##Best SWTOR of 2011
Posted by I_Return - SWTOR - "Forget the UI the characters and all ofhe nitpicking bullshit" "Greatest MMO Ever Created"
##Fail Thread Title of 2011
Originally posted by daveospice
"this game looks like crap?"
I believe once listening to the official WoW podcast they mentioned their tech is all in-house. So no licensed engine.
I do believe they called the game editor 'Wow-edit' or something along those lines.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
side story: the guy who created the engine left blizz.
Now they are just bloating it again and again with graphics overhaul on each expacs. This games takes more than Aion to run on full settings. Pfftt....
heh, I'm sure more than 1 coder made that engine, more like 10 or 20 probably.
Not from my experience. WoW runs on a WIDE number of the installed hardware base. Thats one of the reasons they picked their art style in the first place. While Aion has nice graphics, it takes a rather nice system to run it on the highest settings.
Looney Tunes 3 Engine
Just kidding. If I didnt' say it, someone else would have.....
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
Ironically, you're the one bumping the thread and giving it more exposure though. Just saying =d.
So Blizzard inverses the development of MMO's ?
First the engine and on top of that they create an IP. (in fact Lore is the last step in the development process).
A typical MMO publisher would first decide on an IP and then buy the engine in relation to the IP.
It could explain those typical responsive controls.
This is what I want to Expose.
How does WoW have such a well develop and smooth gameplay engine that other mmo development companies cant seem to copy?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
It does the insanely complicated math that go into game engines, better than the other do their insanely complicated math. Because Blizzard has the money to buy people who can code the insanely complicated math well and they have the experience to back it up.
WoW wasn't Blizzard's first game. They have been in the market for awhile and were one of the most profitable companies in the world, before WoW. All of Blizzards games have been coded extremely well, compared to their competition.
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In short: Money.
Which isn't a bad thing, mind you.
EDIT: I'd also like to add that Blizzard never releases when they aren't fully happy with the build. I mean, no publishers breathing down your neck and such (Atleast that used to be the case).
Note: the render engine (usually referred to as the rendering pipeline) isn't a synonym for game engine.
Still is activision wouldn't dare tell them when to release their games. After playing SC2 in beta, which was more polished that half the games that are already out, Id have to say their belief on not releasing a game until their happy with it still holds true.
Yeah, I was merely carefull with saying that, though I agree with what you say.
Upgrade your toaster. My microwave can run WoW on highest settings and still warm up a burrito in less than a minute.
And WoW was built on the same engine as Warcraft III.
If you have Warcraft III, zoom in the camera and look.
Also, here's one of the original announcements:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraft/news.html?sid=2810134
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I have 3 comps in my house, one is 9 years old, with the exception of 25 main raids and the PvP zone when its got alot of characters in it, WoW runs flawlessly....is this a testimony that Dell builds great machines that stand up thru out the years or that WoWs graphics are very simplistic?
Godz of War I call Thee
Simplistic has its advantages. WoW runs on a LARGE section of the installed hardware base(as it was intended to). I personally see no real point in the hyper photo realistic approach to these games. Unless it is very well optimzed(which is an art in and of itself) it limits the potential audience for the game.
Most NA developers haven't figured that one out yet.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Slant Six
Just recently I got my hands on a 'nostalgia pack' with the XCom-UFO Defence game and the game still plays great, even with graphics that are less advanced what you would find in a basic web browser game today. The gameplay is so fun that it makes the graphic quality irrelevant.
So? someone left a company and suddenly the company is not worth what is once was?
You know what? Clinton left the presidency, I am sure USA is now falling flat.
It takes a huge team to work out WoW, the game engine is about the least in the issue of continuity. Microsoft has generations of software engineer, the shuttle project was the collective works of several generations of engineers and designers. Losing one is no issue, after all, someone will die along th
Activision only have 49% say in what Blizzard does. Techinically while Blizzard is part of Activision they retained 51% ownership of Blizzard.
Losing an expert developer will not neccessarily sink a company, but it can impede it's performance. Also, it is very possible for a single person to code the base architecture of a game engine. This actually happens quite a bit, and the rest of the programmers simply build ontop of the bare-bones engine to flesh out the rest of it.
There are inherent liabilities to overhauling a game engine without rebuilding it from scratch. More often than not, there are conflicts or limitations with new functionality due to original core design that did not have the new functionality in mind. This can lead to instability, inefficiency in processing, etc. This is especially so when the original developer/s are not longer present, because it makes reworking, or integration with, the core code a lot more difficult, and increased the chance that it will be done incorrectly or inefficiently.
And it's funny you mention Microsoft... Because it's a perfect example of above. Windows 95 had limitations, so the 2k OS was built from scratch, which was then reworked and re-released as XP. Then Vista came along, which was another 'from scratch' rebuild of windows, because XP had limitations and flaws that were rooted in the core design. Of course Vista has it's issues and was patched up into a Windows 7 release. The next version of Windows, if I'm not msitaken, is going to be yet another 'from scratch' OS build, to expand even further on the limitations of the Windows 7 core design.
It's not much different for WoW, or any other MMO, game, or software really. There are always going to be inherent limitations of the core design that will limit the proper growth of software, that will require full rewrites to facilitate proper expansion.
They're both owned by Vivendi, so that point is rather moot.