Frostbite (game engine)

Frostbite

Current logo used since Frostbite 3
Developer(s)	EA Digital Illusions CE
Platform	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One
Type	Game engine
License	Proprietary
Website	http://www.frostbite.com/

Frostbite is a game engine developed by EA Digital Illusions CE, the creators of the Battlefield series. The engine currently is designed for use on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One platforms and is adapted for a range of video game genres. The engine was first used by DICE to create first-person shooters, but it has been expanded to include various other genres such as racing and real-time strategy and is employed by a number of EA studios. Thus far, the engine is exclusive to Electronic Arts with all titles being published by EA.

DICE used the first generation of the engine for their in-house games Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield 1943, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The Frostbite engine launched with the release of Battlefield: Bad Company; subsequent titles employed an updated version referred to as Frostbite 1.5. Frostbite 1.5 was also used for the multiplayer component of Medal of Honor which DICE developed. (The single-player was developed by another EA studio with the Unreal Engine 3.) The next generation of the engine, Frostbite 2, debuted with the release of Battlefield 3.^[1] The creation of Frostbite 2 started the first usage of the Frostbite engine by other EA studios other than DICE. Some notable Frostbite 2 powered games include Need for Speed: The Run,^[2] Medal of Honor: Warfighter,^[3] and Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel.^[4] The newest version, Frostbite 3, came out with Battlefield 4.^[5]

Versions

Frostbite 1.0

Frostbite debuted in 2008 with Battlefield: Bad Company. It features HDR Audio, which adjusts different types of sounds' loudness and lets players hear important sounds clearly even if there are other noises being generated (for example, gunshot sounds are always louder than in-game music; the in-game music will lower in volume while shots are being fired), and Destruction 1.0, which allows the player to destroy certain objects, like walls.

Frostbite 1.5

The second version of Frostbite debuted with Battlefield 1943 in 2009. It improved on the in-game destruction capabilities with Destruction 2.0, allowing the player to destroy entire buildings instead of just walls. In 2010, DICE released Battlefield: Bad Company 2 using this version of the engine, which was the first game to bring Frostbite Engine to the Windows platform. The Windows version of the game has minor DirectX 11 shader support; consequently, it does not take full advantage of the entire API. The multiplayer component of Medal of Honor also uses this version of the engine, though with limited in-game destruction capabilities.

Frostbite 2

A demonstration of quasi-realtime radiosity from Frostbite 2

The first major upgrade to Frostbite debuted in 2011 with Battlefield 3. It takes full advantage of the DirectX 11 API and 64-bit processors,^[6] with no support for DirectX 9 (nor, therefore, Windows XP).^[7] It also features enhanced in-game destruction with Destruction 3.0, creating more refined physics than its predecessor and quasi-realtime radiosity using Geomerics' Enlighten technology. Additionally an important distinction on its naming is that Frostbite 2 is not called Frostbite 2.0.^[8]

DICE has given several presentations on advances in their rendering technology with primary focus on the aspects of Animation, Destruction, Scale, Rendering, and Audio:

• SIGGRAPH 2010:

"Tile-based deferred shading acceleration" via DirectCompute.^[9] This is being ported to the PlayStation 3's SPUs.

Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA), again implemented with DirectCompute, for bandwidth conservation.^[9]

Quasi-realtime radiosity using Enlighten from Geomerics.^[10]

Improved environmental destruction.^[11]

• GDC 2011:

Realtime approximated subsurface scattering.^[12]

• SIGGRAPH 2011:

Separable bokeh depth of field^[13]

Tile-based deferred shading on Xbox 360^[13]

Temporally stable screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO)^[13]

• GeForce LAN 6:

DICE's lead graphics guru, Johan Andersson, presents an in-depth examination of Battlefield 3's game engine and visuals.^[14]

• Other:

Streaming data from disc to memory: "We can have 512 megs every hundred metres if we wanted to."^[15]

Frostbite 3

Frostbite 3 is the next generation version of Frostbite and has been used in Battlefield 4 (released October 29, 2013), Need for Speed: Rivals (released November 19, 2013) and the upcoming games Star Wars: Battlefront (set to release the Q2/Q3 of 2015) and the prequel to Mirror's Edge. The game engine has several upgrades including improved tessellation technology. It also features Destruction 4.0, which enhances the in-game destruction over its predecessors.^[16] Frostbite 3 will also power Dragon Age: Inquisition, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and the next Mass Effect. It was announced that DICE would be including support for the Mantle (API) into Frostbite 3, with Battlefield 4 being the first game to implement the low level tool set through a patch in December 2013.

Development

Frostbite 1.5 games are built using a complicated chain of compilers, version control and distributed caches, making it very difficult to install to a new environment: it took a week for one DICE employee to set the system up outside the company's offices.^[17] Frostbite 2 is said to greatly improve this "flaky" pipeline, and DICE has not ruled out the feasibility of releasing mod tools for it.^[18]

Games using Frostbite

Title	Year	Engine Version	Developer(s)	Platform(s)	Genre(s)	DirectX 9.0c	DirectX 10	DirectX 11	AMD Mantle
Battlefield: Bad Company	2008	1.0	EA Digital Illusions CE	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	First-person shooter	N	N	N	N
Battlefield 1943	2009[19]	1.5	EA Digital Illusions CE	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	First-person shooter	N	N	N	N
Battlefield: Bad Company 2	2010	1.5	EA Digital Illusions CE	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	First-person shooter	Y	Y	Y	N
Medal of Honor (multiplayer only)	2010	1.5	EA Digital Illusions CE	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	First-person shooter	Y	Y	Y	N
Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam	2010[20]	1.5	EA Digital Illusions CE	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	First-person shooter	Y	Y	Y	N
Battlefield 3	2011[21]	2	EA Digital Illusions CE	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	First-person shooter	N	Y	Y	N
Need for Speed: The Run	2011	2	EA Black Box	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	Racing	N	Y	Y	N
Medal of Honor: Warfighter[3]	2012	2	Danger Close Games	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	First-person shooter	N	Y	Y	N
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel[4]	2013	2	Visceral Games	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	Third-person shooter	N	N	N	N
Command & Conquer[22]	Cancelled	3	Victory Games	Microsoft Windows	Real-time strategy	N	Y	Y	N
Battlefield 4[23]	2013	3	EA Digital Illusions CE	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One	First-person shooter	N	Y	Y	Y
Need for Speed: Rivals[24]	2013	3	Ghost Games	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One	Racing	N	Y	Y	Y
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare	2014	3	PopCap Games	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One	Tower defense, third-person shooter	N	Y	Y	Y
Dragon Age: Inquisition[25][26]	2014	3	BioWare	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One	Role-playing	N	N	Y	Y
Mirror's Edge 2[27]	TBA	3	EA Digital Illusions CE	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One	First-person action-adventure	N	N	Y	Y
Star Wars: Battlefront[28]	2015	3	EA Digital Illusions CE	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One	Third-person shooter, First-person shooter	N	N	Y	Y
Untitled Mass Effect game[26][29][30]	2015/2016	3	BioWare	TBA	Action role-playing	?	?	?	Y

References

External links

• Frostbite's Official Homepage
• Frostbite Rendering Architecture
• DICE Publications
• DICE's Official Homepage
• Geomerics' Official Homepage