Do you think DICE’s Frostbite 3 Engine is the Most Powerful?

I am going to start by saying that of all developers and studios that are currently active today, DICE to me is the best. A huge part of that is what I think of as the most powerful graphics engine in the world which is the Frostbite 3 engine. The lighting, physics, smoke, particles, everything just seems almost perfect. I have yet to play a game with a perfect engine but the Frostbite engine is about as close to perfection as I have seen. So this is my tribute of how the Frostbite engine has evolved and transformed itself into one of, if not the most powerful game engine currently in use today.

Frostbite 1.0

DICE originally started developing the Frostbite engine in 2006 and would release their first game using the Frostbite 1.0 engine in 2008 with the game Battlefield: Bad Company. The Frostbite 1.0 engine was features HDR Audio which would adjust game sounds vs in game music. An example would be gunshots were always louder than in game music for the player to be able to hear it clearly. Also DICE’s Destruction 1.0 was featured.

Battlefield: Bad Company

Frostbite 1.5

The next version of Frostbite engine was 1.5. It introduced Destruction 2.0 which instead of punching holes though walls or destroying objects, it let the player demolish whole buildings. The Frostbite 1.5 engine debuted with Battlefield 1943 and continued with Battlefield: Bad Company 2, multiplayer in Medal of Honor, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam. Some issue with the Frostbite 1.5 engine was that this was the first time Frostbite was on Windows. Frostbite 1.5 did support DirectX 11 but did not take advantage of the whole API.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Medal of Honor Multiplayer

Frostbite 2

The Frostbite 2 engine was the crown jewel of gaming engines when Battlefield 3 came out. It was also the first major overhaul and upgrade to the original Frostbite 1.0 engine. The Frostbite 2 engine features full DirectX 11 and 64 bit processor architecture compatibility. It also brought Destruction 3.0  which improved upon the physics and used Geomerics’ Enlighten technology. While this is a minor detail, DICE changed the naming from using 1.0 or 1.5 to just Frostbite 2. Compared to pretty much any other engine the Frostbite 2 was the best looking hands down in my opinion along with amazing physics.

Frostbite 3

The Frostbite 3 engine, the holy grail of graphics and physics combined into one to make you feel like you are in the game really fighting. I was very impressed by the Frostbite 2, but the Frostbite 3 engine from what EA and DICE have released to the public so far in the form of trailers and gameplay from Battlefield 4 just look amazing. I do remember watching something from DICE that said something about how the Frostbite 3 engine is what they wanted the Frostbite 2 engine is. Battlefield 3 supposedly only utilized about 20-30% of the Frostbite 2 engine while Battlefield 4 will utilize about 70-80% of the Frostbite 3 engine.

What is new with the Frostbite 3 engine is Destruction 4.0 and other upgrades including improved tessellation technology, AI, texture detail, and physics. The Frostbite 3 engine will be powering upcoming games such as Need for Speed: Rivals, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mirror’s Edge 2, Star Wars: Battlefront, and a course Battlefield 4. EA has basically adapted the Frostbite 3 engine as their own go to game engine.

Battlefield 4: Official Frostbite 3 Feature Video

Battlefield 4 Multiplayer Trailer using the Frostbite 3 Engine

Battlefield 4: Official 17 Minutes “Fishing in Baku” Gameplay Reveal

As you can see if you watched all the video that the Frostbite engine in general has evolved and now I believe the top gaming engine on the market. Crytek’s CryEngine, Valve’s Source and upcoming Source 2 engine, along with the Unreal 4 Engine are all contenders in my eyes, DICE’s Frostbite engine does indeed take the cake when it comes to overall performance. Everything just seems to work on the engine and other than miscues from EA launching games, everything that DICE has touched with the Frostbite engine has been golden.

So what do you think?
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