Frostbite (Game Engine)

Frostbite is a game engine developed by EA Digital Illusions CE, creators of the Battlefield series.
==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 doesn't 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 2.0===
The next generation of Frostbite debuted with Battlefield 3. It takes full advantage of the DirectX 11 API and 64-bit processors, with no support for DirectX 9 (nor, therefore, Windows XP). 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.
DICE has given several presentations on advances in their rendering technology with primary focus on the aspects of Animation, Destruction, Scale, Rendering, and Audio.
==Development Pipeline==
;SIGGRAPH 2010
:"Tile-based deferred shading acceleration" via DirectCompute. This is being ported to the PlayStation 3's SPUs.
:Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA), again implemented with DirectCompute, for bandwidth conservation.
:Quasi-realtime radiosity using Enlighten from Geomerics.
:Improved environmental destruction.
;GDC 2011
:Realtime approximated subsurface scattering.
;SIGGRAPH 2011
:Separable bokeh depth of field
:Tile-based deferred shading on Xbox 360
:Temporally stable screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO)
;GeForce LAN 6
:DICE's lead graphics guru, Johan Andersson, presents an in-depth examination of Battlefield 3's game engine and visuals
;Other
:Streaming data from disc to memory: "We can have 512 megs every hundred metres if we wanted to."
==Development Pipeline==
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.
Frostbite 2 is said to greatly improve this "flaky" pipeline, and DICE has not ruled out the feasibility of releasing mod tools for it.
==List of games using Frostbite==
#Battlefield Bad Company
#Battlefield 1943
#Battlefield Bad Company 2
#Medal of Honor (Multiplayer Only)
#Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam
#Battlefield 3
#Need for Speed The Run
#Medal of Honor Warfighter
#Command & Conquer Generals 2
#Mirror's Edge 2
==Links==
#Frostbite Rendering Architecture
#DICE Publications
#DICE's Official Homepage
#Geomerics' Official Homepage
#"Battlefield 3 to use DX11, Frostbite 2".
#"Need for Speed: The Run Announced".
#"Command & Conquer: Generals 2 Video Game, VGA 2011: Exclusive Debut Trailer".
#"EA 2011: Mirror’s Edge 2 to be powered by Frostbite 2".
#^ http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/121/1219336p1.html/
#"Destruction Masking in Frostbite 2 using Volume Distance Fields".