Frostbite (game engine)



Frostbite is a game engine developed by DICE, designed for cross-platform use on Microsoft Windows, seventh generation game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and eighth generation game consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The game engine was originally employed in the Battlefield video game series, but would later be expanded to other first-person shooter video games and a variety of other genres. To date, Frostbite has been exclusive to video games published by Electronic Arts.

Frostbite 1 and 1.5
The first iteration of the Frostbite game engine made its debut in the 2008 video game, Battlefield: Bad Company. The engine was developed with an HDR Audio and Destruction 1.0. HDR Audio allowed differing sound levels to be perceived by the player whilst Destruction 1.0 allowed players to destroy the environment. A newer version of Frostbite would later be employed in Battlefield 1943 (2009) and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010), which would come to be known as Frostbite 1.5. In the upgraded game engine, it was now possible for players to cause enough destruction to entirely demolish structures. This version was also employed in the multiplayer aspect of Medal of Honor (2010), becoming the first video game outside of the Battlefield series to run on Frostbite.

Frostbite 2
On 25 October 2011, Frostbite 2 made its debut in Battlefield 3. Also making its debut was Destruction 3.0, which made falling debris potentially lethal to the player. Further changes to the engine included the addition of suppressive fire and disabling vehicles before destroying them. For the first time in a game that was not a shooter nor developed by DICE, Frostbite was employed in Need for Speed: The Run, which was released on 15 November. It took a year for EA Black Box, the developer of Need for Speed: The Run, to re-purpose the game engine for driving instead of shooting. On 21 May 2012, DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson said that future personal computer video games running on Frostbite would have to be played on 64-bit operating systems. On 23 October, Medal of Honor: Warfighter became the first game of its series to feature Frostbite in both single and multiplayer. On 26 March 2013, Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel became the first third-person shooter and last video game to employ Frostbite 2.

Frostbite 3
In March 2013, Battlefield executive producer Patrick Bach announced that Frostbite 3 would not support the Wii U, saying that "the Wii U is not a part of our focus right now." The third generation of Frostbite made its debut in Battlefield 4 on 29 October. In the updated engine, the environments became much more dynamic upon the actions of the players and Destruction 4.0, which was known as Levolution in Battlefield 4. On one map of Battlefield 4, it was possible for players to destroy a dam, causing the entire map to be flooded by water. On 13 November in San Jose, Andersson announced that future Frostbite games and an updated version of Battlefield 4 would be powered by Mantle, a low-overhead rendering API co-developed by AMD and DICE. On 15 November, Need for Speed Rivals became the second game of its series to use the game engine and the first since the upgrade to Frostbite 3.

First released on 19 August 2014, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare became the first game of its series to run on Frostbite. On 18 November, the game engine made its debut in the action role-playing genre of video games with Dragon Age: Inquisition. On 17 March 2015, Battlefield Hardline became the second game of its series to run on Frostbite 3. On 14 July, the game engine was introduced to the sports genre of video games, being put to use on Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. In November, Need for Speed and Star Wars Battlefront were both released under Frostbite.

On 23 February 2016, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 was released on the game engine. On 7 June, Mirror's Edge Catalyst became the first action-adventure game to run on Frostbite. On 27 September, the game engine debuted on the FIFA video game series, being employed on FIFA 17. On 21 October, Battlefield 1 became the third title of its series to be released under the third generation of the game engine. On 21 March 2017, Mass Effect: Andromeda was released on Frostbite. Madden NFL 18, the first of its series to be released on Frostbite, was released on 25 August 2017. On 29 September, FIFA 18 was released on the game engine, but the Nintendo Switch version of the game will not run on Frostbite. On 10 November, Need for Speed Payback was released, running on the game engine. On 17 November, Star Wars Battlefront II was the last game of 2017 to be released on Frostbite. Battlefield V is running on the Frostbite 3 engine.

In 2019, sources within BioWare claimed that Frostbite's complexity contributed to difficulties surrounding Anthem's development.